Is there a reasonably accurate way to diagnose a shimmy or vibration in the front suspension short of taking the car to a suspension shop?

Will there be noticeable play between any of the components if I jack up the front end?

Sorry to be such a novice.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Eric

 

Raise the front wheels and grab each tire at the 3 oclock and 9 oclock positions and rock the wheel back and forth. Now do the same at the 12 and 6 oclock positions. There should not be any free play. Rocking in both directions may be a wheel bearing. Play left to right may be worn tie rod ends. Play top to bottom may be worn ball joints.

If the wheels do not have any free play then swtich the wheels with the rears to see if there is any change and rule out a bent rim or unbalanced wheel

 

Agree woith rocklandjag,

Also, does it happen at certain speeds, when braking, in a turn left or right, need more details.

SGB

 

It does it at about 60mph and up on the freeway. Everything else seems fine.

Other than some cosmetics this shimmy/vibration is the only issue I can fine with the 2000 I may buy today.

Wish me luck.

Thanks guys.

Eric

 

Oh, so you just looking to purchase it.

A shimmy can be a easy to very difficult to resolved. But, over all it is fixable.

After two months of poking here and there, replacing worn out ball joints and tie rods, my shimmy is resolved. Expect for the bent rim, which I am going to have fixed next week. Then she will be smooth as butter.

 

sbreeden - how do you know your rim is bent? also, are you having it repaired?
where?

thanks

 

Sounds like wheel balance. You could swap the front and rear wheels and see if it makes a difference. I guess that wouldn't be possible if you haven't bought it yet. ;^)

 

Also agree to the wheel balance. Ask the seller to have the wheels balanced.

A bent rim can be seen by spinning the wheel at a good enough hand power speed. This way you can see if it is the tire, rim nor either that is causing the vibration.

Yes, I am getting the rim fixed at Pattons Hubcaps & Wheels, in Allentown, PA for $75.00. I have been going to them for years, they fix rims for my BMW, Mercedes and Acura.

The process is very simple, all you need is blow touch, and table where you can sit and spin the rim, a runout/in gauge and a hammer for this type of work.

They heat the bent area to the point just before melting and hammer it out, let it cool, spin it with the runout/in gauge. If it is hammered to much re-heat and hammer in, to less re-heat and hammer out, until it is 100% true.

I make it sound easy, it took him about a hour to fix the rim.

Then he balance the rim only, then install the tire and re-balance. The repaired area has a life time warranty or as long as you own the car. All for $75.00, can't beat that. To fix a cracked rim is $85.00 to repair + the above work.

 

OK I've had the car for three weeks and ten days into my ownership a large branch fell on the car and I've been very busy with work so I haven't been able to follow up on this but I have more symptoms of my front end shimmy.

First of all it's intermittent. Second, while it is more prevalent at highway speed it can happen at about 35mph and third there is some cupping on the inside edge of the front left tire.

I hope to get the car up on stands this weekend and have a better look but your thoughts are as always appreciated.

By the way where is the best place to lift the front and rear of the car from with a floor jack and where is the best place to put stands?

Thanks

Eric