Hello everyone, been having a tough time figuring this one out. I have a 2006 Pacifica that has been experiencing vibration issues and steering wheel shimmy. Just bought it a month or so ago from CarMax. Test drove it and noticed the issues, but felt that a good wheel balance would take care of it. Had the tires balanced, didn't fix the issue. Took it back and had the tires road force balanced, was told that three of them were fine, the fourth needed a little extra work but they were able to balance all four.

Unfortunately this did not fix the problem either. Decided to replace the tires with brand new Yokohamas, thinking that maybe I just had a bad tire that was starting to separate. Again this did not correct the issue. Had the new tires Road Force balanced also and none of them had problems. At the same time the tire shop looked over my rims and told me they could find no problems with them.

Now the symptoms:
At about 45 mph I begin to notice a little vibration in the vehicle, mostly in my seat a little in the steering wheel. When I get up to 60 mph and above the steering wheel really begins to vibrate and shimmy, moving almost a 1/4 of an inch back and forth. I have put the transmission in neutral while this is occuring and it makes no difference, the shimmy/vibration is still there. When I hit the brakes the pedal does not fluctuate at all and the shimmy/vibration does not go away.

So I have brand new tires and what appear to be four good rims but a bad shimmy/vibration. The car is a 2006 but only has 14000 miles on it. Any ideas as to what could be the cause? I'm hoping someone has run into this before and can give me a clue. Thanks!

Mike

 

Maybe something in the tie rod ends or steering box? By roadforce you mean the tires were balanced on the car?

 

No road force balancing uses a special machine from Hunter that balances tires off the car. I believe it utilizes an extra roller that applies pressure to the tread of the tire while it is spun on the balancer. It is supposed to be the best form of wheel balance out there now. Allows easy detection of rim and tire issues.

 

Well took the car to a mechanic, he put it up in the air and could find no wear or damage to any of the suspension components. He checked out the struts, the tie rods and told me that honestly he wasn't sure where to start replacing parts because he didn't feel that there was any one thing he could single out. Oh well going to be tough getting used to that annoying vibration.

 

sometimes mechanics lie or miss things, i think it could be a tie rod end myself

 

Did you have a 4 wheel alignment done?

My car just had the tie rods replaced, they were all bad in the front end with about 55,000 miles on the car. Maybe they are starting to go or the mechanic missed it as another poster suggested.

 

I usually get under the car while someone rotates the steering wheel back and forth so I can check for play in tie rod ends etc.

Do you know if the rotors have been replaced? How about a bent axle?
I dated a gal a long time ago that had a 74 VW bug. Hers shimmied at about 55mph. The steering wheel back and forth like you say. We had the tires balance, no help. We had them scuff the tires and re-balance and this did not work either. The alignment shop recommended balancing the tires on the car. This solved the problem. The thought was the cheap drums we put on the front were not balanced. The problem with this method was the tires had to stay in that position on the car or re-balance when rotated. Kind of a bandaid fix without really addressing the problem. This is why I ask about rotors in your case. For the axles, is it AWD? can you see if any of them look dinged or scuffed. Maybe Carmax should give you another car. They test drove my 04 PAC for about a 1/2 hour when I brought it in. I am surprised they missed this.

 

I am pretty sure the rotors have not been replaced, i took a look at them and they looked like they were the original ones. I actually had wondered myself if they were unbalanced, problem is a couple of new ones would run me over a hundred bucks and after slapping a set of tires on, I don't feel like spending the money. I probably will try a replacement and have someone look at the tie rods. As for the axles, man they look brand new, can't see any sign of damage. It does seem like the majority of the vibration is occuring in the steering wheel. I really don't feel it in my seat. I am considering doing what you spoke of with the on car balancing, I don't know of anyone in Vegas who does it and when I called a couple of places they didn't even seem to know what I was talking about. I have had the car for a couple of months, I don't think CarMax would take it back now. Thanks for the suggestions, anything else please let me know.

 

Are you calling places that specialize in Alignments? This is the type of place that helped us years back. They specialized in alignments, tires and brakes. I don't know what type of machine does this on-car balancing. Also, rotate the tires front to rear, juast to make sure its not a bent rim. This would be to see if the wobble changes any. If it feels any different, the rim may be bad. If it feels exactly the same, it's something else. Did the place that balanced thetires say one or more wheels needed more weights than usual or that they had a hard time balancing any wheel? Does the shaking stop the exact second you apply the brakes or does it keep shaking?

 

Took it to a front end shop, the guy put it up on a rack turned the engine on and put it in drive. The passenger side front wheel looked like it had a slight wobble in it as it rotated, while the driver side was nice and steady. He told me he felt it was a bent rim. So I took it to Discount where I had bought tires and asked if they would dismount the tire and spin the rim on the balancer. They did and the tech came in and said it had a slight bend but it shouldn't have been that big of a deal. This surprised me, I though any bend at all would be an issue. So anyway I went out and watched as they spun it, I detected an obvious little ding in the inside of the rim so I asked them to replace the rim for me. Of course no dealers in town had a rim so it is ordered should be in next week and I'll report back if it fixed the problem.

Funny Discount swore up and down that there was no issue with either tire or rim and they balanced out perfectly, but still that vibration.....and the rim obviously was damaged......