Steering Wheel Shimmering
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 2,322
Likes: 2
From: New York NY
Cruise-In VI Veteran
St. Jude Donor '05
Steering Wheel Shimmering
Bought a set of CCW505as a few months ago. I have only driven the car once since then for about 1.5 hours on the highway. At around 60 mph plus there is a slight shimmering of the steering wheel. It feels as though it is shaking back and forth (not excessively, but enough to notice). At the time I thought this was merely an alignment problem, but I read someone else's post that complained about the same problem and discovered that the wheels were not balanced properly. Could this be the case? If so, how can I tell if the wheels are not balanced properly? It never crossed my mind that this could be the case because I ordered these wheels direct from CCW (i expected some sort of quality control considering 5g's were spent). thanks to everyone in advance. 
Pro
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 682
Likes: 8
From: Alexandria VA
I find it hard to believe that CCW didn't balance the wheels correctly. I had nothing but good experience with them and have only heard the same. Then again, mistakes can happen. How many miles on the car? You lower it? Checked the alignment yet? I would first have your alignment checked. Good luck, let us know what you find. 
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 2,322
Likes: 2
From: New York NY
Cruise-In VI Veteran
St. Jude Donor '05
No, the car is at stock ride height. 30,000 miles on the car. Any chance there could be a broken wheel bearing? The car was riding perfectly fine before the wheel swap. I havent had the alignment checked yet. I was planning on lowering it and then realigning. I find it hard to believe the wheels are not balanced properly as well considering they use the latest hunter machines. Could one of the tires be bad?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 2,322
Likes: 2
From: New York NY
Cruise-In VI Veteran
St. Jude Donor '05
Originally Posted by ceo2858
Its all in the balancing. Take it to a good shop experienced with aftermarket wheels and request a 0 balance.
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 158
Likes: 0
From: Bucks County PA
I just had two brand new Toyos replaced as they were out of round. The condition is called "Radial runout" from what I understand. It does happen. The guy where I had them mounted at my local Goodyear said he sees it in about 1 out of a hundred tires. What threw me was that the shake came and went. It did it at different speeds and sometimes not at all. Usually if the whell/tire is unbalanced it will shake at the same speed all the time from my experiance. It is also possible that if they used adhesive weights to balance your tires, one could have fallen off, throwing your balance job off.
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Advanced
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 94
Likes: 2
From: Houston Texas
CCW's 505a's
I just bought a set of 505a's from west coast corvette. All four tires were out of balance. I think I might have a bad tire in the left front. I lowered the car and don't have the ride height right. After getting it right I will have the car aligned. Then I will see if the shimmy goes away.
