99svtvenom

hey fellas im new to the boards here and i got a problem! its kinda scary to even drive the car! its a newer IS300 and it has a really bad wheel shimmy between 50 and 60 but goes away around 70 and is not present before 50. the tires and wheels are newer and not out of balance and have good tread (had all that checked out). tie rods have no end play. and when hoisted in the air the front wheel bearings seem to have no play either. it has about 75,000 miles and the shimmy is really bad. you can also hear a clunking noise when turning at low speeds when you hit the gas. anyone had a problem like this or now how to fix it??? PLEASE HELP FELLAS!!! thanks

koolaidman

do this for me before i can help u
cross rotate the front and tell me if u feel a difference

mmarshall

Welcome to CL.
Even with perfectly " balanced " wheels and tires, the balancing machine can be off if it hasn't been calibrated lately. And the tires CAN be in a true balance and still be out of round...this is a common problem. The wheel hubs, if bent, can also cause a shimmy.
Look at the tire on the balance machine as it spins. If the shop you use will not let you do this, find a shop that will. As the tire spins, look for what is called "lateral" runout....a side-to-side wobble, or an up-and-down wheel hop. If there is a noticible wobble or hop, that may be the source of the shimmy despite perfect balance. If in doubt,have them use an out-of-round gauge ( .003" to .005" is considered normal ) any more than that...though some tire shops will try and tell you otherwise.....replace the tire.
In the old days with steel wheels, the wheels could also bend and get out-of-round, but that is pretty rare with modern cast-alloy wheels. When a wheel was out-of-round, you could often do what is called a "180"......mark the position with chalk, take the tire off ,and re-mount it opposite of the old point on the rim. That sometimes cancelled out the high-low spots on both the tire and wheel and made the asembly prefectly round again. But that usually is not needed with alloy wheels...it is usually a tire problem.

inkblot

The above are both good suggestions. I would check them out.

With regards to koolaidman, I believe he's assuming your tires may be on backwards (i.e. the tread isn't facing the correct direction). Check to ensure the direction of rotation is correct (if they are single direction tires). It can make a huge difference.

Good luck!

koolaidman

im not assuming that the tires are on backward. it tells me a lot about suspension problems. and wheels and tires

lexusondubs

iTrader: (9)

also the rotors could be warped that could create a shimmy