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jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So I had weird scenario that I still don’t fully understand:

Rotated the tires on my outback doing the brakes a couple years ago. After rotation there was a noticeable shimmy in the front end. Had my wife bring it in to a shop to get wheels balanced. Tech said the wheels are bent and can’t be balanced. I thought that was weird but not impossible, ended up just living with it since we didn’t drive that car often.

Fast forward to this year, and now the Outback is our only vehicle, so I had to get it fixed. When getting the car inspected I brought it to a shop that does wheel straightening. Told them I need the wheels balanced, and if any of the wheels are bent maybe they could fix them if it was reasonable (tires still had a lot of life in them). So they call and say the car is ready, they balanced the wheels and didn’t say anything about the wheels being bent.
The next day I drive 200 miles to my moms house. The shimmy was better but not gone. Put the car on the lift as I wanted to replace the sway bar links. First wheel I remove, there’s a giant bald patch. Looking at the other tires, 3 of 4 of them have bald patches. Each in the spot they had added weights on the inside of the wheel (they added a lot of weights, but not more than the general maximum weight limit).
View attachment 169940

So at this point I have no choice to replace the tires. So bring it to a local shop, get new tires mounted and balanced. They also don’t say anything about issues balancing it. One the road the shimmy is completely gone, everything feels good. That was a few months ago, everything has been fine with the tires.

So in the end I’m not sure what the actual issue was. Perhaps it was bad tires all along, or maybe the first couple shops were too lazy to start balancing from scratch and just kept adding weights on top of weights.
Gonna take a flyer here based on personal experience- tread separation I think it’s called- steel belts in the tire coming undone can cause shimmying.
You can rebalance, but they’ll keep coming apart.

Used to get this when I was buying used tires from my mechanic (younger, broker me)
 

knobbyhead

Next off the Island.
head gasket leak between cylinders?
or cracked head/block.
diagnosis can be done w/o taking the engine out, but once you pull the head, it isn't going back unless it is fixed.
someplace between easy weekend project and call 'Kars4Kids" ;)

I didn't know this could be done. Thanks.
 
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I didn't know this could be done. Thanks.

there is so much room to work in that vehicle -

could pressure test first to get a little more info - if there isn't an excessive pressure leak, it is something else.
Intake gasket failure (but i think it gets a "too lean" error then?)




Need @Dingo on this one.
 

knobbyhead

Next off the Island.
there is so much room to work in that vehicle -

could pressure test first to get a little more info - if there isn't an excessive pressure leak, it is something else.
Intake gasket failure (but i think it gets a "too lean" error then?)




Need @Dingo on this one.

I think I just watched that video!!
 

GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
I have a code reader, which said misfire on #3 Cylinder.
I took it to my mechanic, he said he saw #1 and #3 cylinders misfire. Swapped coils, wire plugs same thing.
If you are going to replace it or rebuild it anyway, why not just drive it till it dies? Is the misfire bad enough that you can't drive it?
 
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skully

Active Member
So I had weird scenario that I still don’t fully understand:

Rotated the tires on my outback doing the brakes a couple years ago. After rotation there was a noticeable shimmy in the front end. Had my wife bring it in to a shop to get wheels balanced. Tech said the wheels are bent and can’t be balanced. I thought that was weird but not impossible, ended up just living with it since we didn’t drive that car often.

Fast forward to this year, and now the Outback is our only vehicle, so I had to get it fixed. When getting the car inspected I brought it to a shop that does wheel straightening. Told them I need the wheels balanced, and if any of the wheels are bent maybe they could fix them if it was reasonable (tires still had a lot of life in them). So they call and say the car is ready, they balanced the wheels and didn’t say anything about the wheels being bent.
The next day I drive 200 miles to my moms house. The shimmy was better but not gone. Put the car on the lift as I wanted to replace the sway bar links. First wheel I remove, there’s a giant bald patch. Looking at the other tires, 3 of 4 of them have bald patches. Each in the spot they had added weights on the inside of the wheel (they added a lot of weights, but not more than the general maximum weight limit).
View attachment 169940

So at this point I have no choice to replace the tires. So bring it to a local shop, get new tires mounted and balanced. They also don’t say anything about issues balancing it. One the road the shimmy is completely gone, everything feels good. That was a few months ago, everything has been fine with the tires.

So in the end I’m not sure what the actual issue was. Perhaps it was bad tires all along, or maybe the first couple shops were too lazy to start balancing from scratch and just kept adding weights on top of weights.
I am.happy for you that in the end , your shimmy is gone ....your saying that this is now your only car , so I wonder if your original shimmy was due to the car not being driven "enough " and caused the tires to flat spot . You can definitely feel this and sometimes even "see" it ( this could be why that one shop said the wheels where bent) . As for the bald spots, that totally looks like a steel belt in the tire has separated!!!!!!
 

skully

Active Member
So my miss in my 01 Yukon is mechanical. Due to # of miles on the engine (187k) it's not worth fixing just the top end. I'm cheap and don't want to spend $75 k on a trunk. I only use it for towing, probably less than 5k miles a year.

My options are:

Anyone have a spare 5.3 engine in the shed?
Get a replacement engine for a shit load of $$- the veh frame is solid, brakes and AC are good. Tranny is good.
Find a replacement vehicle: 2500 'burb, Yukon xl, 2500 van- which will be costly now.
Learn how to rebuild an engine over the winter.
Fire?

To add, it tows the RV I have great!!
I would totally agree with what others have said on this .....you need a much more detailed diagnosis of what's going on . Chances are it could be a simple fix ( fuel injectors, wiring, a computer ,etc , etc) or possibly more involved ( cyc head or head gasket, cracked block) ....but you really need more detail BEFORE you call Kars for kids
 

w_b

Well-Known Member
If you are going to replace it or rebuild it anyway, why not just drive it till it dies? Is the misfire bad enough that you can't drive it?
Came in here to say this, voice of reason. And cheaper.

Bobby will like.
 

Jmann

Never gonna let you down.
I am.happy for you that in the end , your shimmy is gone ....your saying that this is now your only car , so I wonder if your original shimmy was due to the car not being driven "enough " and caused the tires to flat spot . You can definitely feel this and sometimes even "see" it ( this could be why that one shop said the wheels where bent) . As for the bald spots, that totally looks like a steel belt in the tire has separated!!!!!!
By “shimmy” I meant the usual out of balance shake. The flat spots happened only after they were rebalanced. At this point I’m guessing the wheels were fine but the belts were separating and messing up the balance.
 

knobbyhead

Next off the Island.
Came in here to say this, voice of reason. And cheaper.

Bobby will like.
Lol. I can drive it now. I use it to pull a RV. Ive been using it all summer with the miss. I guess the 5.3 engines are pretty good.

I actually used it this week to pull a small u haul trlr. So yes, if I want to live on the edge I can drive it till I blow it up. But if it happens on the way to a camping the misses will be mad.
 
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knobbyhead

Next off the Island.
It seems like you need a better diagnosis before you replace or rebuild it. Are you sure it's not the injectors? Those look fairly simple to replace.

I've replaced the wires, injector on clyn#3, switched the coil packs and still the #3 miss. However, I switched the #1and #3 coil packs. So if the 1% chance that both coil packs are bad I should switch #3 with #5 coil pack.
 

shrpshtr325

Infinite Source of Sarcasm
Team MTBNJ Halter's
any of the other shadetree/back yard guys have a good bidirectional scan tool they like? my scan tool took a swim and i need to replace it. want one that does more than just read/clear codes (bleed brakes, cycle evap solenoids, reset maintenance monitors ect) not looking to spend too much but not going to cheap out on it either (seems like the range for these is $150-1500 and up from there).

free/reasonably prices updates for new cars are a major plus
 
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
any of the other shadetree/back yard guys have a good bidirectional scan tool they like? my scan tool took a swim and i need to replace it. want one that does more than just read/clear codes (bleed brakes, cycle evap solenoids, reset maintenance monitors ect) not looking to spend too much but not going to cheap out on it either (seems like the range for these is $150-1500 and up from there).

@Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST - is yours audi specific?
 

GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
any of the other shadetree/back yard guys have a good bidirectional scan tool they like? my scan tool took a swim and i need to replace it. want one that does more than just read/clear codes (bleed brakes, cycle evap solenoids, reset maintenance monitors ect) not looking to spend too much but not going to cheap out on it either (seems like the range for these is $150-1500 and up from there).

free/reasonably prices updates for new cars are a major plus
I have the Launch Creader VII+ and it's pretty good. This one doesn't have the bleed brake functions, but I think there are Launch ones that do. I think some of the Harbor Freight ones are OK now also. Nice that you could return them to store if they stop working.

Amazon product
 
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GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
I have the Launch Creader VII+ and it's pretty good. This one doesn't have the bleed brake functions, but I think there are Launch ones that do. I think some of the Harbor Freight ones are OK now also. Nice that you could return them to store if they stop working.
@Patrick is there some reason that you can't post Amazon links now? The links convert to blanks above (but have MEDIA=amazon]B00BGH0EAC[/MEDIA even though I used the link tool not Media. Removed the brackets to make it show).
 
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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
@Patrick is there some reason that you can't post Amazon links now? The links convert to this when I try:

See above even though I used the link tool not Media.

That is an amazon link. it just generates a preview of the item. it is an included feature for your membership level.
 
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