[s-cars] Re: Shimmy nearly gone

[Tim Sexton]

Hi Bob,
    99% chance you've got bad subframe bushings as well...BTDT last 
month.   I had the exact same shimmy problem on my 94 S4, and discovered 
in addition to a prematurely failed inner RF control arm bushing, I had 
3 out of four subframe bushings/mounts bad.   I replaced all of the 
above, and bingo no more shimmy.   The bushings on the subframe aren't 
nearly as hard to replace as one would think.   If you've got a decent 
air hammer and an impact wrench, you can do the entire front end in a 
short day. Oh, and do the tranny mounts while you're in there if you 
can... make it a piece of cake since they have to come out anyway.
    On a related note,  anyone noticed a problem with premature inner 
control arm bushing failure on the C5 chassis?  My last RF control arm 
lasted about 10k miles, and it looks like the new "improved" design from 
Blau is already splitting after about one month.
HTH,
Tim Sexton



>From: "Robert Myers" <Bob at chips-ur-s.com>
>To: "s-car list" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
>Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 5:52 AM
>Subject: [s-cars] Shimmy nearly gone
>
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>>>
>>> Hi Y'all,
>>>
>>> Well, it appears that my SEVERE shimmy during 85 mph left hand sweepers is 
>>> MUCH IMPROVED but is not gone.  Wednesday we replaced the lower control 
>>> arms.  The bushings, after 220K+ miles, were toast - not terribly 
>>> surprising.  Driving the car showed that the violent shimmy is gone but 
>>> there was still some vibration which I attributed to driving on square 
>>> wheels.  The tires on the car were down to the wear bars and I figured 
>>> they were no longer fairly well balanced.
>>>
>>> That evening my local tire shop balanced and installed the brand new tires 
>>> (Bridgestone Potenza RE750 245/45R16 if it matters).  At highway(+) speeds 
>>> there is a vibration which feels like an unbalanced wheel.  It becomes 
>>> more pronounced during left hand sweepers at speed.  Either the balancing 
>>> job was poorly done or I'm still having bushing problems.
>>>
>>> Today I plan on checking the balancing.  What other bushings could cause 
>>> this shimmy only in the RF corner?
>>>
>>>
>>> Bob
>>

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