wheel wobble

So i went out in the snow this morning.. Not smart.

 

Wound up hitting an ice/slush chunk taking off the entire middle portion of my front lip.

 

But, more importantly, my car is wobbling.

 

When i get above 40mph, i notice that the steering wheel shimmies. No noise from the bearings or any noise to refer to. Slight veer to the right when i let go. Shimmying recedes when i turn left.

 

I got the car lowered (Tein-S Techs) about a week ago, and held off on getting it aligned until i get the new shoes put on, which was supposed to be in about a month.

 

Could this be an alignment issue? Or something more serious such as sway bars or suspension?

 

To top it all of, i get to the breakfast shop which was the reason i had trekked out in the first place.. AND THEY'RE CLOSED.:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Also i don't know if this is in the right sub-forum

Could just be ice/snow buildup in your wheels. Check that out first before going crazy. It's posted in several places on the forum.

^+1

Thanks, I'll try that today.

Going crazy is my usual reaction when I think I'm looking at 300+ in repairs

same exact thing happend to me on my way to work (shaking, not lip destroying)... i was assumming ice build up.. but wasnt sure. Now after reading this i wont be pulling my hair out all day assuming the worse! fackin blizzahd bub

I've had this happen before and with it being winter, more likely it is ice/snow buildup. However, I have done something like that before and ended up bending the wheel. I'd try to get the car thawed out, drive it around and make sure there is no shimmy before looking elsewhere.

you can also take it to a self service car wash if there is one near by and blast the wheel area with the pressure washer. usually does the trick for me

Scraped a bunch of ice off.

 

Problem solved.

We all go crazy - especially since you didn't even get your coffee and breakfast I had the same thing happen a couple years back. I thought I bent a rim hitting an ice chunk. Turned out I just had some really hard packed snow in the one wheel. Glad it worked out.

haha i freaking myself out too. I had abnormal snow build up in my wheels. Entire car felt like the alignment was way off cuz it was shimmeying just over 20mph. checked my wheels and got all the snow out. smooth again. phew. =]

Lets face it - its not like our first instinct is to throw ourselves in the snow and try to look under the car in the freezing cold... Had this happen to me in the Durango in the east coast - freaked me out. Totally entertained my father in law. (Course, I'm from Cali, so wtf do I know about weather)