Help Needed, How much shimmy is normal?

[Bradnsandy]

How much shimmy in the steering wheel is normal in a stock 2010 2SS/RS Camaro? How much vibration should I be feeling? The vibrations/shimmy are different at different speeds.
My story so far: bought my dream car 3 weeks ago, when I went to get it there was a ding in the rear bumper which the dealer fixed and I picked up car 2 days later. On the way home I noticed a shimmy in the steering wheel and in my subjective opinion considerable vibrations, especially when the speed exceeded 75. Called dealer who told me it was probably flat spots on tires from sitting and it would go away in a day or so. Didn’t. Took it in, they checked balance and service guy said it was riding fine. After I insisted they look at it closer, they found what they told me a bad tire. Came back week later and changed tire out. Drove away and though it was better it still wasn’t right. Went back and test drove a different Camaro. Completely different ride. Went back to dealer, who’s idea was to swap all wheels and tires. Drove my car away and it subjectively felt better. Now a couple of days later the shimmy is back. This will be the 3rd time I have to go back to the dealer in 3 weeks on a brand new car.
The service manager tries to tell me that I am on “high performance” tires and when they are cold they are supposed to cause vibrations (even though it is an hour drive to the dealer, how warm do the tires need to be). Then they tell me other crap, which makes no sense.
I really like the car. I just don’t want to tear up tires and wear out suspension parts, and cause the computer to crash (which the service manager says is impossible). I want to believe them, but I don’t want a lemon either…

[masterchiefbt]

Could be a possible driveshaft problem...like maybe not weighted correctly or lost a weight possibly. I would have them check that out. What makes me think about that is when you say HIGH speeds. I had a "tire out of balance" and mine would "shake" like what you are describing. I took to independent tire dealer and he said that he couldn't get it too balance. I had him note that on the receipt and took it Chevy dealer and they replaced the rim.

Just something to think about.

[Russell James]

Tire flat spotting is normal for performance tires, but should be completely gone after 10 - 15 miles or so of driving. There is a bulletin that covers that.

So the answer to your question is --- after a brief warm up drive and 10 - 15 or so miles, there should be zero shimmy/vibe in your steering wheel.

Take it back, make them fix it until zero highway steering wheel shake.

They just need to follow the bulletin to the letter. Checking wheel runout, tire runout, hub runout, possibly the tires need road force variation balancing... maybe a hub or rotor is out of whack.

If the tires and wheels are in runout spec, and pass a road force variation balance with flying colors, the next logical step is checking/replacing the front hub... then rotor. Those are the only other two components after the tire and wheel that can cause a steering wheel shake.

You could also temporarily... for one drive... I think?.... put the rear tires on the front and fronts on the rear. If the exact same vibe is still there in the steering wheel... it's not the tires and wheels. Or ask the dealer to swap over the two fronts from another Camaro on the lot that does not viberate.

[DangerZL1]

I would think the vibration would be felt in the seat if the driveshaft was out of spec, not in the steering wheel. As Russell posted, a road force balance may be in order. You might take the car to an independent tire shop for a second opinion if the dealer can't correct the vibration, which wouldn't cost much. The dealer's tire machine may be out of spec.

I'm not a fan of the stick on weights, and I've seen 4 oz or more of them inside a rear tire. It shouldn't take that much weight to balance out a tire.

[71cam]

to the OP, when the dealer swapped out your rims and tires for ones on a different Camaro, did you drive that different Camaro to see if it had any shimmy?

i would ask the dealer to start looking at all the suspension parts and make sure that they are tight and there is no alignment issue.

[Boosted IBM]

I'm having the same issues and the car is going in for road force balancing tomorrow. Drives me nuts as 75mph is when it is really the worst and that's the typical highway speeds during peak commute times.

[Boosted IBM]

Just got done having the roadforce balancing on a SS with 6k miles that shook like crazy. The tech explained some numbers to me said that all 4 tires/wheels were out. The numbers he used was 0 was good 23 was unbearable. One of them was 24, the rest were 21. You couldn't have a half full cup of coffee at anything over 60 or it would spill.

[oldfriend]

There you go , have it done right once and you will be happy driving ever after in WA @ 75MH or move to CA and no need to fix it one only can drive @ 30 in rush hour [btw 6am and 7pm]

[Boosted IBM]

Still shaking some - going to have driveshaft looked at by GM

[Texhawk]

Originally Posted by Boosted IBM

Still shaking some - going to have driveshaft looked at by GM

Did you ever get the dealer to re-balance all the tires?
I would not think that a driveshaft out of balance would cause a shimmy in the steering wheel since the drivetrain should be isolated from the suspension.
My bet is a tire is still out of balance. Can you change the position of a particular wheel/tire to another location on the car and see if the vibration changes? (or do different wheel sizes prohibit that?)

[Boosted IBM]

Tex read my above posts - I had them roadforced balanced and they were way off, it got better, but it did not all go away.

[Texhawk]

Originally Posted by Boosted IBM

Tex read my above posts - I had them roadforced balanced and they were way off, it got better, but it did not all go away.

Sorry. I meant the comments for original poster.
He mentions the dealer swapped all the wheels, but I was not sure if they actually checked the balance on them.

[SchwarzerDrache]

I test drove an SS last week and noticed a lot of shake in the wheel too.

[bbfn11]

I am having my front Pirellies replaced after a tire rotation. My steering wheel started to shimmy between 55 and 65 mph. I was told that they would not road force balance (tires bad) and were going to order two new tires. I hope it resolves the shimmy.