Chrysler Repair: Steering Wheel shake, plymouth grand voyager, radial runout

Question
Hi,

I own a 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager SE with a bad shake in the steering wheel. The shake comes and goes at different speeds and road conditions. The shake can only be felt in the steering wheel. I can be going over a stretch of road at 60 MPH and get the shake and go back over it at 60 MPH 2 minutes later and not get the shake. The problem started back in Nov. when I got new tires put on the van. The mechanics had a very difficult job getting the wheels off. They pounded and pounded a lot. On the left front tire they had to use a blow torch to get it off. In fact on that wheel the lug nut stud fell out. They put the stud back on with the tire. When I drove away I noticed a shake at Low speed. I brought it back immediately, they re-spun the tires and said they were OK. The shake went away at low speed but is now at highway speed a lot more. During the winter months the colder it got (sometimes below 0) the smoother the ride. Now that it is Spring the shake is bake. Also when you step on the brake the van will shake side to side just before it stops.  My mechanic will be working on it this Thurs. he says the shake comes from the front rotors being warped. He didn’t see them yet. They did check the CV joints and ball joints and they are OK. What do you think it is. Thank you.


Answer
Hi Mike,
I agree that a shake associated with coming to a stop (which would cease if you took your foot off the brake) is likely due to warped rotor(s). On the shake coming and going at different speeds, that is commonly due to a combination of a slightly out of round tire and a slightly out of round wheel and which can be mitigated by match-mounting them against one another. That procedure is effective when the radial runout is more than 0.04". Let me know if you need an explanation of the steps in that procedure, which is to remount the tire on the wheel in such a way as to cancel out the mutual out of roundnesses.
So have the mechanic check the amount of radial runout on the front tires to see if it is more than 0.04". Also a spin balancing while the tire is mounted on the van may prove effective due to the possible balance issue related to the stud having fallen out of the wheel flange.
Roland