2000 996 C2 Cab- Steering wheel shake

[phillipj]

Okay now that I have my car back I have been driving it quite a bit. I have noticed that at about 65mph I get a shimy in the steering wheel. It goes away at 75 and re occurs after. It's very annoying.....

To start the car has 19 inch rims. I know that the 996 was never really designed to have 19's.

What should I start with? Alignment? The car has 70k on it so I'm sure the bushings are quite worn. In my BMW's it was always the control arm bushings..Is it the same in Porsches? Is there an upgrade if it is the bushings? DIY?

Before I start to tackle this issue I wanted to get some input from any of you that have dealt with a similar problem.

Thanks in advance..

Phillipj

[SH-GT3]

I had this recently; shimmy at varying speeds. I'd go with a balance on the front wheels first [road force will also be able to tell if a wheel is bent], then check the alignment.

[phillipj]

I had this recently; shimmy at varying speeds. I'd go with a balance on the front wheels first [road force will also be able to tell if a wheel is bent], then check the alignment.

Thanks Anderson!

[larez2]

I had a similar issue but it was with the 18" turbo twists. Anyways, it was an annoying shimmy similar to what you describe.

I had the wheels aligned.

I had all the tires rebalanced using road force variation.

I had the suspension and steering inspected by the local Porsche dealership; they took it for a test drive as well - everything checked out as ok and they told me the vibrations were "normal".

I just lived with it for a couple more months, and then when i got new tires viola - vibrations and shimmy gone!

My guess is that it's your tires.

Good Luck,

larez2

[phillipj]

Yes I thought about the tires. They are a bit worn but have at least 3 to 5k left on them. I would not like to replace them yet. On my old BMW M3 I had this problem a lot. It would go away when I put new tires on.

The problem was back as soon as the tires would wear the shimy would come back. Which of course meant that the tires were not the root cause of the problem

Interesting that no one has metioned bushings or any mechanical issues.

I guess I will have the Front tires balanced first..

Thanks! :cheers:

[SH-GT3]

IME, if it were bushings, it would shimmy all the time, not just at certain speeds

[RFM]

Get the 4 wheels balanced if you are there, with a special attention to folded or curved rims, flat spots and roundness (oval) of the tyres. You will have a better overview about the problem IMHO.

[phillipj]

Thanks everyone!

[KevinMac]

Probably threw a weight! Once you get the wheels rebalanced and I assume you are having the rims balanced with stick on weights. If so take some of that metal tape used for home AC systems, and take a small amount and put it over the stick on weights.

[Benjamin Choi]

to my great disappointed, i picked up a set of new PS2s and one of the front tires was out of round straight from the factory. for such a high performance and expensive street tire, you'd think michelin would have this basic feature of a tire sorted out, but no. i had to get a new one after a couple days worth of wait time to get the car back in motion.

pretty pathetic if you ask me.

[phillipj]

Just wanted to close this topic. I finally got the wheels balanced and that solved 90% of the problem. Control arms look fine so no need to replace there.

One of my rims is slightly bent. I will have that fixed soon. Car is 500% better. :clapping: