Hi all,

wondering if you could advise...i've been having some steering wheel "shimmy" (left-to-right) at high speeds - above 80km/h. Anything below 80km/h is fine.
These are relatively new (bought last Aug) 17" Bridgestone Potenza tires fitted onto stock rims.
The tires have been balanced twice - once by the regular machine and once by the road force balancer. Alignment has been done as well.

The curious thing is that the shimmy does not come on on some roads, but it does on the others. This is 2006 MCSa with only 61K on it (km).
I had the full inspection done at the dealer and the dealer blames the aftermarket tires (obviously) and swears the car's suspension is totally fine, but this shimmy happens to my 15" snow tires as well, so i'm thinking there is no way i have two sets of bad tires!

I was thinking I need the hubcentric rings, but these are OEM rims, so I wouldn't need those, correct? Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

 

A bad tie rod end (usually outer) could cause that. I'd hope the dealer would have picked up on that, though. Inners are a bit tougher to diagnose if you don't pull back the dustboot. I have a car in my shop that needs a rack (vertical play in ram) that was incorrectly diagnosed by both the dealer and an alignment shop as having a bad inner.

 

Get yourself a good supension inspection done.I spent pocket loads of mulah on alignments and tire balancing before I fainally was given a correct diagnosis. I had this issue a while back and it turned out to be the lower control arm bushings and ball joints. I had them replaced and it is like a new car...

 

Any of the above things can cause the shimmy.
Agreed, have a good shop check the suspension.

 

AgentCoop,

I work in the Tire/Wheel industry. You are totally correct in ruling out the tires and wheels on this one. There is almost no chance that both sets of tires/wheels would cause the same vibration at the same speeds.

I'm with everyone else in thinking you have a suspension related issue. Even a C/V joint or wheel bearing can cause this kind of vibration. I have seen it many times before. Unfortunately this can be hard to diagnose. Good luck getting everything squared away and I hope it's a simple fix!

 

Tie Rods ! - Tie Rods ! - Tie Rods !

I have experienced the same problem come and go for my eight years of ownership ( 05 MCS Faclift ) with and without OEM wheels. I am now on my third set of tie rods !

Last set was changed nine months back and I have the problem again. Now the dealer refuses to diagnose due to non-OEM wheels even though they did the job with another set of my aftermarkets on.

Each time the work was done by the dealer , cost $900 with alighnment, etc. ( One replacement under warranty ).

Screw em ! I am borrowing a set of OEM wheels and taking my vehicle back to get it done under the one year warranty. The next time this happens I am purchasing tie rods for about $100 and some tools and doing the job myself. As well, alighnments from independent garages are less expensive.