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Topic: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side (Read 14 times) previous topic - next topic
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Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side
Yahoo Message Number: 129429
On a recent trip to Anza Borrego state park I noticed the steering wheel shaking side to side at about 35 to 50 MPH.  The shaking was more predominate when applying the brakes, but also was present sometimes when the brakes were not applied.
 My Laze Daze is a 2003 mid bath.  The tires are Michelins with about 4 years of service on them.
 The LD had not been driven for a significant distance for several months.
 I have an appointment to take it to Beeline alignment in San Diego on Wednesday. Perhaps they will find something in the steering system, wheel balancing needed or a sticking brake caliper.
 Present odometer reading is about 74,000 miles.  Complete brake work was done 04/08/2009 at 45598 miles.
 I will let you know if they solve it and if they identify the cause.

Ken in San Diego
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side
Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129430
planld2003  wrote:

On a recent trip to Anza Borrego state park I noticed the steering wheel shaking side to side at about 35 to 50 MPH...
I have an appointment to take it to Beeline alignment in San Diego on Wednesday. Perhaps they will find something in the steering system, wheel balancing needed or a sticking brake caliper.
---

This link might provide helpful information:
 http://www.aa1car.com/library/vibrations.htm

Do post when the cause of the shimmy is diagnosed; thanks.

Joan
2003 TK has a new home
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side
Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129435
Ken,

Last Summer we were on our way to Tahoe on 395 just South of Bishop when I began to notice the steering begin to vibrate back and forth, a little at first becoming more pronounced as time went on. What I discovered was a bulge in the sidewall of my drivers side front tire. I only found it the next morning when my wife drove the LD forward with me standing in front of the rig looking at the tires...fortunately she loves me!
 You don't say if you carefully checked your tires, but that's what we discovered. Hope that helps.
 By the way Joan, that is a very informative web page in your reply. Thank You! Steve
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side
Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129441
You might try first checking the air pressure in the front tires.  Once I went to A Ford Dealership for a 30K mile maintenance check, nothing to do with the tires.  On the way home I experienced extreme shimmy, like white knuckle driving.  After checking several things I checked the air pressure and found both front tires at 80 PSI.  Reduced to recommended pressure and it drove like I had a new LD.

Just a thought for you.

John K.
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side
Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129451
i had the same problem at about 30,000 miles.  on advice from a ford dealer i took the veh to a tire specialist.  he reccommended exchanging the outside rear with the front.  problem solved.
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side - Mostly Fixed
Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129495
Quote

 On a recent trip to Anza Borrego state park I noticed the steering wheel shaking side to side at about 35 to 50 MPH.  The shaking was more predominate when applying the brakes, but also was present sometimes when the brakes were not applied.
 My Laze Daze is a 2003 mid bath.  The tires are Michelins with about 4 years of service on them.
 The LD had not been driven for a significant distance for several months.
 I have an appointment to take it to Beeline alignment in San Diego on Wednesday. Perhaps they will find something in the steering system, wheel balancing needed or a sticking brake caliper.
 Present odometer reading is about 74,000 miles.  Complete brake work was done 04/08/2009 at 45598 miles.
 I will let you know if they solve it and if they identify the cause.

Ken in San Diego
Thank you for your replies and reference link to a website.

I forgot to mention that tire pressure had been set to the rec commended level by weight and tire chart.  The tires had no sidewall  bulges or unusual tread wear. I also forgot to mention that the steering damper had been replaced 07/08/2009 at 54316 miles.  I failed to notice a note on that invoice that the LF rim was slightly out of round.
 Beeline test drove the LD, balanced the front wheels, did a front end alignment, replaced the steering damper again and test drove the LD again.  They said that the LD now pulls slightly to the right and has a slight shake at 60 to 65 mph.  I did not notice these effects when I drove the LD after the work was completed.

They did not say if they found a sticking brake caliper or not.
 They told me that Discount tire can send a slightly out of round rim for repair.  I called Discount Tire they said they can do it and the cost depends on the degree of out of roundness about $100 to $125. I do not know the cost of a replacement rim.  I plan to get that rim repaired when I buy new tires in a couple months.  Though the present tires have plenty of tread on them, they do have a cracked/checking pattern in the side wall.  I will inspect the date codes on the new tires before purchase for manufacture in the past 6 months.

Thank you for your help.

Ken in San Diego
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side - Mostly Fixed
Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129496
planld2003  wrote: "I failed to notice a note on that invoice that the LF rim was slightly out of round." --- I believe that a bent or "out-of-round" wheel (rim) is the most common cause of steering wheel vibration. The shop might be able to true the wheel, but, if this were my rig, I'd minimize the chances of their not being able to do the job (and still charge you) and get a new wheel.
--- "Though the present tires have plenty of tread on them, they do have a cracked/checking pattern in the side wall." --- Motorhome tires (in this case, "light truck" tires), even at their usual "age" limit of 5-6 years, will seldom show excessive *tread wear* unless the wheels have been mis-aligned over a period of time, and/or the rig has been overloaded and the tires consistently under or overinflated.  The *sidewalls* are the more vulnerable points of wear on motorhome tires; cracks, checking/alligatoring, bulges, nicks/cuts/missing chunks (truly terrifying, and I've seen tires like these!) indicate that the tires should be replaced.
 "I will inspect the date codes on the new tires before purchase for manufacture in the past 6 months." --- I suggest a three-month window, "matching" manufacturing dates (all tires within a *very few weeks* of each other), and inspecting the date codes on each tire *before* they're installed.

Thank you for reporting the outcome!

As ever, YMMV.

Joan
2003 TK has a new home
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side - Mostly Fixed
Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129497
Ken:
 I have four steel rims that I'm not using after switching to Aluminum. Send me an email at jpwooduff at gmail dot com if I can help your problem.

John
SeeLevel II Tank Monitor
Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129498
For those of you who have the SeeLevel Tank Monitor, I thought I would give a report of a problem and a solution (after three calls to Garnet Instruments).
 The problem was that my gauge indicated a battery voltage of 0 volts, although a multimeter gave a normal 13 volt reading at the back of the readout panel.  (The LED display worked fine indicating that it was indeed getting power, and the LPG and three tank read-outs were OK.)
 The Canadian HQ referred me to the Texas HQ in Granbury, TX.  The person answering the phone (Lindale [sp?]) indicated that the monitor need to be 'calibrated' and gave the following directions:

1. I unplugged the display panel, and re-pluged while holding the BATT button down.

2. This gave a correct reading for the battery voltage, but hung up the system with the battery voltage displayed.  No response on the other buttons.

3. Next I unplugged the display panel again, and re-plugged.  Now the system worked normally with correct voltage readings and all other measurements OK.

The SeeLevel Tank Monitor manual only indicates in Chapter 4 that "The battery voltage is calibrated at the factory, this should never need to be changed."  That's why I thought a report of how my problem was solved might be helpful to someone.  Lindale indicated he did not know what the problem was, but that he had had exactly the same behavior on his own personal system and had had to go through this procedure based on instructions he received from ?.

HTH

Barry

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: SeeLevel II Tank Monitor
Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129499
Thanks for sharing that information, Barry!  One never knows when someone else will be in the the same boat.  Perhaps it's worth abstracting your comments and placing them in the "Companion".

Alex Rutchka, SE #4 '05 MB
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side - Mostly Fixed
Reply #11 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129506
Quote
I suggest a three-month window, "matching" manufacturing dates (all tires within a *very few weeks* of each other), and inspecting the date codes on each tire *before* they're installed. 
Joan
Why?
 I just replaced my four rears as a set and plan to do the two fronts as a pair up to a year later that the rears. The 4 rears are mid 2011 Michelin LTX M&S's, the fronts are planned to be expensive Michelin XPS's (if I can justify the money, otherwise LTX's or Kuhmo KL51's if I spent all my money on gas). XPS rib tires track a little straighter than the M&S's, and we all know the Ford E450 front end has it's strengths and weaknesses.

What do I not know about matching all tire dates?
 
Re: Steering Wheel Shakes - Side to side - Mostly Fixed
Reply #12 –
Yahoo Message Number: 129508
"the fronts are planned to be expensive Michelin XPS's
 One thing that bothers me about the XPS Rib is that Michelin rates it as a summer tire, one that is not made for use in near-freezing weather, ice or snow. These are all conditions we encounter in winter camping, primarily the near-freezing weather stipulation.
It's also not a good idea to mix different tires on the same axle, which would happen in the case when using the spare tire.

I will be installing a new set of LTX M/S, on all six wheels, soon.

Larry
2001 MB
* Not to be confused with Larry W (3000 of my posts are actually from expert Larry W due to Yahoo transition mis-step)