Car Shimmies & Steering Wheel Shakes
08-04-2004, 11:16 AM
#1
Staging Lane
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Car Shimmies & Steering Wheel Shakes It is starting to drive me insane because the car is not driving as it should.
I took the car in to replace the 2 front tires, have a wheel alignment done, and have the tires balanced. But the car still shimmies when I change lanes and the steering wheel will shake going 50+. It's not as solid as it used to be. I am about to take it back in to NTB make sure they did everything properly. Although, I believe that I have bent my axle (got squirrelly in the rain and ran over a curb
) on my car because every now and then the car will have a squeaking noise on the rear driver side which disappears when I apply the breaks. The breaks have been replaced, pads, rotors etc. So we ruled that out. Would the axle be the reason why it is doing the above or could it be something else? All help is appreciated!!
I took the car in to replace the 2 front tires, have a wheel alignment done, and have the tires balanced. But the car still shimmies when I change lanes and the steering wheel will shake going 50+. It's not as solid as it used to be. I am about to take it back in to NTB make sure they did everything properly. Although, I believe that I have bent my axle (got squirrelly in the rain and ran over a curb
) on my car because every now and then the car will have a squeaking noise on the rear driver side which disappears when I apply the breaks. The breaks have been replaced, pads, rotors etc. So we ruled that out. Would the axle be the reason why it is doing the above or could it be something else? All help is appreciated!! 
08-04-2004, 11:32 AM
#2
Usually if the steering wheel shakes it is a balance issue. But if you clipped a curb there is a good chance the wheel is bent. If it was only the rear wheel that grabbed the curb then the whole car would shake a bit depending on how bad it was. But if you have a good squeek coming from the one tire, I would guess that there might be some axle damage there.
08-04-2004, 01:20 PM
#3
TECH Junkie
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Oftentimes you can see a bent axle if you have someone else drive the car slowly by you as you stand by and watch the wheel roll. If the wheel/tire wobbles as it rolls then you have a problem.
08-04-2004, 03:09 PM
#4
What year is this car? Some (if not all) LT1 cars have a rear brake squeak that can be easily fixed. As far as checking for a bent rim or axle, support the axle with jackstands so the rear wheels are off the ground. Then start the motor and let it idle in first gear while watching for wheel movement up and down as well as sideways.
08-05-2004, 09:56 AM
#5
Staging Lane
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It's a 2000. All great info guys! I'll be jacking up the car this weekend to take a look. Oh, now the shakes are gone but NTB mentioned that the tire/drivers rear side that is giving me issues has half the amount of tread as the other ones. I don't know if the car could be carrying more weight on that side to make it do that because of the axle? Thanks once again.
08-05-2004, 10:57 AM
#6
Originally Posted by Lisa Marie
the tire/drivers rear side that is giving me issues has half the amount of tread as the other ones. I don't know if the car could be carrying more weight on that side to make it do that because of the axle?
08-05-2004, 11:07 AM
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Staging Lane
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Originally Posted by Cal
No, that's usually caused by peeling out a lot without an positraction differential. So would that be you driving it that way or somebody else that drives the car?
