Why would I have this Front wheel shake on a 2011 RT??

[Al Funk]

I have a 2011 Spyder RT. I was driving about 40 mph when suddenly the front wheels started shaking badly. When I slowed down to 25 mph the shaking stopped. Any ideas?

 

[Gwolf]

Jack up the front end and check if there is excess slack in the wheel bearings. Just grab the tire and shake it back and forth. If there is any excess movement, you can feel it. You may need new wheel bearings. Also check that all the lug nuts are tight. It could be something else loose on the front suspension. Check all the hardware there. Check the tire pressures too.

If the wheel bearings feel tight and you can't find any loose or missing hardware on the front end, put a dial indicator on a smooth place at the outer edge of the front wheels and slowly turn them, watching the readings on the dial indicator.

There are other things you can check, but look at the most obvious things first.

It would also help if you posted the mileage on the machine, and if any work has been done on it recently.

 

[Bfromla]

Also look if it may be missing some balance weights

 

[BajaRon]

Loose or damaged ball joints. Also, check your A-Arm bushings. Those need to be lubed fairly often. But most never do, so they wear and get sloppy.

 

[Al Funk]

Jack up the front end and check if there is excess slack in the wheel bearings. Just grab the tire and shake it back and forth. If there is any excess movement, you can feel it. You may need new wheel bearings. Also check that all the lug nuts are tight. It could be something else loose on the front suspension. Check all the hardware there. Check the tire pressures too.

If the wheel bearings feel tight and you can't find any loose or missing hardware on the front end, put a dial indicator on a smooth place at the outer edge of the front wheels and slowly turn them, watching the readings on the dial indicator.

There are other things you can check, but look at the most obvious things first.

It would also help if you posted the mileage on the machine, and if any work has been done on it recently.

32,000 km or 20,000 miles. Recent work done at the dealer was replace the battery, replace rear tire, rebuild water pump, replace cannister and purge valve. I checked the lug nuts and they are all tight. The front tires are Kenda's and have only a few 1000 miles on them. Brakes have all been done in less than 3,000 miles.

 

[Gwolf]

Check the rear tire they recently replaced for out of round or side to side. You need it slightly off the floor. Put some kind of reference point, (like brick with a pencil taped on top) close to the rear tire tread, and slowly turn the tire, watching the distance from pencil to the tire rubber. Try it in a few different spots. That should give you an idea about out of round. Try it on the sides too. There could be a bulge that is too small to be really obvious without some kind of indicator. Same pencil taped to brick will work for that. While the tire is clear of the floor, try shaking it to check for loose bearings or axle not tightened down. Turn the tire and watch the belt tracking on the pulley too.

Even if the shake seems to be coming from the front end, it could still originate from an out of round rear tire.

Check for more than normal loose play in steering too.

Did they balance the tires when the tires were changed? Any missing wheel weights?

Check the front A -Arm bushings and ball joints like Ron suggested too.

For it to shake that bad, something must be loose or out of round.

 

[BajaRon]

32,000 km or 20,000 miles. Recent work done at the dealer was replace the battery, replace rear tire, rebuild water pump, replace cannister and purge valve. I checked the lug nuts and they are all tight. The front tires are Kenda's and have only a few 1000 miles on they. Brakes have all been done in less than 3,000 miles.

Too bad you had the canister replaced. One of the best moves you can make on a 2008-2012 is to get rid of that canister altogether. It's nothing but a dangerous headache.

 

[jjc54]

The original owner of my RTL had the original OEM Kenda's replaced under warranty at 2,600 miles. Complained about a shake in the front end. Out of round front tires.

 

[Al Funk]

We have worked through all of the above suggestions. Tomorrow it heads for the dealer's shop.

 

[Peter Aawen]

There have been a few instances of 'out of true' hubs up front, and some where torquing down the lug nuts has twisted the wheel (&/or the disc) on the hub, resulting in odd handling; but by far the most common reason for this sort of behaviour on Spyders that ISN'T caused by worn bushes, A-arms, etc, has been out of round or just plain dodgy OEM Kenda tires somewhere on the Spyder, front &/or rear!!

And when it comes to the OEM Kendas themselves (and their clones, like Arachnids, Kanines, even the 'new' XPS tires), they might even LOOK OK &/or test reasonably well on those basic 'out of round' &/or radial run-out tests, while it's less frequent now than it used to be, it's still happening far too often that many of them have been found to be structurally 'less than ideal', sometimes bad enough to create these obvious issues, but many of those affected are juuust below the 'obvious' shake/vibration threshold and don't present until later in their life, poor wear issues like cupping, scrubbing, or worse start to reveal themselves!

I'd go so far as to say that almost all of these 'otherwise unexplained' shake, ride, and handling issues on Spyders that've been properly checked over for bush wear/mechanical issues and correctly aligned but are still running OEM tires have only ever finally been resolved once the owner/operator tosses said OEM tires for something better - which effectively meant just about any 'proper' car tire in a similar size etc. If you want to search, there's many many threads with posts in them saying something along the lines of 'If only I'd listened about the tires', or 'I should've changed the tires when I was first told'...

Just Sayin'

 

[Gwolf]

There have been a few instances of 'out of true' hubs up front, and some where torquing down the lug nuts has twisted the wheel (&/or the disc) on the hub, resulting in odd handling; but by far the most common reason for this sort of behaviour on Spyders that ISN'T caused by worn bushes, A-arms, etc, has been out of round or just plain dodgy OEM Kenda tires somewhere on the Spyder, front &/or rear!!

And when it comes to the OEM Kendas themselves (and their clones, like Arachnids, Kanines, even the 'new' XPS tires), they might even LOOK OK &/or test reasonably well on those basic 'out of round' &/or radial run-out tests, while it's less frequent now than it used to be, it's still happening far too often that many of them have been found to be structurally 'less than ideal', sometimes bad enough to create these obvious issues, but many of those affected are juuust below the 'obvious' shake/vibration threshold and don't present until later in their life, poor wear issues like cupping, scrubbing, or worse start to reveal themselves!

I'd go so far as to say that almost all of these 'otherwise unexplained' shake, ride, and handling issues on Spyders that've been properly checked over for bush wear/mechanical issues and correctly aligned but are still running OEM tires have only ever finally been resolved once the owner/operator tosses said OEM tires for something better - which effectively meant just about any 'proper' car tire in a similar size etc. If you want to search, there's many many threads with posts in them saying something along the lines of 'If only I'd listened about the tires', or 'I should've changed the tires when I was first told'...

Just Sayin'

And if I may add something to that.....
The tires grow as they spin faster because of centrifugal force. They could be out of round at 60 MPH and still appear to be round sitting still, as well as riding like a round tire below 30 MPH, give or take.

 

[BajaRon]

And if I may add something to that.....
The tires grow as they spin faster because of centrifugal force. They could be out of round at 60 MPH and still appear to be round sitting still, as well as riding like a round tire below 30 MPH, give or take.

Cord separation can do the same thing. It will be interesting to discover the cause of this one.