My car doens't wander off in either direction, but at higway speeds, it seems to shimmy just a bit. I'm not sure if that's the normal rough ride of the S, or if I really do feel it shaking some. So I was going to take it in for an allignment, but I don't want to do so, if I'm just thinking it's abnormal shaking, and then they perfrom an unneeded allignment. What would you recommend?

 

shimmy as in steering wheel vibration?

could be a number of things:

-wheel needs balancing
-feathering of tire tread (in which case, you may want to look into an alignment)
-road conditions?

 

Thanks for the response ... let me try to give more details.
The steering wheel doesn't seem to shake at all, just the car. I looked at the inner part of my front tires and they've worn more than the outside. Not a ton, but enought that I can see it. I haven't paid attention to the inner part of the tire too much, but it seems like the last time I bought tires, the inner area wore faster, too. But the tire shop didn't say anything to me, so I didn't think anymore about it.

This is a DUMB question, but if I went to a tire shop for them to put my tires one (I ordered from Tire Rack, but had Tire Barn locally put them on), would they balance my tires? I seem to remember the install cost of the tires being 30 bucks. Would that likely include balancing??

Thanks again for your help. (Oh, and I have ~60k on the car, probably 10-15k of very soft driving on the tires. I think the tread is still in very good shape).

 

I agree with it's probably a wheel balance problem caused by any of the following:

1. Check to see if you have a bent rim
2. Check if you've lost any wheel weights
3. Check for abnormal tire wear

 

...sometimes as simple as checking & sorting out tire pressure all around...these S's are sensitive to tire pressure.

 

I keep the pressures good all 'round most all the time.

So SIIK2NR, should I just hit up a tire shop and have them take a look? I can't really do this stuff myself, can I? Or should I take it to a place that does alignments?

 

I would start with a full 4-wheel balance. Choose your poison: joe shmoe's auto shop to save a few $$$, or the dealer. Either way your wheels may be in for a scratching, so be sure to do a walk-around with them before hand so you can point out any damage they may cause. I tend to go to the dealer for these things since they can be more easily held accountable.

Also not sure about availability with the S2ks, but if possible, get magnetic wheel weights.

If that doesn't solve it, take it somewhere to get a 4-wheel alignment. You can have them check the alignment when you get your wheels balanced to see how far in/out of spec you are. They will give you a little printout with the readings and the factory spec ranges.

Take it from there...

 

If the steering wheel is shaking then it's the front wheels that need balancing. Get those balanced first. Should cost about $8-$10 per wheel.

I wouldn't just balance all the tires cause they will charge you for them all regardless if they did anything.

If the steering wheels is steady but the car itself is shaking then check tire pressure and get the Rear wheels balanced and check for uneven wear.

Sometimes the wheels can be balanced but if the "toe" is off in the front or rear it can cause shuddering and uneven tire wear. Imagine your cars tires being "Pigeon Toed" and rolling at high speed.

Good luck