ldangeli

Guys,

I am probably repeating a prior post, but has anyone experienced a shimmy in there steering wheel from 60-80 or so. I have had the wheels static balanced, checked for bends, had the brakes checked for warps. NOTHING! Still shakes. Any ideas?

Mach430

What wheels are they? Stock?

ldangeli

Yes indeed. AMG 5's 17"

Mach430

Is it only on certain roads? Are the lugnuts long enough/torqued?

ldangeli

All roads, and unless the dealer is doing something wrong, the lugs are factory, and dealer installed.

I have reached out to the dealer about this numerous times and have even had them check the Rims for bends, and rotors for warps.

ndabunka

How old is the car? 98/99? How many miles? Over 100K? could be a maintenance issue with wheel bearings. Try a hard gradual turn at that speed (up a mountain) and see if it goes away. If so, have the dealer check the lubrication and bearings for potential failure.

LowRydeR

Check if the wheels fit right on your hub, if it isn't perfect, get "hubcentric rings" it'll fill up the gap.

-Bruce

Timster

If they are stock AMG wheels they are already Hub centric.
I had a problem like this on an aftermarket wheel. It was the tires.
No amount of balancing would correct it.
New tires and wheels were the final solution.
Best of luck to ya,
Tim

waterford5301

I started a similar post about 2 weeks ago. I had a shimmy after I had new tires installed and took the car back to be rebalanced 3 times to the same shop (it didn't shimmy at all before I went in). Finally I decided to try somewhere different. I figured it couldn't hurt and I couldn't stand the shimmy. I took it to National Tire and Battery (NTB) to be rebalanced. As soon as I left the garage I could tell the difference. Shimmy gone!! Problem fixed! I don't know how or why this worked but who knows maybe different places have different equiptment, or different MECHANICS...whatever the difference it may be worth trying. Good Luck.

ldangeli

It's an 02'. 12k miles.. i got it one year ago, next month.. I just had it rebalanced at a autobody shop around the corner from me, seeing as how the dealer didn't fix it. I don't know about NTB's i will have to check. I just hate taking it to "dirty" mechanics. Thanks for the updates guys! I will let you know what happens.

Mach430

Do you have access to another set of wheels (hopefully in perfect condition ) that you can use to see if the problem goes away? If it does, then you can be sure it is whee/tire (most likely tire at this point) related. If the problem persists, then you would have done more than the dealer to diagnose it...

ldangeli

not yet. I am waiting for BBS RGR Diamond Blacks to come in. The rears won't be in till almost June...

Mach430

I just put a set on my girlfriend's car yesterday

ldangeli

Nice, rub it in.. That's nice.. Picking up 9.5 for the rear and 8.5 for the front. They said there is a back order on the rears. STUPID REAR!

E55AMG99

I had a similar shake problem caused by bad Pilot SX tires from the factory. As they wore down, the problem got worse even though they balanced on the machine just fine. MB gave me a new set after 4,000 miles. I immediately traded them in for a set of 18" Pilot Sports.

Go back to the dealer and keep complaining. The tires are covered under warranty for these problems.

RJC

Most of the MY 2000+ 208 430's all seem to have a slight shimmy at around 55-65, sometimes it's there sometimes its not, but over 65 no shimmy, the 99's did not generally suffer from this why I don't know. I've owned a 99, 00& 01 and now even an 03 209 so I have first hand experience with this. I spoke at great lengths about this problem to a premier wheel tire tech in CA and he did some experimentaion with a new (at the time) 01 clk 430 that had this shimmy and transferred the wheels and tires to his 99 430 and no more shimmy. He said from a visual perspective the suspension was identical but he summized that there must have been some bushing density changes etc that changed in oo+ when they incorporated all the other changes in 00. I know there will be some out there that will say they have no shimmy at all at any speed, but for me the 00 and 01 I owned and purchased new all had this problem. I went nuts with my 00 and had Michelin change all the tires, even went to 2 different "on the car "balance places and all with the same result and always at the same speed, 55-65. Yes MBZ checked everything on the tires, they even changed 3 tires themselves and checked the suspensions etc. I know there is a special new Hunter balancer GSP 9700 that will apply force to the tire while balancing that is supposed to be the best, check out their site and you'll find it and a dealer that you can visit in your area. On another note I live in an area that it's a very short drive to a road I can get up to 60 in less that a quarter mile while the tires are still cold and not smoothed out yet and my 00, 01 and 03 all suffer(ed) from flat spotting for a mile or two, steering wheel really shakes, shimmies then stops when the tires warm up. The 03 is the most mild mannered of the lot and my 01 was not bad until I replaced the Pilots with S03's, they were the worst flat spotter's. I must add I live in S FL and the tires get very hot and I park the car overnight in a garage with a cold cement floor which really adds to the flat spotting problem, super hot tire,cold floor,overnight='s flat spots. BUT my BMW 330 CI with sport package(had pilot sports) had no flat spotting problems or shimmies even when first driven from overnight, obviously a different suspension, bushings, steering etc. I think the latter 208 430's have a very sensitive suspension that transmits vibrations to the steering wheel. Please guys, I don't want to get into any debates that your car is fine and you have S03's with 0 problems and or your 430 never shimmies at 55-65 even when first driven after sitting overnight, I beleive you and I'm happy for you, but these were my experiences.

ldangeli

RJC, I have the same problems. You won't get any arguments from me..

RJC

I know you suffering , that's why I wrote the long post to let you know you're not alone.Try to get it fixed as best as you can and live with it. Once the tires warm up the shimmy should not be that bad and it will come and go. Shimmies have always been a pet peave and I love it when I get a car that has none at all under any conditions ie my 99 430, but I've learned to live with it...I was really hoping it would have been completetly eliminated in my new 209 but it's there too, albeit slight. Try the hunter system I mentioned above.