Hyundai Elantra Maintenance and Repair

jlflemmons

When I switched to Fulda's I picked up a very slight shimmy in the front end. It is time to rotate and I cannot wait to see what happens.

jpryba

I called up the Hyundai dealership today and made an appointment for Saturday morning. They are going to inspect the tires and wheels, and maybe even throw in a balancing with the Hunter balancer too. If that doesn't fix it, then I'll complain until they give me new tires

If they say there is nothing they can do, I'll tell them to put the tires back where they were before the shimmy came back. I'll then drive the car another 5 or 10K miles and go buy new tires elsewhere. That will get me to a point where some were before they bought new tires in the first place. (Of course, in my situation I'll have one total tire/wheel replacement behind my belt, or even a second if things work out successfully on Saturday.)

jpryba

Update -- I had the dealership perform step 2 of the tire and wheel vibration TSB that Hyundai put out back in October of 2001. It really hasn't helped. The service advisor made sure to place something on the write-up that said the problem might be temperature related. He told me that the guy who drove my car said it "handled just like any other Elantra he's driven". I just don't think this person drove it on the highway, though. Anyway, step 3 is road force balancing, so I'm going to try to have them do this sometime this week.

If they insist that my car is handling "normally", I'm going to tell them that if this was how it handled when I test drove it, I would never have purchased it.

It's a shame that an issue like this is happening in modern-day cars. Can someone tell me what is causing this?

starriver

I did 3rd tire rotation today and I paid attention on matching two marks of wheel and nut.
No shimmy found in test drive on highway.
clik here for images>

gogophers1

Well, for long time I thought the people posting about the infamous Elantra shimmy were just extraordinarily nit-picky, but speaking from first-hand experience I know now that it is no figment of the imagination if you've got the problem.

When I took delivery of my new '02 Elantra in Dec. of '01, I insisted on test-driving the car before I signed any papers as I had been reading the posts on here at the time and noticing all the "shimmy talk". Well, I noticed the slightest of vibration when I took it out on 35W and brought it up to freeway speeds that day, but it was virtually imperceptible. I honestly don't think I'd have ever noticed, had the seeds from all the postings I read not been planted in my mind.

Then, late last fall, I threw out the OEM Michelins (as they were about down to the wear bars) and had a local tire shop mount and balance a new set of Michelin Arctic Alpins I purchased from the Tire Rack.

As soon as I had them mounted, I took the car out on the highway and it was immediately apparent that the old Michelins must have been slightly out of balance toward the end. I say this because the new tires were super-smooth all the way about to 75 (I didn't push the car any further or I probably would've been pulling it out of a snow-filled ditch). Not that I had a balancing issue beforehand, but I don't think I would've noticed how excellent the new balancing job and tires were had the previous set-up been as perfect.

Well, as all good things must come to an end, so too had my shimmy-free luck.

To keep my winter tires pristine for another snow season, I bought a set of Yokohoma Avid Tourings from Tire Rack this March and had them mounted and balanced by the same local shop that did the Alpins. Presto! With a snap of the finger, my daily commute to Minneapolis has become vibration hell.

After a week of shiatsu hand and butt massages, I took the car back to the same shop to have the wheels rebalanced. No luck. If anything, the car shook more on the highway. I did notice that the shop had inflated all four tires to 35psi, so I let 5psi out of each. That reduced the impact harshness of the Yokos a bit, but the vibration got even worse.

So, assuming Yokohoma built me some out-of-round duds, I exercised the 30-day free-look on those tires, shipped them back to Tire Rack and had a new set of Kumho Ecstas sent out.

Thinking that would solve my problems, I had the Kumhos mounted and balanced by the same shop I'd been using all-along and guess what? Hello vibration! Again, I noticed the shop overinflated all the tires by 5psi (apparently they go by the tire sidewall rather than the placard in the door to determine how much air should be pumped in), so I let some air out of all four tires to bring them down to 30psi. Vibration? It seemed to worsen again after that.

So, where to go from here...

I'd take it into Metro Hyundai if I wasn't absolutely certain the service dept. would just charge me for breaking something unrelated to what they were "attempting" to fix (I speak from experience here, I will not get into the service stories/nightmares I've had at this particular dealer) and send me on my way. So I think I'll check the dealer off the list of possible allies in my war on vibration.

I'm thinking of going to a different tire shop and having them turn the wheels and attempt to rebalance the tires again. Does this seem like a wise next step?

I don't want to blow a lot of cash and vacation time getting this resolved. I like to keep my money for fun things if at all possible and trying to troubleshoot tire troubles does not fall into this category for me.

I've been reading the previous posts here and have been trying to plot my next move. Perhaps starriver is onto something with the blue mark suggestion.

Any other next-move suggestions would be move than helpful.

Until this tire incident, I only had two very minor problems with the car, one of which was actually caused by the dealer.

I believe the Elantra is an excellent little car (it's the tires, stupid) and it's been my intent all along to drive mine 'til death do us part. But perhaps this issue - if it can't be resolved before pushing me to the brink - may shake up those plans a bit (pun intended). I do hope this vibration story has a happy ending. Otherwise, there just might be a Toyota Camry out there with my name on it.

jpryba

I'm very tempted to start a new discussion here relating to cars that have vibration issues in general. There has to be a good car out there that does NOT have these crazy vibration issues. Related to this is rotor warpage. It seems that both of these problems don't occur until you try driving or braking the car at speeds higher than 60 or 65 mph. Did automakers decide to stick to the old 55 mph speed limit or what? It's not like I want to go 80 or 90 on the highway. 70 is just fine with me

An update on my own Elantra: The service advisor at my dealership recommended a good local tire shop. I took the car there, and for $50 they used their Hunter balancer and discovered the tires were indeed balanced. However, one tire had a bit of a "hop" to it. So, the guy there corrected the hop. The car drives a bit better now, but there's still a little bit of a jiggle at 65 or 70. The people at the tire shop said that if the wobble was still there like it was before, they would say to have the dealership check the wheel bearings or even the transmission. However, because the wobble has improved, it does seem to be tire-related. I might go back to this tire shop and have them make sure that the tires were stuck back on correctly (blue mark et al). I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem with this.

Does anyone know if this slight wobble in the steering wheel might be related to alignment instead? The wheel itself isn't shaking violently, so maybe something else out of whack is making its way to the steering wheel.

I guess that I'm only a few thousand miles away from having another rotation... and that means the tire with the hop will go to the back of the car again -- thus keeping me from complaining for another 7K or so...

jlflemmons

and the shimmy changes, it ain't the car. Now, some cars are more sensitive than others, but mine was smooth as glass on the michelins, but picked up a slight shimmy/vibration immediately upon changing to Fulda's.

backy

I guess I am living a charmed life so far on my two Elantras. No shimmy ever on the '01 GLS (still has the original Michelins, but will need new rubber by next winter) and not a trace of a shimmy on the '04 GT. I rotate tires every 7500 miles or so. I've never rebalanced the tires on the GLS (if it ain't broke...).

jlflemmons

On Chigger, the michys were rotated every other oil change and never rebalanced. Now, I won't say they were great tires from the wet traction standpoint, but definitely smooth.

jimijames

Couple weeks back I noticed my GT picked up a steering wheel shake at about 75-80mph and it pulled to the right (had about 13k miles). I took it into a tire shop for re-balance, tire rotation, and alignment. It was the first time for all three since I bought the car. Well the car steered straight, but the vibration got worse and the speed range at which it occured changed to 60-80mph. I took the car back to the shop, they checked the balance (they have the Hunter machine that has been mentioned on these boards) and ended up telling me that because the alignment was off before, the tires wore funny/choppy and the vibration would eventually go away. I did notice that the speed range changed again to 65-75mph after the re-balance.

Since then I've put on about 700miles. Last weekend, I had a chance to use the cruise control on a long highway trip. I set it to a nice speed that was vibration free. Funny thing is the vibration would suddenly appear, then disappear as we traveled along at that steady speed. I tried setting a couple different vibration free speeds with same results.

So... this morning's drive to work noticed no vibration as I got on the highway! Hey maybe the tire guys were right! But alas, I had to slow for traffic and as I returned to 70mph, the vibration reappeared :-( I now have no clue what is happening, but it sure is annoying. The intermitant nature suggests something other than tires, but if I bring it to the dealer I'm sure I'll get the infamous 'could not duplicate the problem'.

jpryba

Yes, jimijames, the vibration has been coming and going for me as well. I think it's definitely a tire issue, as it got better after I had the "hop" in one of the front ones fixed. I guess I'll live with what's left of this hop for a while, rotate the tires again, enjoy a slightly smoother ride for a while, and then buy new tires.

I suppose an alignment wouldn't hurt either, but the guy at the dealership said to only worry about this when the car actually starts to drift. I guess we'll wait and see how things are after the next rotation, and then I'll probably do an alignment after I get new tires down the road.

One other note about the vibrations -- do they seem to get slightly worse under certain conditions? For example, if the a/c is on or if you are driving in wet weather. I guess a combination of temperature and humidity are to blame here (or maybe I have power steering issues, who knows).

firemanjack

Hello Elantra afficionados. I haven't posted here in quite a while. I still have my '02 Elantra 5 spd.Now with 35,000 miles..I just got back from a cross country trip..N.Y. to San Francisco. Gorgeous trip, and 6,500 trouble free miles on Betsy. Avg MPG 33-39..at 70-75 mph.
 I really love this car...However..Since purchase 2 years ago, I have a shimmy in the wheel from 60 to 80 MPH. And, as jimijames just posted, it is intermittent, which means, at a steady speed, the shimmy will come and go.
 Several months back, I had a talk with the local Hyundai rep. reference some recompense reference this problem...After about a month of no response, I called Hyundai and was given a file number...It was as though the guy was just biding his time and hoping I would go away.
 I went through the tire balancing, rotor cutting, new tires, new rims, replacement of many front end parts routine, and it is just about exactly the same as it was when new.
 About two months ago, it seemed to have abated...to the point where I could actually live with it, without complaint, so i told the Hyundai dealer to forget about the complaint..
 It came back..I have to make an appointment to have the black tape replaced twixt the side windows and I will resubmit my shimmy complaint at that time. I still love this car.
 It's just so frustrating..It seems as though it should be so simple to fix...There must be some deep seated inherent imbalance somewhere in the drivetrain..Someone mentioned a harmonic imbalance..Anyway..sorry for the saga..
 Thanks for the interesting dialogue Jack

jimijames

I haven't had the shimmy long enough to observe what conditions make it worse. On my past weekend trip it was dry and sunny and the coming and going of the vibrations didn't seem to correspond to anything in particular (e.g. road surface, hills, A/C on or off, etc)... completely random.

I have noticed (I think) that hitting bumps or rough surfaces may get the vibrations to appear, but then again I've hit bumps and nothing would happen. I'm tending to agree with Jack that something somewhere in the drivetrain is amiss. The way the vibes come and go would suggest a design/tolerance issue... if the tolerances on your car happen to be ok, then you'll never see the problem. My wife's GLS rides fine at 23k miles on the factory tires. I hope the Hyundai powertrain engineers are looking into this and someday a solution will be found. For now I can only drive with fingers crossed that my ride will be smooth.

backy

I hope the Hyundai powertrain engineers are looking into this and someday a solution will be found.

I wonder if this has already happened. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't recall seeing any complaints here on this problem from any owners of '03 or '04 Elantras. There was a TSB on this problem in October 2001. So Hyundai has known about it at least that long. If it is driveline related, they could have done something about it in the interim. If it were only tire-related, it should still be happening on '03s and '04s since they use the same tire (unless Michelin did something).

jimijames

My GT is an '03. Is the TSB you are referng to #01-50-008? I think I remember someone mentioning it on these boards. Anyway, that particular TSB only deals with tire details (balance, out of round, and radial force variation). Because my vibration comes and goes at constant speed, I'm less inclined to believe it is only tire related. If it was the tires, then the vibration would be constant at constant speed.

I'm going to drive a few hundred more miles and see of the tires 'smooth' out as my tire guy suggested. After that I guess I have to go to the dealer... I'll keep you updated.

sanhaas

I currently own a 00 with 50,000mi and the one thing I can say from personal experience is that it's not the tires that are the problem. The slight shimmy started a little while back but I didn't think a whole lot of it because it wasn't so severe that it impaired driving the car honestly, I thought it was because it's a 4cyl and I was driving it at about 70mph on the highway. Then recently the front end started to make some noise a whirring sound and so I took it down to the dealership thinking it was probably the cv joints. A few hours latter the mechanic gave me a call and told me that the car needs a new transmition at 50,000mi!!!!! I of course took the car to have a second oppinion and they pretty much told me the same thing except that he thought it was a berring? Here's where it gets interesting remember that 10yr. 100,000mi warranty well Hyundai will only honor that if you can prove you had the transmition serviced at 30,000mi basically drained and refilled. I have maintained my car since the day I bought it oil changes etc... but failed to read the fine print in the owners manual on the transmition service. Any mechanic that I have ever talked to has told me never ever touch the transmition fluid because it is a self contained system and unlike oil it does not need to be changed until 100,000 if ever.
The Elantra has a serious defect in the drive train it is not the tires or the balancing.
FYI
this is what Hyundai considers to be severe usage of their cars per the owner's mannual.

Repeated short distance driving
Driving in dusty, rough roads
Driving in sandy areas
Driving in mountainous areas
Extensive idling
Driving in areas using salt or other corrosive materials or in very cold weather
More than 50% of driving in heavy city traffic during hot weather
Towing a trailer

Please beware or your stuck paying out of pocket!!

5port

You never mentioned if you have an auto or manual. Sorry to hear about your tranny failure. Its no secret Hyundai is making owners stick to the scheduled maitenance to honor the warranty (and they want proof). For this reason I will get the 30K service done by the dealer. The dealer quoted me $450 for the service. I do all my own oil changes and keep all the data in a log book (receipts,etc).

jpryba

Sanhaas, I think the whirring sound you are hearing might indeed be a wheel bearing that's going bad. As for the transmission, I believe it's only the manual that stays sealed. Otherwise, the automatic transmission fluid should be changed every 30K even if the manual says you can go 100K without changing it. (If you check out some other postings here, you'll see that it's normal for the automatic transmission fluid in the Elantra to turn a brownish color after 15K or so miles. Hyundai says it's normal, but I wouldn't let that go past the 30K mark.)

I think the only automaker whose vehicles I would feel comfortable driving for 100K without changing the automatic transmission fluid is GM, but then again, automatic transmissions are their strong point. Hyundai is in the same group as Ford, Chrysler, et al -- you had better get the service done every 30K miles and you should make sure the exact fluid is used. With proper care, you stand a better chance of having an automatic that will last longer -- and if it doesn't, at least you'll know it's definitely covered under warranty.

I'm still going to guess that my Elantra's vibrations have to do with the tire more than anything in the suspension. Remember that it started to occur right after the latest rotation (and fixing a hopping tire made it better). I still want to look into getting my alignment checked just to see if I can rule this out as well. I also wonder if slightly warped rotors can affect the wobble too, although that's more of an issue when you have an even bigger steering wheel wobble when braking (and not when cruising).

jlflemmons

That is almost verbatim the same severe service definition all manufacturers use. Note that GM only recommends the 30K tranny service under heavy towing situations. Then again, they use an external cooling radiator, and tranny temp guage on their towing transmission, the 4L80E, or something like that. The big Allison tranny is a whole different story.

crsher2002

Hello all, haven't posted in several months, but have been dealing with this shimmy problem on my '02 GT w/manual since almost day 1. Now has 38,000mi and I reported the problem (along with a sunroof that continually seeps water) at around 12K. They rebalanced, which did nothing. The dealer didn't even road test it and subbed out the job to a local Meineke for the alignment.

The svc manager said he would take care of it again. Checked and found the shop didn't do the alignment and returned the car as if they had.

So,the dealer did the alignment and rotation. Moderate improvement but still shimmied b/w 65-75mph or so.

Long story short, they have not been able to completely remove the shimmy, and I swear there is a distinct rattle in the front/driver suspension over low speed bumps, such as a garage exit lip to the street. They claim they can't duplicate it - no surprise here.

The dealer tried to claim the cupping on the tires was causing the problem, not that the problem caused the cups to develop. So they claim they found two flat spots on the front tires and rotated them to the back. Now there is an intelligent fix!

I have the OEM Micheline MXV's with maybe 2-3K left. I have very little faith that new tires will fix the problem based on everything I've read posted here. Perhaps with enough of these common experiences, I'll have sufficient ammo to push for new wheels or even a Lemon Law claim.

sanhaas

I have an automatic sorry I didn't mention that. As far as the service through the dealer I don't have my car maintained by them because they charge an astronomical ammount for simple procedures that not only take ten minutes but are cheap as well. Plus they're funny on what they will cover for instance, at one point the car was having hesitation and bogging so I replaced the air filter changed the oil and put some fuel injection cleaner in with a full tank of gas when none of these things improved the condition, I took it to the dealership. In the end the car only needed a tune-up the warranty only covered the wires not the plugs. I thought this was a little odd only because wires were more expensive than the plugs but then again the plugs need to be placed in 8" and this is a little harder to do on your own if you don't have the right tool. So I had them replace the wires and took the car home and did the plugs myself. Anyway, I tend to bring my car anywhere but them and then I just keep the reciepts. The tran service doesn't have to be done by Hyundai but you do need to have a reciept from some establishment to prove that it was done. Good luck with yours.

sanhaas

Initially, I thought that my brakes might have been sticking and in effect caused my rotors to have grooves or damaged in some way. However, once the car was jacked up and the tires were manually turned from side to side there was a distinct clicking noise which usually means cv joints or berrings. Although, when turning the wheel while driving it does not make the typical clicking and popping that generally accompanies joints. The dealership told me that it was definitely internal and the transmition. At this point I'm thoroughly confused. I have been under the impression that when the transmition went the car could no longer drive and it does. Not only that but when put into gear it sounds and acts like it should no sticking or anything else to indicate what the dealer told me the problem was. As far as the transmition needing to be flushed at 30,000mi boy that's news to me. I've always had an American car and was not aware that it should if ever be changed. I won't make that mistake again. Like I said originally though this whole ordeal started with the shimmy and it was always when I went above 60mph. At this point I'm not sure if it's connected but I feel somewhat confident when I say I believe it is.
Thanks and good luck!

gogophers1

One thing is for certain on my car, and that's that my new-found shimmy has nothing to do with the transmission (I've got a 5-spd) or my brakes (warped rotors would not explain my car's shimmy as it doesn't occur when I'm braking). The fact that I drove my car into the tire shop shimmy-free and out with a major shimmy indicates the issue for mine is completely tire related (maybe it's not the tires specifically, but something with the act of tire changing caused it).

Perhaps it is some natural imbalance with the car. It seems to me that some tires exacerbate the Elantra's inherent vibration tendency. Could this be why Hyundai kept changing the supplier for their tires? Maybe their choice of the Michelin Energy was a band-aid for a known natural imbalance? It seems odd to me that they'd put such an expensive tire on an inexpensive car. Just a theory...

My car was virtually shimmy-free with the OEM Michelins and completely shimmy-free with my winter Michelins. However, the Yokos I installed made the car vibrate like a magic fingers bed, and the Kumhos I exchanged those for aren't much of an improvement.

I am very interested to see if my shimmy goes away again completely when I have the Arctic Alpins remounted later this year.

If it does go away again, it's going to be difficult for me to resist the temptation to sell mine early in '05 before the winter set will need to be taken off again. There is no way as it stands now that a person wouldn't notice the shimmy on a test-drive. It puts a person in an odd position: Do you get rid of a car because of a tire problem or do you go nuts trying to figure it out? I've dumped one car for a failing transmission and another for a head gasket issue, but for a tire problem? Other than this new shimmy, my Elantra has been virtually bullet-proof.

Out of curiousity, has anyone tried to upsize/downsize their tires or wheels? If so, what effect has that had on your shimmy?

firemanjack

Hey gogophers..about a year ago I put on American Racing rims..I thought the new rims and the rebalancing would eliminate the shimmy..I wanted new rims anyway..No difference..So, I went to the dealer and he advised me to go to the tire specialist down the street from their shop, and get a super balancing..This guy said my Michelins, with 19,000 miles on them were no good..So I had a set of Toyo Touring tires installed. And super balanced. Tire size is 1.95-65-15. slightly larger diameter than the original 60's..ride nice...except for the exact same shimmy. It is, apparently, unfixable.
 Still love the car...Just a little shaky, Hehe
                           Jack

backy

Maybe their choice of the Michelin Energy was a band-aid for a known natural imbalance?

I tend to doubt that. Almost every instance of the shimmy I've heard about has been with the standard OEM Michelins. Rather than patching the problem with expensive tires, why wouldn't Hyundai put their money into fixing the problem--if it is a design problem. (Figure an extra $100 per car for the Michelins, times about a million Elantras with the Beta engine... $100 millon would buy a lot of driveline tweaks.) And if it's a design problem, why have some owners been able to fix the shimmy through careful wheel balancing?

Because the Tiburon uses the same engine, I checked the Tiburon board to see if anyone has reported a "shimmy". There was one case, on a GT, which has the V6 engine and different tires and wheels than the Elantra of course. Turned out to be all four wheels were badly out of balance.

gogophers1

I would kill to get a Hyundai engineer on this board.

firemanjack

Hey gophers..Did you say you'd kill a Hyundai engineer if he came on this board...Hehe.
 I wonder how many of these Elantras have this shimmy problem? I'll bet it's under reported..There must be quite a few people who rarely drive in the "shimmy range" and consider it a slight nuisance..Hey...I've lived with it for 2 years and 35,000 miles..who am I to talk..
 My guess is, Hyundai's answer to me is getting more into using that stat.."Hey you've used this car for two years and 35,000 miles, what's the problem...can't be all that bad". Something like that. I haven't heard of anyone on this list ever having the problem resolved by Hyundai.
 Wait long enough and all things solve themselves. Good to hear from you gopher Jack

jpryba

Maybe if enough Elantra owners complain to Hyundai about the shimmy problem (and I think that a class action lawsuit isn't totally out of the question either), they will figure out how to totally fix this issue once and for all. I believe a particular BMW model had a similar problem, and BMW redesigned a suspension component and replaced it for free on affected vehicles. So, Hyundai might be able to do the same for us. (Maybe 01-03 Elantras can have the better seat track design installed at the same time too, but that might be a bit too much wishful thinking ; )

Now that I think about it, I wonder why Hyundai didn't change the tire used on the Elantra if it was the Michelins that were causing the issue to begin with. Maybe they are obligated to stick to these tires, but you suppose they could get out of this if they can claim the defects as being a breach of contract or something.

Then again, these tires are nice when they aren't shimmying! (The Michelins were also the first thing my stepfather noticed when I bought the car and showed it off to him -- they do get noticed.)

gogophers1

I got to thinking, as these tire techs have a way of doing, maybe the one working on my car overtorqued the wheels. I know some of these dudes aren't the most knowledgeable people under the sun and can get a little air-wrench happy at times.

And I'll be if there isn't a Hyundai TSB on this very issue. Take a peek at TSB 03-50-003 under the chassis category on Hyundai's site. Has anyone chased this avenue?

Excerpt from the TSB:

Air impact tools can generate up to 300 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque. This amount of torque exceeds the specification for wheel lug nut torque of all Hyundai wheel lug nuts. Overly torqued and/or unevenly torqued wheel lug nuts may cause the following:

Distortion of the wheel hub

Distortion of the brake disc

Increased brake disc runout

Brake vibration and pulsation

Damage to the wheel rim

Damage to the wheel lug nuts and lugs

Steering wheel vibration and shimmy

Uh huh. Can't help but notice that last line.

Me thinks this might be the culprit in my case. It's certainly logical. Let's see...shimmy-free before tire changeover. Nasty shimmy coincides EXACTLY with tire shop installing Yokos. Tires rebalanced by same shop again. No difference. Tires assumed out of round. Yokos returned. Same tire shop installs new Kumhos. Tires rebalanced. No change - same nasty shimmy. What do you guys think?

The steel on the factory wheels doesn't look terribly thick. If a person used an air wrench rather than a torque wrench on them, I could see a possible wheel warpage issue. I bet money it wouldn't take much to cause vibration troubles.

Another thought: perhaps the four lug pattern (really, who does this other than Hyundai?) on the Elantra makes it more susceptible to warpage.

Jack, I know you've installed aftermarket wheels on your Elantra. So this might not explain away your shimmy. Then again, you could warp alloys by overtorquing them. Thoughts?

jlflemmons

on smaller autos. Even had them back in '75 on my Olds Starfire.

gogophers1

I was probably wrong about that one.

But another reason I think a wheel(S) might be warped on mine: I took a country road on my way home today so that I could top-end my Elantra. And there is no "sweet spot" shimmy on mine. At 50, I can really start to feel it and at 60 the wheel starts shaking in my hand and the empty passenger seatback starts rattling. It seems to just get worse and worse with increasing speeds on mine.

But, interestingly, it does wax and wane in severity at times even at steady speed. Bumpy road surfaces can lessen it at times and, at other times, increase it. It seems to be at its worst when on smooth asphalt though.

backy

I think you might have something here! It would explain why some Elantras have no shimmy, some have a shimmy from the factory, and some don't have it from the factory but get it when the wheels have been re-torqued. Also why rebalancing doesn't fix the shimmy sometimes, but does other times (maybe just re-torqueing the wheels helps). I wonder what the incidence of the problem is on the GLS (no alloys) vs. the GT (alloys, thicker).

jlflemmons

I find it odd that although the vibration is not that noticeable, it does seem cyclic. Typically around 60-62 mph, and it may be an interaction between the drivetrain and the tire. Another one that has to be checked is the alignment of the tire on the wheel. I had one that balanced perfectly, but you could rotate the tire and look at the tread and see a wobble. the tire did not sit properly in the bead.

jimijames

Good find on that TSB, gophers. I'm going to re-torque all of my wheels when I get home...I'll let you all know if it makes a difference. I actually wanted to check this earlier, but laziness is a powerful force :-)

That would be a little distressing if a tire shop would ignore lug nut torque specs.

jpryba

In my case, the guy at the tire shop who balanced my tires did make sure to properly torque the lugnuts when putting them back on. This shop had a section of a wall full of different wrenches for different cars. I told him what I had (an 02 Elantra) and he got the right tool from the wall.

My vibration comes and goes (and it's a little bit better than before my visit to the tire shop), so while torque might be part of it, I'm wondering if the 4 lugnuts (instead of the usual 5) could be a reason why these wheels are more prone to issues like this...

firemanjack

Jpryba mentioned the possibility that the Michelin tires may be causing the shimmy..Nah..at least in my case, this shimmy is relatively the same since I've had the car...Michelins and Toyos. Steel rims and aluminum rims. I took the car back to have them check the torque and re-balance the tires once, as I have had a problem with ham-handed mechanics air hammering on the lugs..Made no difference. The one story here I find really interesting is gopher's...He has been able to eliminate the shimmy through a tire change..
 I'd be tempted to run those winter tires year round..Hehe. That is strange...Jack

firemanjack

Hey, I wonder if all(most) of the vehicles afflicted with this steering wheel/frontend shimmy share any common denominators, like perhaps manual trannys? I thought Gopher mentioned he had a 5-spd, as I do. Perhaps we
 should check this out...Eh ? Jack

emcee

01 Elantra GLS with 55,000 miles. I noticed a shimmy in the Elantra when I was test driving them. I selected one that did not shimmy. As the original tires wore, the shimmy began. Never got bad and was never consistent. The tires were worn out at 45,000 miles. Replaced with Khumo Ecsta. Paid $10 per wheel for Hunter Roadforce Balancing machine. This machine indicates the best orientation of the tire on the wheel, ie, matches tire to wheel.

Result - no shimmy. Very smooth ride. Rotated the tires once at 48,000 and did not rebalance. Still just as smooth at 55,000 even after a rough winter.

Summary - good tires with advanced balancing eliminates shimmy.

I suspect that if I had the original tires balanced on the Road Force machine I would have had the same success.

jpryba

I drove from Columbus to Cleveland and back this weekend. On the way there, the weather was sunny and 75, and the shimmy really didn't occur much after I got maybe 15 or 20 miles into my drive. It sort of came and went as I drove, but for the most part, it wasn't there.

However...

On the way back, the weather was a bit cloudier and cooler (maybe 62-65 degrees). The shimmy was more noticeable this time. I noticed that if I drove down an entrance ramp to the highway fairly fast and got up to speed right away, the shimmy came back fairly hard for a few moments, and then it would go away some and come back here and there as I would go down a hill (but not really when going up a hill).

I also noticed that if I shifted into third gear (handy for going up really steep hills), the shimmy seemed a little bit worse. Can the power the engine is applying to the tires cause the shimmy to get worse, or is my automatic transmission (with 21K miles on it) to blame? Is it possible that an engine mount is acting up? Is the power steering pump or belt to blame? Could a fuel injector or fuel pump be acting up? (Maybe I'm going into this a bit too far -- perhaps I should start with alignment next before thinking about anything beyond that.)

Tomorrow morning I'm going back to the tire shop for more troubleshooting. This is just plain weird, but at least this shop seems willing to work with me (whereas the dealership can only do so much with tires once they get past a certain stage).

One last thing I want to note here -- some of you have the vibration REALLY BAD, and others (like me) don't have one that's as bad. However, it's still annoying enough that I notice it -- and it's something I don't want to have to deal with in the long run. It would be a shame to get rid of my car because the steering was so wobbly on the highway. I've told lots of family and friends about the issue, and if Hyundai has any sense of doing what's right, they will do what they can to fix the problem once and for all... and in return, I'll make sure to tell everyone that the problem is fixed, and yes, it's ok to buy a Hyundai without having to gamble with facing such a silly issue like this.

jpryba

If you check the regular Elantra board, someone on there is talking about hub centering rings. I'm not sure if the wheels that come with the Elantra need or use them, but maybe they are part of the puzzle. Anyone here know anything about this? (I mentioned our thread on the regular Elantra board, so maybe someone who posted there can read what we wrote and comment on that.)

5port

emcee:

    I've been telling people about the Hunter Roadforce Balancing machine. It seems to work for most cases but not all. I am also looking at the Kumho Ecsta 716 as a replacement. Hope mine turn out as good as yours.

baber1

I had Kumho tires on my 99 Accent. They always seemed to keep their balance very well.I replaced them with Michelin rainforce tires at 56,000 miles. The Michelins always had to be rebalanced every 7500 miles and they still shimmied a little over 70MPH. I like the Kumho tires better then the Michelins. My 2004 Elantra GLS 5 spd. does not have the shimmy problem at leat not yet.

gogophers1

Hello Folks!

Opening another chapter in my shimmy saga, I attempted to back all the lugs off the wheels yesterday, turn each wheel on their respective hub and dial the lugs back on taking careful steps to properly torque them to 80ft/lb in the proper sequence.

Well, I actually think that helped a little, but the wheel I suspected of being shimmy culprit #1 all along (the front driver's side) was fused to the hub.

I managed to get all the lugs off that one, but the wheel simply would not budge. I wiggled it back and forth. I sat on my butt and kicked the tire. I hit the rim with a wood block. I used a half-can of anti-seize. And then I yanked, and yanked and yanked again until the car almost fell off the jack. Which is when I stopped. If the car didn't need an alignment beforehand, it does now.

So...my guess is that my shimmy could indeed be due to an overzealous tire tech wielding an air wrench. It's tough to say, but the fact that I might need to hook the wheel up to a winch just to pop it off the hub isn't an encouraging sign to me.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

5port

gogophers1:

     I had this same thing happen to my classic car (76 Maserati). Took all the lug nuts off but could not get the wheel off. Did the same as you oil, anti seize, pulling and pulling. Seemed like nothing worked. Then I tried hitting the wheel on the sidewall at the top hard. Then I hit the sidewall at the bottom hard. I did this until the wheel started to rock just a little bit on the hub. Before you know it the rocking got bigger and bigger until the wheel finally came off.

   There is a round lip that comes out of the hub and into the wheel. This lip was out of round due to abuse by someone's hammer. Hope this helps.

jpryba

I took my car back to the place that was able to balance it and make the shimmy a little bit more bearable (they said to come back because the shimmy was still coming and going). Someone there took a test drive with me and was able to feel it to an extent. He said that when the shimmy comes and goes, it's not necessarily the tires that are at fault. He said that small cars like the Elantra aren't able to always tolerate tires that are slightly out of round but still in spec. It might indeed be a drivetrain issue, or it's something with the suspension.

They were nice enough to start some more troubleshooting. They rotated my tires, knowing one of the suspect tires would be placed on the back of the car. The car seems to be riding a little better now, but the tire place said to drive around for a few days before reporting back to them. If the shimmy still comes and goes, they'll rotate just one side and see what happens.

If after all of this we figure out which tire is causing the shimmy (even though it's still in spec), the tire place said they'll be able to make a stronger case to Michelin to replace it.

I pointed out the blue marks on the wheels and asked them to be careful with the torque when putting the lugnuts back on. They listened to me and didn't dismiss these issues when working on my car.

So, to sum it up, it seems that our Elantras are very picky about the tires that are on them. I'm going to guess that Hyundai might be able to redesign a suspension or transmission component like BMW did for one of their cars that had a similar issue, but they probably won't unless owners and dealers put enough pressure on them to do so.

gogophers1

Thanks for the suggestion.

I did something similar when I was attempting to break it free (hitting on one side and then the other), but I kept worrying that the car was going to fall off the jack. I will try it again though before pulling out the last ditch effort before taking into the shop...

Tell me if this idea sounds dumb:

I'm thinking of loosening up the lugs (basically, breaking them loose and just hand tightening them back on) and easing the tire into the curb on my street perhaps while turning the wheel back and forth.

5port

Not a bad idea. Be careful of damaging your tire sidewalls or suspension parts. Your stuck wheel/hub could also be from two dissimiliar metals. If that were the case all Elantra owners would have the problem. Just curious, have you had your tires serviced and the mechanic used a impact wrench on the lug nuts? Could be that the rim is distorted and squeezed onto the hub.

BTW: use a hydraulic jack. Its the safest and they are cheap now.

hmowner

My 2001 Elantra standard 5 spd had shimmy problem around 65-75 mph from day one. Here's what I tried and the final solution:

- rebalance tires and rotate - small improvement, but shimmy returned after few days. The steering wheel would vibrate left to right and the vibration could be felt through the whole car!

The shimmy was less noticeable on certain road surfaces - like on a concrete highway. Outside temperature difference probably had some impact,too. I been driving on the same road to work for three years, and depending on temperature, the shimmy problem magnified or diminished.

- radial force balance - good for few days. Shimmy returned
- turn rotor - no change
- disassemble and then rebuild the front brakes - no change
- changed tires (Toyo TPT) - actually got WORSE. Now the steering wheel vibrated like crazy from 60mph
- On tire guy's recommendation, I change the wheels to aluminum wheels (American Racing): Same problem. I got mad at the tire guys who recommended wheel replacement. They speculated that the wheel may not be sitting right at the center and ordered something called "Center Hub Ring" that fit American Racing rim. Since I was ready to try anything, I gave them permission to install it. It looks like what the name says. It's a ring that gets pounded into the Elantra's wheel housing(? Sorry, I don't know the name of the part where the actual rims get mounted). Supposedly, the ring make a tiny protrusion outward and when you mount the wheel, the protrusion fits exactly to the center hole on the rim and guides the wheel exactly to the center and maintains that center position while the rugs get tightened.

Guess what, I don't know what really happened, but my Elantra is now shimmy free. I check for shimmy from 50 mph to 95mph, but there isn't any vibration coming through the steering wheel and there isn't any unusual vibration at all.

After reading various message here, I am wondering whether the pounding on the wheel housing during installation was the actual fix rather than the ring itself...

jimijames

Finally got a chance to try re-torqueing (sp? if it even a word) my lug nuts to try to attempt to solve the shimmy.

First, the tire shop I went to apparently disregarded the recommended 80ft-lbs when installing the lug nuts. I jacked up the back wheels, grabbed my trusty 4-way lug wrench and started cranking away. Didn't budge... I actually started spinning the wheel and the e-brake was on! Put the wheels back on the ground, grabbed the Hyundai supplied lug wrench and proceeded to kick the heck out of it. Finally was able to break the lug nuts free. I wanted to guesstimate how much torque the tire guys used, so I stood on the end of the lug wrench and bounced up and down a bit (not recommended) and the lug nut did not budge. I would estimate the lug wrench was about a foot long which means the lugs were tightened to at least 170ft-lbs, I would say easily over 200ft-lbs! I'm just glad I didn't have to try to break those free on a dark rainy night.

So back to the topic... I re-torqued to 80 ft-lbs and bloodied up 1 knuckle. This AM, the car seemed to be noticibly smoother. There was hints of shimmy, but not nearly as bad as before. Actually shimmy only seemed to appear around 70-72mph.. much smaller band of speed, before I would get shimmy between 65-75mph. And when the shimmy appeared, it seemed to disappear fairly quickly. We'll see what happens this afternoon when the temps are higher. I'm still perplexed, but the re-torqueing seemed to help out my GT (factory alloy wheels).

firemanjack

Man..I have a 2002 5 spd with 36,000 shimmying miles on it.I too installed American Racing rims...and Toyo tires...wow! They are Toyo Touring tires..Perhaps not the same model. I've gone through most, if not all, and perhaps more, to remedy this shimmy problem..It is, I believe, better than it has been..It is intermittent and occurs between 60 and 80 MPH. I guess I'll have to get "center hub rings" installed..Geez..if that's all it is..great..Maybe Hyundai should be informed of this..perhaps the original steel rims need to be centered more exactly on the hubs.
 May I ask, how much are these center hub rings?
                                Thanks Jack