Honda Car Forum

"The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??

Finally got my highway shimmy and shake under control. My local tire
pro used the Hunter Road Force Variance Balancer and re-did the front
wheels on my 95 Integra. All was smooth...all was nice.

Then I went in to my repair shop (not the afformentioned tire pro) for
a tune up.

Took the care home. She ran real nice. Then I drove to work this AM.

My steering wheel is now shaking more than Britney Spears' behind. So
bad, I'm now white-knuckling the steering wheel to keep the car under
control at 75 MPH.

Took the car BACK to the tire pro to check the balance. All is well.

What could have been done during the tune-up to now give me a highway
shimmy? "Tighten suspension" is a listed service when the repair shop
does a tune up.

What the hell could they have done to plunge me BACK into the dark,
depressing world of shaking steering wheels?

RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:

> "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??
>
> Finally got my highway shimmy and shake under control. My local tire
> pro used the Hunter Road Force Variance Balancer and re-did the front
> wheels on my 95 Integra. All was smooth...all was nice.
>
> Then I went in to my repair shop (not the afformentioned tire pro) for
> a tune up.
>
> Took the care home. She ran real nice. Then I drove to work this AM.
>
> My steering wheel is now shaking more than Britney Spears' behind. So
> bad, I'm now white-knuckling the steering wheel to keep the car under
> control at 75 MPH.
>
> Took the car BACK to the tire pro to check the balance. All is well.
>
> What could have been done during the tune-up to now give me a highway
> shimmy? "Tighten suspension" is a listed service when the repair shop
> does a tune up.
>
> What the hell could they have done to plunge me BACK into the dark,
> depressing world of shaking steering wheels?

I told my husband about your coloful way of phrasing things, and he
said, 'Hmm, maybe it threw a weight." I said, no, the guy wrote that he
took it back to the tire specialist, and the balance was fine.

He then suggested something called a "steering damper", and suggested
that you take it to a front-end specialist.
--
aMAZon
zeszutko at nycap.rr.com
"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

"tighten suspension" sounds like a good, generic rip-you-off term. It
seems important...I surely wouldn't want a loose suspension, but in
reality, what the heck is there to really "tighten"?!??

Anyway one thing they probably did was remove the wheels and
re-install them...how can you have a vibration with balanced wheels?
Well a couple of ways. The most common would be to use "lug-centric"
wheels on a "hub-centric" set-up or vice-versa. Either way, the
tire/wheel can be in perfect balance, but when it is removed and
re-applied, the wheel will not be exactly in the center of the hub
again. If you have the factory wheel tire combo, this shouldn't be an
issue, but if you have aftermarket wheels it is something to look
into.

Corey


aMAZon <zeszutkoNOSPAM@nycap.rr.com> wrote in message news:<blvrjc$g928u$1@ID-183317.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:
>
> > "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??
> >
> > Finally got my highway shimmy and shake under control. My local tire
> > pro used the Hunter Road Force Variance Balancer and re-did the front
> > wheels on my 95 Integra. All was smooth...all was nice.
> >
> > Then I went in to my repair shop (not the afformentioned tire pro) for
> > a tune up.
> >
> > Took the care home. She ran real nice. Then I drove to work this AM.
> >
> > My steering wheel is now shaking more than Britney Spears' behind. So
> > bad, I'm now white-knuckling the steering wheel to keep the car under
> > control at 75 MPH.
> >
> > Took the car BACK to the tire pro to check the balance. All is well.
> >
> > What could have been done during the tune-up to now give me a highway
> > shimmy? "Tighten suspension" is a listed service when the repair shop
> > does a tune up.
> >
> > What the hell could they have done to plunge me BACK into the dark,
> > depressing world of shaking steering wheels?
>
> I told my husband about your coloful way of phrasing things, and he
> said, 'Hmm, maybe it threw a weight." I said, no, the guy wrote that he
> took it back to the tire specialist, and the balance was fine.
>
> He then suggested something called a "steering damper", and suggested
> that you take it to a front-end specialist.

Im "factory" all the way.

"Corey872" <imapeppertoo@excite.com> wrote in message
news:20545668.0310080937.784852f7@posting.google.c om...
> "tighten suspension" sounds like a good, generic rip-you-off term. It
> seems important...I surely wouldn't want a loose suspension, but in
> reality, what the heck is there to really "tighten"?!??
>
> Anyway one thing they probably did was remove the wheels and
> re-install them...how can you have a vibration with balanced wheels?
> Well a couple of ways. The most common would be to use "lug-centric"
> wheels on a "hub-centric" set-up or vice-versa. Either way, the
> tire/wheel can be in perfect balance, but when it is removed and
> re-applied, the wheel will not be exactly in the center of the hub
> again. If you have the factory wheel tire combo, this shouldn't be an
> issue, but if you have aftermarket wheels it is something to look
> into.
>
> Corey
>
>
> aMAZon <zeszutkoNOSPAM@nycap.rr.com> wrote in message
news:<blvrjc$g928u$1@ID-183317.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> > RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:
> >
> > > "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??
> > >
> > > Finally got my highway shimmy and shake under control. My local tire
> > > pro used the Hunter Road Force Variance Balancer and re-did the front
> > > wheels on my 95 Integra. All was smooth...all was nice.
> > >
> > > Then I went in to my repair shop (not the afformentioned tire pro) for
> > > a tune up.
> > >
> > > Took the care home. She ran real nice. Then I drove to work this AM.
> > >
> > > My steering wheel is now shaking more than Britney Spears' behind. So
> > > bad, I'm now white-knuckling the steering wheel to keep the car under
> > > control at 75 MPH.
> > >
> > > Took the car BACK to the tire pro to check the balance. All is well.
> > >
> > > What could have been done during the tune-up to now give me a highway
> > > shimmy? "Tighten suspension" is a listed service when the repair shop
> > > does a tune up.
> > >
> > > What the hell could they have done to plunge me BACK into the dark,
> > > depressing world of shaking steering wheels?
> >
> > I told my husband about your coloful way of phrasing things, and he
> > said, 'Hmm, maybe it threw a weight." I said, no, the guy wrote that he
> > took it back to the tire specialist, and the balance was fine.
> >
> > He then suggested something called a "steering damper", and suggested
> > that you take it to a front-end specialist.

Check for warped disks and a stuck brake caliper.

Even if a caliper isn't stuck, you could have rust in the
brake system (in the REAR brakes) keeping light pressure on
the front pads. This will cause disk warping very quickly.

I had this problem starting at 90K miles and had two new sets
of rotors and several balances before a brake shop finally
diagnosed the problem correctly (at 140K miles). Nary a shimmy
since they overhauled both front AND back brakes for $US600.

Now if I could only collect the $US800 I paid the first guy
who did all the work on the FRONT brakes only and failed
to solve the root problem!

RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:

> "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??

Could be....How do I check for a "stuck" caliper?


"Jim Garrison" <jhg@acm.org> wrote in message news:3F84BED4.90803@acm.org...
> Check for warped disks and a stuck brake caliper.
>
> Even if a caliper isn't stuck, you could have rust in the
> brake system (in the REAR brakes) keeping light pressure on
> the front pads. This will cause disk warping very quickly.
>
> I had this problem starting at 90K miles and had two new sets
> of rotors and several balances before a brake shop finally
> diagnosed the problem correctly (at 140K miles). Nary a shimmy
> since they overhauled both front AND back brakes for $US600.
>
> Now if I could only collect the $US800 I paid the first guy
> who did all the work on the FRONT brakes only and failed
> to solve the root problem!
>
> RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:
>
> > "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??
>

Could disassembling the caliper assembies and re assembling them cause a
prob? The brakes do feel different...maybe a little "tighter" since the work
was done, which induced this problem.


"Jim Garrison" <jhg@acm.org> wrote in message news:3F84BED4.90803@acm.org...
> Check for warped disks and a stuck brake caliper.
>
> Even if a caliper isn't stuck, you could have rust in the
> brake system (in the REAR brakes) keeping light pressure on
> the front pads. This will cause disk warping very quickly.
>
> I had this problem starting at 90K miles and had two new sets
> of rotors and several balances before a brake shop finally
> diagnosed the problem correctly (at 140K miles). Nary a shimmy
> since they overhauled both front AND back brakes for $US600.
>
> Now if I could only collect the $US800 I paid the first guy
> who did all the work on the FRONT brakes only and failed
> to solve the root problem!
>
> RkFast, the Flake slayer wrote:
>
> > "The Shimmy Chronicles" Chapter 2,000: What the hell did you do??!!??
>

Why don't you rotate the tires to see if your car still shake the same?

RkFast wrote:

> Could be....How do I check for a "stuck" caliper?

On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 03:09:06 GMT, "RkFast" <RkFast@nospam.net> wrote:

>How do I check for a "stuck" caliper?

Find a quiet stretch of road with wide shoulders.
Drive at the speed limit for a few miles, then coast to a stop on the
shoulder. Do NOT apply the brakes. Get out and test the wheel rotors
with a wetted finger the way you'd check a steam iron to see if it's
up to temperature. If a rotor is hot, the brake pad is dragging.

John Ings <nodamned@spam.org> wrote in message news:<aehaov42jo2983tdgc1hhbinlsgb14dfp8@4ax.com>. ..
> On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 03:09:06 GMT, "RkFast" <RkFast@nospam.net> wrote:
>
> >How do I check for a "stuck" caliper?
>
> Find a quiet stretch of road with wide shoulders.
> Drive at the speed limit for a few miles, then coast to a stop on the
> shoulder. Do NOT apply the brakes. Get out and test the wheel rotors
> with a wetted finger the way you'd check a steam iron to see if it's
> up to temperature. If a rotor is hot, the brake pad is dragging.


Im not feeling any additional heat at all. I AM picking up NOISE...a
"thump" when the shimmying starts. The whole ride is rough. Going back
to check the tires for a blown cord or something.