here's a picture of the crush washers so that you know what you're looking for. you can check this yourself, just pull off one of the wheels that seems to have a shimmy to it...

crush washer

i can't find a picture of the spacers with the hubcentric rings attached to them, but basically just imagine a spacer and ring fused together. these have an advantage because the spacer cannot move once it's put on.

i'm betting on crush washers at this point.....

 

Just curious. New here. How many miles on the Car? How long have you had 18's? Do you autocross it? Do you have an other than stock alignment? Just got an srt4 and am studying peoples posts to see what I'm in for when I start modifying. I actually doubt I'd go bigger on the wheel though, most likely smaller rim with more tire as in ACR. In Michigan we need all the tire we can get with the potholes, train tracks, frost heaves etc. I've only had mine a month and cant believe I haven't bent a rim already.

 

On the crush washers, they were only on the rears on my car (I think) so check all 4.

Good luck - I hope that is it.

 

OK,ok,ok.....


When are we feeling this vibration, with foot on, or off the brake.

1. I have seen this happen often with aftermarket wheels, those stupid hub spacers get squished crooked, and the wheel is off set from the hub.

Even .5 thousanths of an inch will make a vibration because if the size of the wheel.

2. I can't see the control arm bushings causing a vibration, unless it's when you'r braking. That would be the only time you put enough pressure on them to force movment if they are bad.


3. Geez...you are really having some bad luck w/ this poor car.........

 

Okay.....just as I thought, because I had all new rotors and such put on the car, and crush washers are something placed on at the factory.....no crush washers on it []

Pressure Cooker:
How many miles on the Car? 16,491 as of tonight
How long have you had 18's? Since December 30th 2004, but I had a shimmy before then as well
Do you autocross it? Nope, no autocrossing, no racing, no hard driving/braking
Do you have an other than stock alignment? I'm not too sure what you mean, but its been aligned 3 times since I bought it. (inital, accident, subframe damage)

As for my spacers this is what they look like:



They were 5/16ths but milled down to 3/16ths as the five was way too big. They're on the hub with "glue" Its a yellow glue that isnt permanent, but its enough that you REALLLLY need to apply some pressure to pry them off. This was done so that my rims wouldn't ever get screwed up again (if anyone remembers the first hellish incident).

Morningpride:
While on the gas....55mph+ regardless of the percentage of throttle. Uphill it disappears/lessens, downhill its horrid.

Yes I have bad luck with all my cars it seems.....[&o]

And to make matters worse, Town Fair Tire screwed up the bolts that hold my center caps on on the driver's side of the car. So I have no center caps on both left rims, because the idiot tried to squish the center cap on over close ended gorilla spline drives, instead of putting open splines on like I told him to. I went to buy new bolts today for the centercaps, and when I was turning the socket head in, the bolts head and 3 threads snapped right off. 3/4 of the damned thing is still sticking out of my wheel. Needless to say, still no centercaps on that side.....[>:]

 

do you have the car lowered?

 

Okay My disclaimer is; I have only owned my current Srt-4 for a month. Still getting to know it. I am, however, an old guy and a career mechanic though mostly Aircraft (17yrs) but with a couple years each on motorcyles, boats and diesel trucks (currently) have never worked as "car" mechanic but have 2 years vocational training on autos and aced the alignment portion of that. Sooo.........I would very much like to help you but this is very hard to do over a computer, I have to assume everyone you have had working on the car knows thier job and I do not want to do that. Going just by your description of what the car is doing I'm guessing thier is something loose. Too much play somewhere. You said it did it before the 18's. How a car with so few miles can have too much play anywhere is a conundrum but that's what it sounds like to me. The guys who did the alignment should have done an inspection of all the components before they did the alignment and if they did and found anything loose they should not have done one till that was fixed. Has anyone really looked at the tie rod ends, the steering rack and column? You eluded to the fact the car has been in an accident. You also seem to be sold on the fact that the control arm bushings need to be changed. Why is that? Were they damaged? The car does not have enough miles on it for them to be worn out yet. If you've been taking it to the same people for these alignments, maybe you need to go somewhere else.

 

PSIChick, nope its stock ride height, no suspension modifications at all.

Pressure cooker:
Yes it is hard to assume that all of these people know what they're doing, because apparently with the issue still at hand, they don't.

I'm not so much sold on the fact about the bushings, as much as I feel it might be something to do just for the hell of it anyhow, and if it would improve the situation, then I'd definitely make out both ways.

Yes it did it before the accident, and immediately after. It didn't get any worse after the accident, but it is more noticeably annoying with the 18s as they ride differently than the stock 17 inchers. The alignments were done by three different shops. I have a feeling that when it went in for an alignment after the accident, that it was a front end alignment only. I'm judging this based on the paper I was given after the last alignment of the before/after settings. About 3/4 of the rear end was blocked in "red" because it needed to be readjusted. The only thing that still needs to be adjusted, that the tech couldn't fix, is the camber on the right rear wheel. Its at 1.0 right now, and all the other sides are different (I cant remember the exact numbers)

I don't think they inspected any of the components to be honest with you. And to be even MORE honest, I doubt they would even be able to tell if something was wrong with them.

No I've never had any of those parts checked out, it might be a good idea. I need to take it to the dealership for it not starting up right/at all when the engines cold, so I might as well ask them to check the suspension/chassis/subframe to see if anythings loose. My only issue is, when the hell do I have time to take it down to the dealer, when I work and go to school; both full time.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I really appreciate it.

 

We had the same problem with earlier Neons. Go ck out tsb 02-09-99. If hubcentric rings dont fix it, the bushings will. I personally would do the rings first.


By the way CM, your car did not shimmy before the accident. Remember we fixed that????? (dirty caliper woman).

 

I'll have to get some rings then. [&o] I can't find the actual bulletin itself. This is from the 1996/1997 Plymouth Neons:

02-09-99 JUL 99 Steering/Suspension - Smooth Road Vibration

Do you have access to it? I don't want to pay alldata just to read one bulletin