Shimmy on initial acceleration

[Boomer]

What a great forum! My wife and I bought PT Cruisers within a few days of each other. She has a 2005 Cream color basic, four door, automatic, 2.4L FI and I have a 2005 Silver and Black convertible, five speed, 2.4L FI. Upon initial acceleration, for both cars, you can feel a shimmy in the steering wheel. On mine it carries into second gear. Know anything about this? When you take off from a stop, on her's, there is a slight delay and then the car leaps forward. Know anything about that? K&N says they don't have a FIPK for the 2005's yet. Anything else out there that will work or should I wait?

Thanks to all of you. Hope some day I can return the favor.
Rich

[CREWZIN]

Boomer (Rich), Welcome to the forum;

Congrats on your dual purchases of your PT's. I'm not sure about the shimmy in both cars, as being so new it leaves things out like bent rims and out of balance tires. I can tell you that the delay in taking off from a start can be cured by a better intake with less restriction of air. Even modifying the OEM intake like a few have done on this board with a larger nozzle at the input side and doing away with the silencers would probably help...but I do know the hesitation went away with mine as soon as I changed intakes.

[tpscruiser]

Welcome!!
What Crewzin said and if your miles are low, say less than 5000 miles on them, the engine is not broken in yet.
As for the shimmy, do you mean the torque pull that you get with front wheel drive cars? They like to pull to one side under hard acceleration. You may want to explain this shimmy a little more so we can offer some suggestions.

[Boomer]

On both of our Cruisers, when you first push the accelerator down to take off, there is a vibration you can feel in the steering wheel. With both cars it goes away by the time you hit 25 or 30 MPH. On mine, the 5 speed, it is still apparent when I shift into second gear and ccelerate. We really love our Cruisers. I just thought it was a little unusual.

[2step]

You can help us help you by answering a few questions.
Is your convertible a turbo model or the exact same engine in both?
Can you detect more "shimmy" with a snappier take off then with a mild take off?
Is the problem only when the engine is cold or does it persist even when warmed up?
Did you test drive any other new Cruisers and will your dealer allow you to drive some others for a comparison?

[quicksilverdon]

Others have given good advice, Boomer.
I don't think there were any changes for '05 - I hope not, I just bought a K&N for a turbo lite I have on order I haven't even gotten yet!
Unclip the air filter cover, take the filter out, and look for a white piece and take it out - it's a silencer, there will be a little more noise, but more pep. You can also replace the stock air fileter with a K&N replacement and gain a little more.[?]

[Boomer]

Thanks for the suggestions. Both cars have the same engine, 2.4L FI. My car has less than 900 miles and my wife's has about 1200 miles. The shimmy or vibration is a little more pronounced when the vehicle is under a little stress, like taking off on an incline. It could be the front wheel drive vibrating through the steering wheel. This is not a major problem by any means. I am not used to the feel of a front wheel drive vehicle. I removed the white silencer in mine, but I need permission to mess with my wife's. K&N said they would notify me when the FIPK was available for the 2005. We really do like our Cruisers.

[CHROMEDCRUISER]

Boomer, have you taken a look at Injen intakes? They are basically an FIPK excepting that the intake pipe is aluminum and not plastic. I don't know what you would prefer, but if you'd like something a little shinier under the hood, and a good bit cheaper in price (not in quality) I would take a look at Injen. The filter is almost identical to a K&N.

http://www.injen.com

[Boomer]

As it turns out the front drive axles, right and left, on both cars are bad. Who would have thought? The shop foreman was amazed that both our cars had bad axles. It raised some concerns with him about other '05 Cruisers he had on the lot with bad drive axles. He said he hasn't seen this problem in a long time. Real glad I had this checked out.