[avenger09123]

Hey folks,

Sometime in the last 5,000 miles, I developed a bad shimmy in the steering wheel between 60mph and 70mph. 2012 2.5i w/ CVT.

My front wheel weights fell off sometime before the shimmy, so I replaced them with balancing beads, and while it took care of the side to side shimmy the entire car felt on the highway, the steering wheel one is still present. I did not replace any drivetrain components (since buying the car new and now has 72k on it) except for tires 25,000 miles ago, and brake rotors/pads at the same time (Powerstop Z23 one click kit). Been great since then until 5,000 miles ago

I checked drivetrain and no ball joints are loose. It is more pronounced on Decel (foot off throttle on highway) so I know it's not a CV joint and it's front end weight load dependent. I felt the top of the toddler's seat and it reverberates throughtout the entire car during decel.

I got under it today to start pulling on things and feeling around and discovered that every non-solid rubber bushing from front to back is beginning to crack, and the front lower control arms especially are looking very bad. So I plan on replacing them with solid poly guys where I can. Cheaper than buying new arms, and only 1 or 2 $ more per than the dealership for replacement bushings.

I'll let you guys know if that fixes the shimmy. Currently I have a tad bit of uneven tire wear because of it, but nothing to write home about.

Currently parts sit at the following:
20204AJ020 - Vertically aligned Bushing $26 per for Poly from Siberian Polyurethane
20204AG040 - Horizontally aligned bushing $16 per for Poly from Siberian Polyurethane
Ball Joint - 20206AJ000 - probably gonna get a new one from rock auto...

Plan on doing the rear suspension next.

Torque values are the following:
Control Arm to Sway Bar (Stabilizer Bar) 22ftlbs
Control Arm to frame Crossmember 72 ftlbs
Control Arm to Rear Mount 181 ftlbs
Ball joint: 36 ftlbs

Anyone know if any of hte bolts are TTY?

 

[z28dug]

When was the last time you had a 4 wheel alignment?

 

[avenger09123]

Cracked bushing are normal, many cracks are normal. Rips and tearing away from the bushing sleeves are the signs of needed replacement. But that is your call.

have you swapped your tires around the car? Just because you put balancing beads on the wheels don't mean they are properly balanced. How about the tire pressures.

I am not sure where you got this idea, but I'll have some old bushings to sell you if you believe that when I change them out. Just cracked bushings alone on my Volvo wore down the inner new tire shoulders to near smooth in less than 8,000 miles. When replaced, I had nearly 5.5 degrees of toe on the wheels when I replaced the tires because the PO aligned it with the cracked bushings in there.

Cracked = weak, weak = metal to metal contact. If your bushing has separated from the interior or exterior, your in much deeper doodoo.

As for balancing beads not meaning they are properly balanced...again not sure where you got this idea, as the whole purpose of them is to properly balance without the need for wheel weights, and they have never failed to do so in my 3/4 ton, volvo, or the subie. Tire pressures are all at OEM specs.

When was the last time you had a 4 wheel alignment?

Never. Haven't had any uneven tire wear or any reason to have it prior to this point besides what it has always had since new. I also haven't hit anything more than the usual trips to places so nothing got bent or knocked out of place.

 

[z28dug]

Never. Haven't had any uneven tire wear or any reason to have it prior to this point besides what it has always had since new. I also haven't hit anything more than the usual trips to places so nothing got bent or knocked out of place.

You hit something hard enough to lose a wheel weight

 

[avenger09123]

You hit something hard enough to lose a wheel weight

I said earlier that I didn't hit anything, and given that I drive 1.8 miles a day total...there's not a lot of room for hitting something and not remembering it (and given where I live, not a lot of debris is on the roadway any given day). However I do take several sharp corners at high speeds, lending me to the idea that they more than likely flung themselves off - not the first set I've had do that, and sadly the adhesive pad is still attached to the rim, so I gotta go scrape that off here in a few.

 

[traildogck]

Next time I won't try to help...

 

[z28dug]

However I do take several sharp corners at high speeds.

LOL.....doubt you can take a corner fast enough with a 2.5 to toss a weight.

Sound like you should chuck the OB and buy a Porsche or Vette............

 

[avenger09123]

Next time I won't try to help...

Hey man, you didn't even answer the single question I asked, which was does anyone know if any of the bolts are TTY? Besides just because I don't agree with the almighty folks on the internet is no reason for butt hurt. Helping me with what I didn't ask for help on isn't help.

LOL.....doubt you can take a corner fast enough with a 2.5 to toss a weight.

Sound like you should chuck the OB and buy a Porsche or Vette............

You can if the adhesive is compromised. Or if it was attached slightly angled, and so on. Clearly the adhesive between the weights and the pad on the rim wasn't so good on the front, while the rears are still great and rock solid. And no, no plans on selling the OB. Just because it wasn't intended for it, doesn't make it any less fun to do. Proper gas and the nice CAI I put in it...it's my angry bumblebee. Fat, slow, but that body roll and fat ass is just fun!

So back to my original question, and it seems the only one that hasn't been addressed by the folks here: Are any of the suspension bolts TTY?

 

[z28dug]

Could be that no one here knows the answer.

Just replace the bolts and you don't have to worry if they are torque to yield.

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

if you swap the tire pairs front to back, is there any difference?

worn inner tie rods are not uncommon. If you have wear on the inner edges of the tirs, that's a good bet.

I wouldn't rule-out a sticking brake caliper.

the rear bushing on the lower CA is a little bit of a weak spot but, your car seems too new to have a major issue there.

can't help on the TTY thing. If you can find an FSM pdf on-line, you might find some "replace the bolt/nut" recommendations.

 

[avenger09123]

if you swap the tire pairs front to back, is there any difference?

worn inner tie rods are not uncommon. If you have wear on the inner edges of the tirs, that's a good bet.

I wouldn't rule-out a sticking brake caliper.

the rear bushing on the lower CA is a little bit of a weak spot but, your car seems too new to have a major issue there.

can't help on the TTY thing. If you can find an FSM pdf on-line, you might find some "replace the bolt/nut" recommendations.

Ok so good info here.

No there is no difference front to back. I rotated them about 10k ago, and a week ago just to check. it is independent of throttle on/off but is dependent on weight shift forward vs rear.

As for the sticking brake caliper - while I do agree this could be an option, none of the rotors show it, and courtesy of a recent experience with this same issue on my Volvo, I have felt no excessive heat, front 2 are about even and the rear 2 are about even according to the temp gun. When I disassembled and cleaned it all, none of the slide pins were sticky or tight and I replaced all the hardware and filled it up with new CRC silaramic brake grease. I walked around my volvo once after a 5 mile drive somewhere and it was like an oven with the broiler on on my leg. Temp gun said it was like 520*F or something while the other side was like 250 and the fronts were 290 or so. incredible difference between stuck and not. Sadly, also not so simple.

I have no inner wear. The wear on them is actually the opposite - the outers are wearing about 1/32 or 1/16 faster than the inners. Not horrible for a non-adjustable stock camber setup, but not perfect either.

Given all these considerations and how generally speaking the forces on the LCA's behave at lower and at higher speeds, I was guessing that the worn rear bushings on the lower LCA's were allowing for maybe 1/8-1/4 movement while driving in a straight line, which would give me the side to side wobble of the steering wheel as each wheel fights to go straight given that most cars have a small amount of toe naturally to keep them going straight when you have your hands off the wheel. I just went out there and stuck a 8.5" tire pry bar in there and was able to move it as it was sitting on the ground close to 1/4". I'd definitely say they're shot, if I were to stick a 2' one in there they'd move a helluva lot more. It is early for them to go I agree, but considering subie only gave us a 50,000mi bumper to bumper warranty, apparently its not out of the realm of possibility.

 

[avenger09123]

Update: Replaced one LCA and Strut (leaking)and now no longer have severe shake at 55 and 75mph. Front LCA bushings (rear one) had 1CM+ tears on both sides. Shake now only comes from one side,

Replacing the other side next weekend. Shake should be gone! Will report back when done!

 

[avenger09123]

Ok second side was done. I replaced ball joints as well while I was in there. The steering wheel shimmy is completely gone, and the entire front side to side shimmy I was experiencing from the body of the car moving is also gone. The driver's side was even worse than the passenger side and it was impressive to see how bad they were. I popped the boots off the balljoints and put a little extra grease in there just in case, and both are perfectly smooth. The endlinks for the swaybar were good and one tie-rod end was letting a little grease out when compressed, but otherwise both were good. No other tire wear to suggest an issue.

With both new shocks in the front, the rear will bounce about twice as much as the front and the weight difference to start compression was like 20lbs for the OEM shocks and 60 lbs for the new ones, so new rear shocks are going to go and then I am going to be shoring up the driveline from front to back (getting poly to fill all available mounts and then pinning down any more shimmies after that.

There are so many failure points on these cars, I'm glad it lasted this long without needing much.

 

[avenger09123]

Update: I replaced the rear trans mount with a new one plus some 50 hardness poly filled into the middle. It now shakes even less and is approaching the level of smoothness when I first drove it at 25k. Now I am going to get new tires and an alignment done on it and we should be back to awesomesauce smoothness. The poly fill does transfer some vibration to the body, but it's based now on RPM rather than on speed, so if you're cool, it's cooler.