I took delivery of a 2008 Honda Accord Coupe V-6 in April 2008. From day one I have experienced a very annoying steering wheel/driveline/body vibration-shimmy. I have had the car to the dealer 4 times and the following repairs were attempted:

-4 wheel spin balance (1)
-4 wheel Hunter Road Force Balance (2)
-Wheel & Tire swaps (20-- 3 new tires, 2 new rims
-Four wheel alignment


The car still vibrates intermittently while going in and out of VCM mode (Variable Cylinder Management) at speeds primarily between 55-70 MPH. Lately with temps above 90 degrees, the problem is prevalent at any speed between 30-80. My car has only 2K miles on it and is no fun at all to drive. I've seen other posts about this in some other tech forums and some with the problem have had theirs corrected by wheel balancing (Hunter Road Force) others have had many balances and wheel & tires swaps to no avail.

I want to contact Honda Corporate but if I make an appt. with DSM and he/she deems the condition normal, "inherent characteristic, or doesn't agree that it's happening. That's it. I won't have a second chance and my next recourse would be lemon law which is quite difficult to win with tire/shimmy problems.

any help would be appreciated

thanks

If this is deemed normal for the car I'd go postal!

Ok - seems like wheels, tires and alignment have been rules out. What's missing in the balance is the brake rotors! Ah ha! Those suckers spin at the rate of the wheels and must be balanced just like the wheels and tires except that's done when the parts are made new. I don't know of a place that does those after manufacturing.

This historically has been more of a problem with monster cars with heavy brake drums and rotors. I have directly noticed this when replacing rotors when requested to use the cheap stuff which are clearly not balanced as there are marks, weights, drilled holes etc., used to balace them and few would come thru new without some adjustment. Machine when made could have been wrong or that step omitted.

I've tried here to find a way to check balance of these parts with no luck. The old way was to balance the wheel dynamically with it on the car which I haven't seen since Nixon was in office but that was routine for the fussy.

It stinks to have to fight for this but go for it right to the top if necessary. Let us know how you make out as I find that unacceptable the way it is,

T
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Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest, Boston
http://acsource.net/acforum/index.php

I have the 2008 ex-L 4door w/ Navi. and have the same problem. Shimmy or vibration on the highway usually around 70 mph. The dealer can not find the problem. Checked all the wheels, rebalanced and all that.. Still there. My service advisor did mention that there are several cars doing the same thing.

I'm taking my 2008 Honda Civic in for the THIRD time tomorrow for a similar vibration/shutter that I feel when trying to keep a steady speed of 50mph - a very common speed limit where I live. They've balanced the tires twice now and that has not done it. Has anyone found the answer to this yet?