Steering wheel shimmy

Need some help from the brain trust. I heave researched and read, and searched but I need to narrow things down.

My car has developed a steering wheel shimmy. I am fastidious with my alignments, I get the tires rotated and balanced every oil change.

There is no shimmy under breaking, but there was a terrible shimmy from about 60mph on up. There is also a noise like a washer on spin cycle. A humming noise almost like tire noise that is non existent at crawling speeds but audible at high speeds I thought it might be rotors, control arms, wheel bearings etc but my mechanic insisted all I needed was balancing.

So they re-balanced the tires, and the high speed steering wheel shimmy is gone....except it's not. Sure my wheel doesn't see-saw like a mad man if I take my hands off the wheel, but holding the wheel, I can still feel the entire steering column pulsating like it wants to shimmy, almost like the balancing is masking a deeper issue. And the washer on spin cycle noise is still there.

I'm still thinking the culprit is bad wheel bearings. Before I go throw money at this issue, can anyone tell me if my suspicions are founded or if I'm just feeling ghosts?

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thanks.

When is the last time you replaced the struts? My car developed a bad shimmy when my struts needed to be replaced. The struts were leaking pretty bad. After I replaced them, everything was back to normal.

Thanks. I'll add that on the list of things to check.

Wheel bearing, one or more is/are going bad.

If you can drive the car on highway on a flyover ramp, listen for the hum to change as the car transfer weight for one side to the other.

In my experience if the tires are worn they'll be out of balance at highway speeds, yet balance perfectly on the machine. Also, many (most) service station air pumps are full of condensation which gets merrily pumped into your tires.

Ugh...never considered the condensation thing. Is there anything that can be done about that?

I have, over the past two years instances where the front end developed a very strong vibration which lasted for about five miles and then disappeared. It didn't seem to be speed dependent like an out of balance tire, but it was somewhat worse at above 60km/hr. When I had a chance to pull over to check things, the left front wheel was much hotter than the right. The car had new front wheel bearings about 12,000 miles ago. This situation has now just happened again twice in the past 12000 miles.

Any thoughts?

I have, over the past two years instances where the front end developed a very strong vibration which lasted for about five miles and then disappeared. It didn't seem to be speed dependent like an out of balance tire, but it was somewhat worse at above 60km/hr. When I had a chance to pull over to check things, the left front wheel was much hotter than the right. The car had new front wheel bearings about 12,000 miles ago. This situation has now just happened again twice in the past 12000 miles.

Any thoughts?

Sticking brake caliper

Ugh...never considered the condensation thing. Is there anything that can be done about that?

Have the wheels rebalanced. When I put the old summer wheels and tires back on the Spec this past April I have a little shimmy at 68-70mph, I knew right away it was the old rear tires now on the front. Tires came with the car when I bought it March 2011.

They will get me through this summer as I don't drive that car much, but next year they'll be replaced.

When I put last years summer wheels and tires on the wagon in April they have been fine, but those tires are much newer.

Also check your steering rack bushings, on my 2002 WRX they were almost gone and would do similar things depending on where the rack was sitting at the time.

So the bushings would cause the wheel to shimmy also? Dang it!

Any result from this? While i don't have noise I do have a slight shimmy which is making me dislike driving. I have replaced my rotors and wheel bearings (rotors needed it regardless); next on the list is LCA bushings, tie rod, then possibly struts. I heard there was a soap and water trick for the struts, any details on that working?

Are you doing all that work because it needs to be done or are you doing it in hopes of it fixing your issue? It could be something easy and cheap so start by checking that stuff first.

I would venture it is possibly the wheel bearing based on the humming noise, but it could also be the axle.

If your wheels are not bent, I would focus on the bearing first assuming the noise is not tire noise. Wheel bearings will sound like a washing machine on spin cycle.

On my 98 BD GT, I kept hearing a growling/low howl at speed that changed somewhat while turning, and there was always vibration through-out the car. Took it to the dealer (still under warranty) fairly sure that it was a wheel bearing given how loud it was and that directional changes affected the sound/vibration.

Tech took it out and brought it back - "Your left rear and right front wheel are out of alignment". Took it directly to my alignment shop and had them do a performance alignment - surprise the noise and vibration was gone.

Another time, on my 99 BK, I kept getting vibration from the front wheels. I'd gone the route of balance/alignment just to rule that out, then checked all of the bushings to make sure everything was tight and sound underneath, including the steering rack bushes - all good.

Noticed that the left front wheel seemed to be inordinantly hot - really hot by comparison to the right front, so I took off the wheel and nearly burned my hand on the brake caliper. Turns out the bottom-side slider was sticking and not allowing the caliper to float back, and keeping the pad in angled contact to the rotor.

Pulled the caliper, pulled the slider pins, greased everything, including the caliper mounting slides, and put it all back together with new pads, making sure everything slid and worked the way it's supposed to work. Reinstalled the wheel, and took it for a drive - brakes were definitely improved, but the major thing of note was that the shimmy/vibration from the front was gone.