Yesterday we had a pretty big snowfall, more than 4-5 inches. Very icy etc. The car ran fine the day before yesterday. This morning going to work I experienced very heavy front end shake-not merely shimmy, but shake. This afternoon coming home, to be honest it scared me going over 60 it was so bad. I checked the wheels and there was quite a bit of ice build up inside the wheels, on that shelf of the wheel behind the spokes. I cleaned it off, and will test drive it later, but do y'all think it would be enough to throw off the wheel balance enough to cause such a shake? It was bad. The ice was built up not evenly around the wheel so I'm thinking that might be the issue. Anybody else ever experience this type of thing? I didn't hit anything, just very big snow ruts, that did not forcefully do anything, but I suppose could have popped a wheel weight or pushed the alignment out bad enough. Thoughts would be appreciated. Mark

 

Most likely the ice. Ice would act just like a wheel weight and throw your balance out. Maybe severly.
If you have it all cleaned off of the wheels and front suspension you will likely be fine. Fortunately I dont live anywhere that will do that.

MikeR

 

Yeah, very likely the ice.
Curiously, I washed mine the other day. It was warm when I started but cold by the end of doing Cathy's and mine. The next morning as I drove to work, the front end was vibrating. I stopped for fuel and checked. There was a small layer of ice where water had settled inside the "shelf" on the left front wheel.

Poured some QT special blend coffee on it and the vibration was gone.

Next time I do Cathy's last.

r-r-r-roadster w-w-with a s-s-s-stick

 

Yeah I would agree whith theese guys it was probibly the ice. These wheels seem to be easily thrown off if the weights arent perfect.

 

I'm betting it's ice build-up. I've had it happen with caked on mud on my 4x4 wheels also.

 

Thanks very much everybody. That's what I'm thinking too, especially as someone mentioned that these cars are sensitive to wheel balance. The ice was heavy in some spots, ice-free in others, so more than likely that is it. I'll test it tonight on the freeway after the traffic dies down. Again, I appreciate the comments.

 

Just to let y'all know, and what I found, is that after clearing off the ice from the wheels, it did in fact completely clear up the problem. In fact, I did HAVE to test it on a deserted stretch of freeway, and I'm happy to report that at 90mph there was absolutely no shimmy at all. I've got my car back! Thanks to all who commented. I learned one more thing about this car today.

 

Yes. I once drove my Jetta through about 50 miles of snow and the ride got progressively worse. It got to the point that one of the wheels shook to the point where it felt like it was going to literally rip itself off the car it was shaking so bad. The problem was dry snow caked onto the inside of the BBS alloys. I used hot water at a gas station to melt the snow and the ride once became smooth as normal.

 

Yes, that's exactly what it felt like, like the tires would rip themselves from the body, and I was fully expecting to see them outrunning my car someplace down the freeway. The thought went through my mind that this is what it must be like for airplanes with ice build up and how it could literally wrench a plane from the sky in minutes. Scary indeed.