Causes of steering wheel shimmy?

[daniel240]

To start, yes I have searched.

I have a 93 240sx fastback. I have a pretty bad steering wheel shimmy at speeds over 40-45mph. I have recently replaced tie rod ends, and tension rods. The car has also recently had an alignment, and all the wheels are straight with newly balanced tires on them. The shocks (kyb agx) are also new.

I had hit a curb awhile ago but I had it fixed, replaced the control arm and tension rod, the sway bar may have been affected, but I have not noticed any ill handling effects from it. Could a slighty bent sway bar cause a very noticable wheel shimmy?

Can anyone offer any other suggestions to what might be causing the shimmy?

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

[matlock]

what's the condition of those tires on there? I know it says newly balanced, but are the tires new or was it all just balanced recently. The tires could possibly be worn from when the alignment and everything was all messed up. Just my thought

[daniel240]

The tires are brand new, less than 100 miles on them actually. Thanks for your consideration though.

Daniel

[thx247]

And the rims are all still straight? Anything that bends a tie rod typically bends a rim, thats where I would look again.

[daniel240]

Yeah, the rims are all straight. They are different ones than what I was using when I hit the curb. I'm thinking it might be the sway bar, but it doesnt seem logical to me that if I don't notice any handling differences how it could cause a shimmy as higher speeds. Does anyone know if it could?

Daniel

[holisticbeatz]

Newb question: What's a steering wheel shimmy?

[Flybert]

It's when your steering wheel shakes often times with a 240 from 55mph to 65mph and then it goes away. My shimmy was a result of blown struts. Replaced them and it went away. Maybe my struts were doing a better job of getting rid of the vibration.

[I[E]

Originally posted by holisticbeatz
Newb question: What's a steering wheel shimmy?

when the wheel shimmies while you drive.... shaking, usually between 45-70mph.

common causes are
bent or out of round wheels
wheels/tires out of balance
worn out/uneven wear on tires
suspension out of alignment
brake pads unevenly worn
brake rotors worn or warped

since you knocked out most, i'd check brakes

[Ka Drifter]

what kind of rims do you have? if they are aftermarket it might need hub centric rings to center rim on the hub.

[daniel240]

Well, I do have bolt-on spacers, does anyone know if they would need any hubcentric rings or anything of that sort?

[INeedNewTires]

could it possibly be badly worn wheel bearings? just a thought

[Joel 180]

id say it was your spacers. They need to be hubcentric.

[daniel240]

How would I go about fixing this? Is there anywhere where I can order hubcentric rings? and if so, would that fix the problem? I'll look around online and see what I can find

Daniel

[Ka Drifter]

e-mail me your address and i will get you a set i acn get them all day long at sears for free
thanks
[email protected]

[Dream240]

Okay, I got an add-on question:
I have aftermarket 18" rims with 5mm spacers, brand new tires, perfect static balancing, brand new KYB AGX struts, Eibach springs, new pillow mounts, all new washer and grommets for the strut assembly.

Those are the good parts, the bad are:
Front pads almost gone, front rotors warped slightly, tie rod boots blown for about a year now.

If I get new brakes and tie rod ends, what else could still cause the shimmy? Maybe the spacers, hub rings, worn steering column?

Tell me what you think. Also the shimmy is at speeds over 60 mph and gets progressively worse up to 85mph until the whole car is shuttering. Its pretty scary.

Let me know.

Oh alignment was just done, and I've never hit anything since the wheel started to shimmy about 6 months ago.

[S13Nissan240SX]

Worn motor mounts can also cause you to feel unwanted vibration. Just another thing to check.

Good luck,
Matt

[Dream240]

Originally posted by S13Nissan240SX
Worn motor mounts can also cause you to feel unwanted vibration. Just another thing to check.

Good luck,
Matt

Well, I put new OEM mounts on about 18 months ago, anything else?

[xchaosx]

One time my driveshaft u-joint froze on me. It was totally speed dependant. It felt like the car was about to explode around 70 ~ 80. when we just looked at it from under the car, it didnt look busted. you actually have to take the driveshaft off and inspect it. It doesn't take that long to take off. If all those other things are fine, chances are that this is your culprit.