Re: Demons in the wheel (part XVII: the cause?!?)

[Jeremy R King <kingjer@eng.auburn.edu>]

There's a slight possibility that you problem is warped rotors.  If the 
car's fairly new, it would have nice tight pads up against the rotor.  I 
had a similar shake in my GL5 and had the rotors turned/replaced the pads 
(I have a VW - could turn the then-solid rotors with no problem) and the 
problem ceased.  You probably know that your brake pads ride up against 
the brake disc even when you're not applying pressure to the brake 
pedal.  If the disc is warped, it may cause a shimmy.  My rotors were 
warped by a local Joe "mechanic" who used an impact wrench on my lug 
bolts.  He must of had the clutch set for off shore rigs or something.  
Anyhow, it's always a good practice to hand-tighten your lugs (and even 
use a torque-wrench if possible).  Usually if you have work done at a 
shop that involves taking the wheels off, you can ask the guy doing the 
work to hand tighten them.  The proper torque is in the Bentley book.

The rotor's probably not you ailment, but it's something to check when 
you run out of options.

Jeremy R. King
1986 VW Quantum GL5
Audi at Heart
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aaa    aaa   uuu    uuu   ddd     ddd    iii
aaa    aaa   uuu    uuu   ddd     ddd    iii
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  aaaaaa aaa   uuuuuu uuu   ddddddd ddd   iii

On Tue, 31 Oct 1995, Chris Newbold wrote:

> Well, I took my '93 90CS to the local dealer last week to see if they could
> exorcize the demonic shaking from the front end/steering wheel...
> 
> For those who don't recall, the front end/steering wheel shakes badly 
> between 55-65 MPH, comes and goes based on ambient temps and how warmed-up
> the car is. Doesn't always occur at the same speed, either.
> New tires didn't fix it... Rebalancing didn't fix it...
> 
> Anyhow, they balanced all four wheels again ("Sometimes [the tires] take
> a while to seat on the bead" @$&*!?) and checked out the whole front end.
> The only thing they found was that the right ball joint was worn down
> to the minimum specs. (At only 31k miles? ACK!)
> 
> The part is on order, and for now the problem remains, despite another
> wheel-balancing attempt. Maybe the ball joint will clear this up, but
> I have my doubts... Maybe the tires are defective... That might explain it,
> as the pressure rises as the tires warm, etc...
> 
> -Chris (anxiously awating the passing of Halloween...)
>