skizot722
Well-Known LVC Member
This year has been the year of fun and money pit action with the LS. Earlier this Fall I had all of the frontend suspension replaced. But I still had a bad shimmy in the front end between 75 - 85 MPH. I took it back to that shop and they balanced the front wheels. Said each wheel was right about 1.0 ounces off. So they added the weight. This barely changed the shimmy. It's definitely still there and you can see the steering wheel oscillating back and forth when you take your hand off the wheel.
Talked to the shop owner and asked him if they road force balanced the wheels. He said they don't own one of those machines and he doesn't believe in them. Basically said that it's just a marketing gimmick. Needless to say, that's the last time I take my ride back into that shop. Guy who doesn't understand the difference between static/dynamic imbalance and radial force variation doesn't get my business. No idea why people aren't interested in educating themselves these days. There is zero substitute for road force balancing. A rotating assembly can be perfectly in balance, both statically and dynamically, but if it has too much RFV, it's still going to vibrate.
Anywho, I found a shop that has a road force balancer and took it in today. The guy claimed he couldn't give me a print out when I asked him up front to print off the before and after. All Hunter 9700's are capable of printing this, but he acted like it wasn't possible. Said they would write down the force measurements by hand. They didn't match mount any of the wheels. I asked why not, and they said they were all fine with regard to RFV. They showed me the numbers the tech jotted down. They were: 0.015, 0.017, 0.018, and 0.024. So I'm guessing the tech really meant: 15, 17, 18, and 24?
If we assume he just wrote the numbers down with the decimal in the wrong place, the first three numbers aren't horrible. But 24 is getting to be too much for a passenger car. I told them that was too high for me and that the whole reason to go with road force was to get the RFV as low as possible. They claim the machine wouldn't even show them how to rotate the tire unless it was over 26. I know this isn't true. Also, to give some perspective of cars these days, 12 is the _max_ for Cadillac passenger cars. Even for Chrysler the max is 13.
What's your guys' opinion on what I should do here? Just be happy with the wheel that's at 24 and learn to live with the shimmy. Or make the shop match mount to get the RFV lower. I paid $90 for the balance and feel like they should have done something with that wheel.
Talked to the shop owner and asked him if they road force balanced the wheels. He said they don't own one of those machines and he doesn't believe in them. Basically said that it's just a marketing gimmick. Needless to say, that's the last time I take my ride back into that shop. Guy who doesn't understand the difference between static/dynamic imbalance and radial force variation doesn't get my business. No idea why people aren't interested in educating themselves these days. There is zero substitute for road force balancing. A rotating assembly can be perfectly in balance, both statically and dynamically, but if it has too much RFV, it's still going to vibrate.
Anywho, I found a shop that has a road force balancer and took it in today. The guy claimed he couldn't give me a print out when I asked him up front to print off the before and after. All Hunter 9700's are capable of printing this, but he acted like it wasn't possible. Said they would write down the force measurements by hand. They didn't match mount any of the wheels. I asked why not, and they said they were all fine with regard to RFV. They showed me the numbers the tech jotted down. They were: 0.015, 0.017, 0.018, and 0.024. So I'm guessing the tech really meant: 15, 17, 18, and 24?
If we assume he just wrote the numbers down with the decimal in the wrong place, the first three numbers aren't horrible. But 24 is getting to be too much for a passenger car. I told them that was too high for me and that the whole reason to go with road force was to get the RFV as low as possible. They claim the machine wouldn't even show them how to rotate the tire unless it was over 26. I know this isn't true. Also, to give some perspective of cars these days, 12 is the _max_ for Cadillac passenger cars. Even for Chrysler the max is 13.
What's your guys' opinion on what I should do here? Just be happy with the wheel that's at 24 and learn to live with the shimmy. Or make the shop match mount to get the RFV lower. I paid $90 for the balance and feel like they should have done something with that wheel.
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