Suspension Issue & Wheel Shake Drama

[timshifty]

Well I have been noticing a huge wobble or shimmy in my steering wheel when I hit about 50-55 MPH. I took it to a shop and had them look at it and they said I had a lobed tire. I replaced both front tires and it still did the same thing. I took it to another shop and they wanted to road force balance the tires. They did that and the front tire tested at .15 & .20, and told me both passed.
I went home and found in my glove box paperwork from the previous owner where he had taken the car to a dealership to have it looked at for the same reason at around 4,500 miles. The paper said the following....(aftermarket spacers have been added to the vehicle. Left front has a bolt smashed in. Both rears have been welded on. Factory studs have been removed). I decided to try and reach out to the previous owner so I emailed him. I got a reply and he told me what happened. He said he wanted to put spacers on so the tires sat flush with the car. The shop that did it messed it up and he had to have the stud shaven so the rim fit without rubbing. He told me he noticed the shimmy shortly after he had the spacers put on. He said if I wanted to correct the shimmy he suggests having the spacers taken off. So my question is could any of this be the cause of the shimmy? How do I have a place determine if it is? How hard or would it be a lot to have the spacers just taken off?
Here are pictures of what I found in the glove box and his reply.







HIS REPLY:

The suspension is Pfadt springs I believe. Never had an issue with those, but I do believe the spacers were the source of the shimmy. I had spacers put on because I wanted a flush wheel look with stock rims. I had a pair on a 2010 V6 and never had a problem. The spacers I think we're Pfadt racing as well. However, I had the same shop install my spacers on the SS and shortly after I noticed the shimmy. Come to find out, someone new at the shop did an awful job at installing the spacers and didn't do it properly at all. One of the cut studs was still rubbing on the rim and creating the shimmy. Had a different shop shave the rubbing end down and it fixed the problem. If you're experiencing the shimmy I would bet it's one of those studs preventing the rim from sitting flush on the hub. I know it looks like a hack job because some idiot did it. Had I not wanted to keep the spacers I would have just taken them off and put new studs in, but I opted to keep them at the time.
Yes, there are spacers on all 4 wheels but the fronts are different sizes than the rear.

If you're not a fan of the spacer look then you could have them taken off and new studs put on. Should fix the problem but I don't know the cost of that kind of job.

If you like the spacers then I would just check to see if any of the remaining studs are rubbing the rim keeping it from sitting flush. If there is a rub, then I would just have someone properly shave it down enough to fit flush.

Other than this issue, there were no problems with the car. It was garage kept and never driven hard. I had everything professionally installed, which is why I was upset about the poor quality of the spacer installation. I just found my mods list for the car and the modifications included: satin black tail light bezels, 15% window tint, black emblem overlays, Pfadt lowering springs, H&R hubcemtric spacers (25 mm front, 20mm rear), and K&N cold air intake.

Hope this info is useful.

[Rock-It Man]