Front end shimmy- solved!!!

[MrT]

Recently purchased 2002 sle and had wheels balanced and front and rear alignment to eliminate a shimmy at 60-70 mph. After balance and alignment, still had slight shimmy at 60-70. I took the Bonny for a ride last night and when I returned home just as I was about to turn off the garage lights, I notice some "lumps" on the wheels through the wheel spokes. I have the factory wheels still on the car. After closer inspection, I noticed that on the inside surface of the wheels, there were numerous debris lumps around the entire circumference of the wheel, the same color of the wheel. Some of these lumps were the size of wheel weights. While these were well stuck to the wheel inside surface, they easily came off with a small piece of wood and hand pressure.

I spent about a half hour removing these lumps from the front wheels and lightly sanded the area clean. Next ride---no shimmy at any speed!!!! My guess is this must be from brake dust and road debris. I noticed that many bonney owners report the same shimmy at 60-70 mph, well before spending on expensive repairs, check the inside of your wheels. I will clean off the rear wheel tommorrow.

The bonny is a great ride!

[Trinity]

You need to have those wheel balanced again....

[MrT]

Yes you are right. Will have them balanced again. They must be real close to ok since shimmy is gone. Have you ever heard of this issue before?

thanks

[Trinity]

Yes you are right. Will have them balanced again. They must be real close to ok since shimmy is gone. Have you ever heard of this issue before?

thanks

Yes, both with mud and snow.

[Arrowhead]

It happened to Vinny's Caddy in "My Cousin Vinny" !

[MrT]

Hey!!! Mud in the tires?????????????

Great movie.

Strange thing is that the lumps were the same color as the inside of the stock SLE wheel. The material did not break like harden soil or brake dust. It actually looked like casting beads from when the wheel were manufactured.

It will be interesting to see if the lumps come back after driving for a while. The car was real clean, no dirt or mud anywhere else. Car spent its entire life here in Connecticut. I would be interested to kown if anyone else had this experience.

In any case, no more shimmy!!!!

[Ken_W]

You might be seeing rim corrosion, which is common as the rims age. Sometimes it occurs where the rubber meets the rim, causing slow air leaks. When this happens you have to have it ground off with a wire brush when the tire is off the rim (most tire shops will know how to do this).

It sure would be great if you figured out the cause of this long-unsolved shimmy! Will have to take a closer look at my SSEi next week.

Ken

[Valkuma]

Recently purchased 2002 sle and had wheels balanced and front and rear alignment to eliminate a shimmy at 60-70 mph. After balance and alignment, still had slight shimmy at 60-70. I took the Bonny for a ride last night and when I returned home just as I was about to turn off the garage lights, I notice some "lumps" on the wheels through the wheel spokes. I have the factory wheels still on the car. After closer inspection, I noticed that on the inside surface of the wheels, there were numerous debris lumps around the entire circumference of the wheel, the same color of the wheel. Some of these lumps were the size of wheel weights. While these were well stuck to the wheel inside surface, they easily came off with a small piece of wood and hand pressure.

I spent about a half hour removing these lumps from the front wheels and lightly sanded the area clean. Next ride---no shimmy at any speed!!!! My guess is this must be from brake dust and road debris. I noticed that many bonney owners report the same shimmy at 60-70 mph, well before spending on expensive repairs, check the inside of your wheels. I will clean off the rear wheel tommorrow.

The bonny is a great ride!

On the "Inside of the wheel" Where exactly do you mean? Ive got the shimmy -bad- at 50mph and it mostly went away after my wheels were balanced but it came back on its own...so i'd love to check if its a "dirty wheel".

Can you provide a picture of where you mean?

[MrT]

Do not have digital capacity at the moment.

I mean the inbound part of the rim, the area where the brake caliper occupies. Just look through the rim spokes with a light and you will see them if they are present.