Steering Wheel Shake, a Poll

[Rwillia4]

I know this may sound simple but shimming has caused me problems in the past. Rim manufactures make rims either hub centric (the big circle in the middle it the dead center but the lugs can be off) or lug centric where the dead center of the lugs is the center of the tire and is totally independent of the hub (look at my picture, I used 4 lugs cus I can't draw!). The problem is when you have the wheel balanced on a machine that is hub centric but have a lug centric wheel or vice-versa. The wheel will repeatedly be balanced on the machine but when you put it on the car it shimmies. This has been a problem for many Toyota truck owners (that use a stock lug centric wheel) when they go to a standard tire seller and have their wheel balanced on the standard hub centric machines that MOST of the tire seller’s use. The fix is to know how you wheel is manufactured and make sure you go to a tire place that can balance the type you have, probably a lug centric. He will need to use a lug centric adapter when balancing your wheels. I went to a few places that said “no problem, we can do that” to have the car shimmy as drive away. I have learned to take my truck to a Toyota dealer that charger $2.00 more and does it right the first time. When putting a lug centric wheel on you need to make sure to snug ALL the lugs in a "skip a lug" pattern before making them tight. This will center the wheel properly