Lizard944

This post is pretty much rhetorical, but I hope this will help anyone else who has been trying to locate the source of the dreaded steering wheel shimmy. I'd also like to publicly commend a very knowledgeable lister (Hans # 2002) for coming up with a simple solution for this problem. To make a short story long, for the past several years I've been trying to find the cause of my steering wheel shimmy,which would present itself at around 55mph...did the usual stuff: new tie rods, struts, strut bearings, tires, hub bearings, alignment,etc., with no improvement. The shaking was so bad, that my passengers would accuse me of smoking crack or something. Here was the solution: Hans mentioned that he had heard that this is sometimes caused by the locking wheel lug nuts throwing off the balance, because they weigh more than the other lugs, and recommended an "on car" balance. I heard something about this years ago, but put it in the "that's too simple" catagory, and tried all the other remedies...besides, how could a lug nut that is near the center of the wheel, have much of an influence on centrifugal forces, to be able to cause a balance problem?? Read on. Yesterday, I decided to move the lock nuts to the opposite side of the valve stem. ( I had the lock nuts on the same side as the valve stems, along with the center cap crests pointing to the valve stems, because I saw this at Porsche shows and swap meets, and thought this was a concours, or "camaraderie" thing to do). I then went for a spin, and to my surprise, this TOTALLY, and I do mean TOTALLY, eliminated the wobble, up to speeds of...well let's just say the posted speed limit The only shaking going on , was me jumping up and down for finally solving this problem that had baffled me for the past several years. I haven't looked into the wheel "on car" balance yet because things are good now, and life is great! I'm now ready to tackle a much smaller problem (clutch) this winter.. Thanks again to Hans, and the moral of this story is; Keep those nuts away from your stem!

Bryon

Hans

Thanks for credit, passed this on to my friend.

Steven

Lizard,

Been having the same problem at the same speed here. Gonna try this. Thanks for the info!!

Steve (1989 944na)

ModusPonens

I've been having this problem and wasn't sure of the cause. I previously had a hard start problem and didn't drive the car for a couple months; I thought maybe it was flat spots on the tires. Also a possibility was the fact that my wheels require spacers and my budget only allowed universal spacers; So I figured maybe the spacers weren't centered properly and were "out of balance" themselves. I centered them as best I could and the problem reduced slightly. I will try the wheel lock trick however I have aftermarket locks and I think mine might actually be lighter than the other nuts. I'm going to throw them on a scale to see. I might have to put my locking nuts next to the stem instead of opposite it. I hope it works because it's cheaper than having the balance done and my pockets are pretty shallow at the moment.