[gcarver]

I don't think I've had to post here before because I've always come up with a quick remedy after doing a search. No such luck this time. So here goes.

My 2001 Ody has a front end shimmy. It started this past summer and was only noticeable when braking. I narrowed that down to a warped rotor. I installed new rotors and did a brake job and it was good as new. No more shimmy when braking.

A couple months thereafter it developed a shimmy with noticeable vibration around 65-70mph. I had the tires balanced and rotated. No difference.

But the shimmy seems to have changed over time. It started to diminish at higher speeds and moved to lower speeds. Now it commences as soon as I started rolling out the driveway, or out of a parking lot, and remains obvious in the steering wheel until 45-50mph.

I just jacked the front end up and inspected the suspension and steering linkage. Everything appears tight. No slop anywhere that I can detect.

It'd be nice to be able to review the TSBs that are mentioned here, or any others that may be applicable, but Honda appears to have blocked access.

I'm wondering if I might possibly have a tire problem. I bought a new set of Goodyear's at Wallyworld last Spring. With all the crap they import from China these day I'm wondering how I could even tell if that might not be it.

Suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[WSY]

How are the actual wheels-- any chance one or two might be bent?

The balancing should be through a Hunter Road Force balancer.

I'd swap the front and back tires to see if that makes any difference in the shimmy; if so, the problem is wheel/tire related rather than suspension related.

 

[gcarver]

Thanks! That's a great tip.

Before swapping wheels I started it up, threw it into Drive, and observed the tire's rotation. It did appear to me that one side had a bit of wobble to it. I took that wheel and swapped it with the rear wheel.

A short test drive was encouraging. But I'm not declaring it a victory just yet. This hasn't been an entirely consistent problem. I'll drive it for a couple days and see how it goes and then report back.

 

[VARam1500]

The first time we had the steering shimmy was about 70k mi ago. It started mildly enough, but then got to be enough of a steering wheel shake that it would make my stainless steel watch band chatter while holding the wheel with my left hand. It turned out that our tires were on the older side and we had recently been on a trip where we were very loaded (car loaded with cargo; not us loaded with booze!). I took it in thinking that my cv joints needed work (since we occasionally hear the distinctive cv joint click when moving from park to drive. Anyway, the garage called me and said the tires had broken belts in them. I reluctantly allowed them to put new tires on...and when I picked up the car it was as smooth as glass! Since then, we've gotten two new sets of tires (most recent set was just last week), and both times we had the shimmy starting to come back as the tire life approaches zero.

--VARam1500...

 

[VARam1500]

BTW, I think the tires can have broken belts (creating a wobble while driving/under load) and still be successfully balanced. So, properly balanced tires (IMHO) don't necessarily equate to lack of tire issues.

--VARam1500...