Front End Shimmy

ECNC

ECNC

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2000 Chev Venture

Help?

Front end shake. It drives straight as an arrow when you let go of steering wheel.

At first I thought it may be the struts, but I am just not sure. Took a look at the tires and they look fine.

Have not had a chance to put it up on the jack and look at tie rods. But if it were tie rods I would think that the vehicle would want to pull one direction or another.

Any ideas?
 
Could be a tire weight missing, I had one rear tire that was out of balance due to a radial pull and had to be replaced.
Possible wheel bearing going bad, when you turn right or left will the shimmy go away or get worse?
Or bad ball joint.
 
Button Pusher said:
Could be a tire weight missing, I had one rear tire that was out of balance due to a radial pull and had to be replaced.
Possible wheel bearing going bad, when you turn right or left will the shimmy go away or get worse?
Or bad ball joint.
Click to expand...

It is not balance. Wife brought van in last week when I was not home and had them checked and they were good. She did not think to ask at the time what they thought might be the problem. Bearings are good. I have had them go bad before and am confident it is not bearings.

I do not want to spend the money on new struts if it is not them. I was under the impression that these new front end alignment machines can tell you if the struts are good or bad. Is this not true?
 
Sometimes low air pressure and low tread depth can cause the problem. A sticking brake pad can do the same.
 
Dale Flinchum said:
Sometimes low air pressure and low tread depth can cause the problem. A sticking brake pad can do the same.
Click to expand...

Checked all that. I am leaning more towards the struts. Just hate to spend all that money and not be them. Do have just over 100k miles on these, so I will probably suck it up in March and have them done. Did it myself the last time and the passenger side is just a pain in the rear, so I will have them done. Can not wait to see the bill for that.
 
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When does the shimmy happen? Low speed? High speed? On acceleration? At all speeds?

The only way to know is to check all the suspension parts for ware. Could be anyone or several different worn parts. Struts, tie rod ends,rack and pinion, Steering column, ball joints, axles, tires and tire balance could all be part of the problem!
 
It's probably one or both bearings. FWIW, the 'bearings' on that Lumina on steroids are a sealed unit and you'll need the whole hub. IIRC they were around $200 a side. We had an Olds Silhouette.......biggest POS that ever rolled off the GM factory line. All the size of a minivan, all the underpinnings of a Lumina. After the 2nd transmission went out, I was like EF this POS.

But yeah I think I have some spare parts laying around, I will check.
 
Ikarus1 said:
It's probably one or both bearings. FWIW, the 'bearings' on that Lumina on steroids are a sealed unit and you'll need the whole hub. IIRC they were around $200 a side. We had an Olds Silhouette.......biggest POS that ever rolled off the GM factory line. All the size of a minivan, all the underpinnings of a Lumina. After the 2nd transmission went out, I was like EF this POS.

But yeah I think I have some spare parts laying around, I will check.
Click to expand...

I just changed the bearing/hubs 2 years ago. One on the passenger side was bad, so I changed both. I will be pissed if that is what it is again. Did the work myself so cost was not great. Think about $70 each at the time. This time it just does not feel like that. Also no noise at all. Do not feel any difference in turns ect...
 
Tire balance.
CV or U joint is another possibility.
On my Patriot, the bushings on the control arms went. Both sides. Went so uniformly that both tires went toe in enough to wear the tires to the cord pretty fast but no shake.
 
Just turn this up real loud when it starts to shake and start shaking with it to cancel it out. Problem solved.:D

 
ECNC said:
I just changed the bearing/hubs 2 years ago. One on the passenger side was bad, so I changed both. I will be pissed if that is what it is again. Did the work myself so cost was not great. Think about $70 each at the time. This time it just does not feel like that. Also no noise at all. Do not feel any difference in turns ect...
Click to expand...

Tire balance
 
Mike Overlay said:
Tire balance
Click to expand...
Wife had them re-balanced last week just to check that. So that is out. Hopefully the next nice day I will be home and get the car up on jacks and start eliminating things.
 
Most likely the lower ball joint (only one since it is a strut suspension) or the bearing inside the top strut mount.
 
ECNC said:
Wife had them re-balanced last week just to check that. So that is out. Hopefully the next nice day I will be home and get the car up on jacks and start eliminating things.
Click to expand...
Have the tires road forced balanced....

DirtySCREW had the same issue at 60-65mph until I got the Ford service manager involved and he had them do that. Rides like a dream and no shakes what so ever. They rebalanced them and rotated the tires before..but the shake was still there. After road forced balanced.....no problems.
They don't want to do this because it takes longer and costs more....

DS

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
ECNC said:
It is not balance. Wife brought van in last week when I was not home and had them checked and they were good. She did not think to ask at the time what they thought might be the problem. Bearings are good. I have had them go bad before and am confident it is not bearings.

I do not want to spend the money on new struts if it is not them. I was under the impression that these new front end alignment machines can tell you if the struts are good or bad. Is this not true?
Click to expand...
Not true.
 
I always walk away a little smarter after visiting CFF:)
 
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Button Pusher said:
I always walk away a little smarter after visiting CFF:)
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Anybody besides me seeing this and not the picture?-

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If you see them, send them this information as text (screenshots frighten them):
 
Gator said:
Anybody besides me seeing this and not the picture?-

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Yeap.
 
I see the post and video fine.

DS

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Gator said:
Anybody besides me seeing this and not the picture?-

500 Internal Server Error
Sorry, something went wrong.
A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.

If you see them, send them this information as text (screenshots frighten them):
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I saw it fine yesterday, but now am seeing what you are. Strange
 
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