No More Shimmy!!! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

bull27 · 08-10-2006, 01:22 PM

So my everlasting problem with the infamous steering wheel shimmy has finally been conquered. I bought new rims 6 months ago (18" Moda r6), and they were supposedly balance by tirerack. Put thm on, got on the highway, and sure enough I still had a shimmy over 70-75mph (just like with my stock wheels).

I brought my car to a local tire shop that had one of the Hunter machines, not sure of model. They balanced the front and said they were all out of whack. Got on the highway again that following Monday, the freaking shimmy was back, I couldn't believe it.

I had a local porsche specialist do my oil change and had them do ANOTHER balancing on all 4 wheels. They told me the front right was out of whack and fixed it. When I got to my car I noticed on 2 of the wheels there were weights on the outer edge of the rims. They told me that this was the only way to make it perfect, and that alot of places do not put them on the outer edges due to the look of them. I got on the highway this morning and......................... smooth as glass! What a difference it made. I would rather have 2 weights on the outer edge of 2 rims and ride on glass, then keep them "out of sight" and have my steering wheel imitate a vibrator. Just thought I'd share with all of you having shimmy problems.

8sum8 · 08-10-2006, 10:05 PM

Hi JMG

Those Modas are not cheap rims. Do you know the reason for the difficulty in balancing your wheels? Is it beacuse of the tires or the rims? It is sad that you have to have weights on the outside on expensive rims. You should take this up with Tirerack.

Just my thoughts.

bull27 · 08-11-2006, 12:03 AM

8sum8 thanks for the input, honestly i do not know if it was rims or tires, all i know is that it was not right, now it is. Obviously i would rather not have a weight strip on the edge of my rims, but seriously i am f'n tired of trying to get this issue fixed. At this point the ride is ridiculously smooth, so I don't really want to mess with it.

BUT...........now that i think of it, it does suck to have weights on the outer edge of the rims though

fab · 08-11-2006, 12:33 AM

Glad to hear the problem has been resolved. I've purchased tires/rims from tirerack a while ago for a different vehicle and never had a problem.
Just curious, can you share which local tire shop?

bull27 · 08-11-2006, 10:28 AM

Fab, I bring the car to Randolph Racing in Stoughton, MA
. They only work on Porsches, and I believe most of their business is done rebuilding them to be stricty track cars. Their website is http://www.ranrace.com/

Kevin is the guy who owns it, they do good work, and are cheaper then the dealership.

I originally brought it to Mays Tire in Easton, MA, they never fixed the problem.