wheel shaking

B

bc

I have a 2000 Outback and have had a problem with the steering wheel shaking
like the tires are out of balance for some time now. This still happens
after getting the tires re-balanced...this has been done numerous times with
no luck. Also, the car pulls to the left while the alignment is dead on
straight. I have had more than one shop check these problems out with no
luck.....Any ideas?

If you can possibly give me any suggestions, I would very much appreciate
it......Thanks, Brian.
 
bc said:
I have a 2000 Outback and have had a problem with the steering wheel shaking
like the tires are out of balance for some time now. This still happens
after getting the tires re-balanced...this has been done numerous times with
no luck. Also, the car pulls to the left while the alignment is dead on
straight. I have had more than one shop check these problems out with no
luck.....Any ideas?

A good front end person should be able to diagnose
and fix your problem. Some possiblities are a bent
wheel or an out of round tire. If it's been
in an accident or hit a curb or pothole hard,
any number of suspension components could be
damaged.

Has the car been in an accident or hit a curb
hard? I have a '99 with over 90k miles on it
and it has never been aligned, tracks straight
as an arrow and wears tires evenly.
 
On the svx if you do not torque the lug nuts equally you will get the
warped rotor feeling - steering wheel shakes. Not sure if the brakes are
exactly the same design on the outback but it can't hurt to try it.
 
Try moving the pairs of wheels from front to back, being very careful
they are properly torqued. If the problem stays the same, probably not
wheels or tires.

Carl
1 Lucky Texan
 
Try moving the pairs of wheels from front to back, being very careful
they are properly torqued. If the problem stays the same, probably not
wheels or tires.

Don't forget the basics either. Check your tire pressures.
A few psi low can do the same thing.
 
a tire with a shifted belt can be balanced but, is known to cause this type
of problem. Usually you can find the bad tire by a series of rotations.
eddie
"Cam Penner"
 
I had the same thing happen to me following the front brake servicing.
All was fine until the dealer greased up the pad shims.

Took months to find what was wrong. Conclusion, one rotor was very
slightly warped. Pulled rotor and remounted (no machining) and it was
acceptable. Very slightly shimmy at about 100 mph (yeah we drive this
fast in Canada).

Tx.
 
This sounds like the most probable cause. I discount the warped rotor as the
culprit as they usually cause more pulsation or shaking on braking.
Edward Hayes said:
a tire with a shifted belt can be balanced but, is known to cause this type
of problem. Usually you can find the bad tire by a series of rotations.
eddie
"Cam Penner"
message news:(e-mail address removed)...
 
bc said:
I have a 2000 Outback and have had a problem with the steering wheel shaking
like the tires are out of balance for some time now. This still happens
after getting the tires re-balanced...this has been done numerous times with
no luck. Also, the car pulls to the left while the alignment is dead on
straight. I have had more than one shop check these problems out with no
luck.....Any ideas?

If you can possibly give me any suggestions, I would very much appreciate
it......Thanks, Brian.

I have a 2000 Legacy Wagon, bought used last spring, that had a
similar problem: The wheel would shake at 70 and 120kph (I'm in Canada
but don't drive 1000MPH... :)). I had the wheels re-balanced - the guy
at the shop told me they were really off balance - and the tires were
out-of-round, i.e. some parts of the thread were worn deeper than
others - I could see that the thread was not even when it was turning
on the balancing rig. The balancing helpded, but the shake came back
after a few days.

Finally fixed the problem, totally, when i put brand new winter tires
on - Ooooh! No shake... Heaven... :) Needless to say, I am not putting
the old tires back on in the spring...

Good luck

Nicolas
 
I have a 2000 Outback limited. I have been dealing with the shimmy and
trcaking problem for 3 plus years now. I finally licked it. I took the car
to an independent alignment and frame straightening shop. They did a real
alignment. Finally, the car tracked dead on, as it should have, but I
started to get a knocking sound from the front end which would dissipate
after warm up. I removed the OEM firestones and replaced them with
rebalanced Michelin Alpins. Guess what? The car tracked dead on and no
shimmy and no knocking sound. I have been told that the OEM firestones may
have had a belt or two that shifted. I suspect they were bad to begin with.

I really do like the Subaru but there are a number of things that were
obviously done to keep costs low, tires being one, wipers being another.
There are other areas that could be mentioned too.

But the car runs just fine now. It purrs!
 

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