[quote="auroralover"]Took the car in for a road force balance and 2 of the 4 tires are out of round. Thanks Goodyear quote]

I'm not at all surprised that the tires were the actual problem. Did the tech give you a road force rating on each of the tire--I believe it'* in ounces.

Did the tech offer to move them on the rim to minimize the out-of-round effect? If not, they must be pretty bad. My service manager showed me a set of tires they were replacing on a Pontiac under warranty with Goodyear that were problems; the replacements were all much worse in road force than my worse tire, which I think was 12.

If they're out-0f-round they'll never roll round even if they're balanced.

I recommend getting Michelins-two at a time if that'* what you need to do. Get them road force balanced. Good luck.

Car is back at Sullivan Tire today - they are checking the tires and will report back to me later today. They set it up nice with the "tire rotations should be every 6K and alignment 1/yr", so I'm sure if there is in fact problems with the tires, I'm hosed. Hopefully he'll give me some level of credit on them since the treads have only 18K miles, but we shall see. question is this: if i decide to ditch goodyear for michelin - anyone have a recommended tire? or if not michelin, then who? i think i saw pirelli also mentioned? any suggestions will help if that'* what ends up happening for me.

Just got a call from Sullivan - they viewed the tires as fine. the front 2 were definitely out of balance. however, the left front wheel bearing is shot. i'm having it replaced & an alignment. will post how it goes, but it appears (for now) that my RSA'* are fine...
signed,
hopeful yet skeptical

That sounds like good news, at least for now. Let us know if that takes care if it for you.

OK, been 2 weeks since the left front wheel bearing was replaced. they did that and also balanced and aligned the car. must say it is MUCH better. still get a very little bit from time to time, but nothing like before. thanks all for all the postings and help. hope this information can help someone else find a solution to their problem. i'll be religiously getting the rotations/balance on sullivan'* suggested schedule to ensure they can't pull out that card on me again, but my problem seems to have been much more tied to a spent wheel bearing.

I have the same problem with my 2000 SSEi on brand spanking new RSA'*. Brought the tires back a couple of times to be rebalanced and rotated and I still get the same shimmey between 60 MPH and 70 MPH. The higher or lower I go and it goes away.

Now, I am no longer suspecting the tires or wheels at all because I noticed the following while on a long trip. The speed at which the shimmey was felt varied depending on whether I was driving into or with the wind direction. I would be on cruise control feeling the shimmey and as I took a turn away from driving into the wind and the shimmey became significantly less obvious. I continued and turned again even further down wind and the shimmey went away until I spend up to a higher speed. I tested this on varoius windy days and there is definately a connection.

My guess: the shimmey is the result of an aerodynamic problem with my lower front spolier. The found the spoiler to be quite loose -- I can push back on it and it receeds approx an inch before butting up against a frame behind it. I am thinking that at low speeds the spoiler doesn't vibrate beacuse of not enough wind but then at 60 to 70 MPH the wind pressure oscilates the spoiler, but higher speeads yet the spolier gets frimly pushed up against the supporting frame and it does oscilate anymore.

I haven't brought the car in yet to see if the spoiler is too loose (can't stand the thought of bringing my car to the dealer and not sure if Joe mechanic would know how firm the spoiler should be.

I am throwing this out there to see if anyone else suspect the same as I do.

Nice thought golfyetti, and we certainly appreciate your input, but I don't see how that thin piece of plastic vibrating in the wind can cause a steady pulse in the steering wheel of that big galute. Let us know what you find.

As I indicated earlier, I'm on my third set of tires and the out-of-balance problem has remained; 9700 or not! I'm sure it is not a tire or wheel problem. Now the light suspension..... I can believe that theory. Makes me want to hurl. If I stay under 67 mph or over 80 mph she runs as smooth as uh, 'er Cadillac?