Thread: Balance wheels, balance wheels balance wheels and still you have a shimmy at speed?

9 out of 10 chances your rotors are warped.
DO not use the visual method. I balanced to death my wheels to no luck.
I decided to live with it.
Swapped all 4 rotors a few weeks ago.
On the highway today at 80? Not a shake in the world.
Chances are you need new brakes..

warped rotors you will only feel when braking.

Not true. I read that in GRM a lot of years ago. It was part of a tech article. And yeah, you do feel it in the front end. Another cause of a front end shimmy is a loose front spoiler/bumper. I wish I could find these articles again.

Did you get the wheels balanced at the same place every time?

Miss aligned caster can cause a shimmy also

Using aftgermarket wheels without the spigot (centering) rings or tires that are mounted incorretly will do the same.

Also worn out suspension parts like tie rod ends etc.

Like I said, I have hubcentric wheels. Balanced them several times at the same place. Swapped rotors and at 80 it feels as new as new. LOL.

i can almost guarantee you it wasn't the rotors. did you clean the rust off the back of the wheel and hub when you did it? did you rotate the tires at all when you did the brakes?

Warped rotors you can feel a shimmy at highway speeds, also you will feel them when braking.

I've had warped rotors on several cars, clean hub mating surface, and it still wobbled a bit.

New rotors fixed it until some more spirited driving

I will attest that this does indeed happen.

wobbled while driving? i have never seen this in the last 6 years of working on cars all day long. it could be possible but i really don't understand why. they would have to be warped beyond recognition, can you measure the runout on the old ones? usually rotors don't warp, the pulsation is caused from deposits of the organic material from the brake pads