Front End Shimmy

[E-CLIPS97]

The eclipse that shows in my profile was a car that I actually owned quite a while ago. All the mods listed, I did. I sold this car to my Brother-in-law about 2 years ago. I recently got the car back from him(he fell on hard times and I took the payment over) and have found many issues with the car.

I have fixed most of them, but there is one I can figure out. The whole font end shakes at any speed above 70mph. You can see the hood shaking, the steering wheel is shaking, the gas pedal has a good amount of vibration and even the seats themselves shake. It does get progressivly worse as you increase speed above 70mph.

I took it into a tire place and had the wheels rebalanced but that only helped a tiny bit. I had them do a visual inspection to see if they could see anything wrong and they couldnt. Do you guys have any idea as to what would cause something like this?

 

[PieEyedPiper]

get an alignment.

It's possible that your brother-in-law smakecked a curb or something while parking and threw the alignment out of whack.

 

[president95]

get an alignment.

It's possible that your brother-in-law smakecked a curb or something while parking and threw the alignment out of whack.

I second that.
Also check to see that all of your wheels/tires are balanced

 

[E-CLIPS97]

I second that.
Also check to see that all of your wheels/tires are balanced

As stated in my original post, I already had the wheels balanced and it still does it. I will get an alignment, but the alignment seems fine(I can let go of the steering wheel, and it drives straight, and the steering wheel seems to be in the place it should be...)

 

[jtmcinder]

Alignments don't often cause shimmy. It's usually a wheel (checked), a bearing, or a ball-joint.

- Jtoby

 

[WikedSicc]

I would say wheel bearing. When a wheel bearing goes bad you will feel vibration in your petals.

 

[E-CLIPS97]

I called to dealer and he was trying to tell me it was my balance shaft and that my engine was ready to blow up with $5000 worth of damage at any moment.

I had to explain to him that the chrysler engine doesnt have a balance shaft. Then he suggested I replace the axles....

 

[E-CLIPS97]

Okay, I got the problem figured out. Turns out he ruined the rear tires by thinking he was some kind of drifting guy. He had already had to replace the fronts cause he destroyed those(which are now practically brand new). The rear tread looked okay until you got up close.

The inner side of both tires were practically shaved off. The drivers side rear tire was cupped very bad, and the passenger side rear tire tread was seperating from the tire itself. The tire store guy was SURE that by replacing the rear tires that my problem would go away.

I was a little sceptical cause I was sure the problem was coming from the front, but I purchased the tires anyway. And sure enough, the car no longer shakes. Drives just fine.

 

[jtmcinder]

Cupping of the inside edge of the rear tires is not caused by drifting; it is caused by excessing toe. Odds are, the car was lowered and not re-aligned, so it has a bunch of rear toe-out. Typical DSM-owner move.

- Jtoby

 

[E-CLIPS97]

Cupping of the inside edge of the rear tires is not caused by drifting; it is caused by excessing toe. Odds are, the car was lowered and not re-aligned, so it has a bunch of rear toe-out. Typical DSM-owner move.

- Jtoby

Actually, I was the one who lowered the car, and I had it aligned within minutes of finishing the job. There was no problem with the tires when I sold the car, and when I got it back, they were thrashed....

I had put about 8000 miles on the tires after I lowered it(I lowered and did the rims and tires at the same time), and he put about 7000 on the tires after I sold him the car. Alignment on the car is still perfect, so it wasnt the alignment that caused the cupping.

 

[jtmcinder]

OK, then, let's dig deeper. When you say "cupping" do you really mean that there are concave sections on the inner edge? If so, then that almost always means that some part of the suspension is loose. I read what you wrote as feathering (for which I apologize), which is when there is a series of ridges from inside to the outside. This is what you see when you have excessive toe.

If you really have cupping, start yanking on things, as something is probably loose.

In any event, neither cupping nor feathering is a driving or tire-inflation issue.

- Jtoby

 

[E-CLIPS97]

Inner edge on both tires were worn down to nothing(read bald). On the inner edge there were several spots that were concave on both tires. Passenger rear tire couldnt hold air very long. When they took the tire off, they showed me that the tread on said tire was starting to seperate from the tire.....

I had the tech who was looking at the issue for me check the suspension components and he said everything felt tight...

Edit: Of course he only checked the front because thats where I thought the issue was. What on the rear would need to be checked?

 

[jtmcinder]

Any chance that he rotated those tires from the front, trashed another pair, and then replaced them? In other words, is there any chance all of the tire-damage was caused when the tires were on the front?

If so, then I'd look at the front lower ball-joints (which are under recall, you know) and the front wheel-bearings. Any slop in either of these would cause both of your issues: shimmy and cupping.

Yes, I know they checked the front suspension, but do it again (yourself). It's the best current theory.

In the rear, the only known/typical issue is wheel-bearing.

- Jtoby

 

[E-CLIPS97]

Nope. He broke several of the lug nuts when he was trying to take 2 different tires off(Cheap Lugs), so the tires never got rotated. I rotated the tires after the first 5000 miles I had them on, and then sold them at 8000 miles. He NEVER rotated the tires after I sold the car to him. So I essentially drove it another 3000 miles after I rotated them and he drove them another 7000, so they went 10000 miles without rotation.

Eventually when the front tires wore down, he had to have the wheel studs drilled out to get the tires off, and even then he didnt rotate the rears to the front, he just put new front ones on and left the rears where they were.

 

[jtmcinder]

OK, then. Time to go and yank on the rear suspension. If they were cupped when on the rear, the odds are you have something loose in the rear. This is less likely to cause a shimmy than something loose in the front, but it could.

Don't just yank on the top and bottom on the (raised) tire; also yank on the front a rear.

- Jtoby

 

[E-CLIPS97]

Ok, I checked the suspension, then even paid $45 at the dealership to have them re-check my entire suspension, and they said everything was perfectly fine.

Just to revisit my previous issue, when I replaced the rear tires, the "Shimmy" went away, but my steering wheel continued to shake back and forth a little bit. I didnt think anything of it. However, after I got the car back from the dealer, the steering wheel no longer shakes back and forth, so they must have done something even though they said it was fine.

They did a free brake check for me while they were in there and said I should replace the front pads. They wanted $198 to do front pads.......I was like Ummmmm . I can do it myself for less than $20.

So any other ideas as to why my rear tires would have been the way they were? Not to and keep asking about this issue over and over again, but I like to keep my cars running as optimable as possible and dont like to check my tires everytime I get out of my car because I am paranoid that they are prematurely wearing...

 

[Defiant]

Worn shocks can cause cupping. Not seeing the tires makes us all just guess in the dark.