Front wheel vibration / wobble thru steering wheel at speed
 

Could the problem below be due to something like worn CV joints, wheel bearings, out of balance drive shafts, worn steering rack, ??

STeering wheel wobble / vibrations at 65mph and above, recently started, but not sorted by new tyres and balancing. Most suspension / ball joints / bushes new and polyurethance. 4 wheeled aligned.


https://www.scoobynet.com/wheels-tyr...ml#post7608335

Thanks

If there is movement in a wheel I would say wheel bearing. Also movement in a wheel could lead to it comin off depending on how bad it is...if its a wheel bearing it will just get worse. get it checked out soon!

This could also contribute to steering wheel wobble although in my experience that is usually tracking(although I do notice you've had it done). Any possibility it may not be done properly??

Any grinding noise when turning left or right??(also another sign of wheel bearing)

Alan

Thanks Alan.

I may have misled you, the wheels seems firmly fixed, no side to side or top to bottom wobble when parked up or on stands. The wobble is via the steering wheel, as though wheels / tyres are out of balance. 4 wheel tracking done in Oct 07 too.

But see other thread, new tyres last week, balanced, and most suspension changed last Oct / year or 2 before for polyurethane bushed variety.
Only wheel bearings, CV joints, steering rack ( and power steering pump ! ) and drive shafts are old / original.

Cheers


No noises when turning tight at slow speed ( in a car park for eg. ) or faster speed

Hmm, i'm not too sure what to suggest then. My knowledge only goes as far as general common sense, as I grew up with an uncle that has owned nothing but quattro's, cosworths, evo's etc lol, I dont have real in-depth mechanical knowledge.

Best I can do is bttt for you while I think about it and ask around. :thumb:

Alan

Have you checked the pistons in your calipers?
They can stick, forcing the pad at an angle on the disc, which causes a wheel judder. Is the Steering wheel pulling to one side?
If it is, then I would get some copperslip and grease the pistons up.
This is a common problem, especially with 2 pots.

Its worthwhile considering all opinions and options. You seem to have had all the obvious done.:)

tie rod ends
steering rack clamps

few more possible causes. you get proper stuff to use on sticky pistons not copper slip.

lol, i couldnt think of the name of the proper stuff, hence copperslip come to mind :)

If a wheel bearing is bad enough to cause the steering wheel to shake I would expect you to hear it (window down, 50mph). Did you get all 4 tyres replaced, although a rear wheel has to be seriously out of balance to affect the steering wheel. I'd perhaps lean towards one of the balance weights fitted on the front wheels having fallen off.
Kevin

My mate had this problem on his evo, and it turned out to be a slightly flatspotted wheel!

Swap the wheels front to back, go for a drive and see if its stopped.
If it has, i think it would be safe to say a wheels fcuked!

Any suggestions for the "proper stuff"

Bit wary of putting grease on the rubber piston seals / in the fluid!

Every time I've used it, it has been in a small silver foil type sachet and has been red in colour (special grease that does not damage the rubber piston seals). You might get it at Halfords, A1, Wilco etc.
Kevin

been out and checked, stuff i got is from delphi called vacuum seal lubricant, comes in small foil sachet.

Red rubber grease is what I used when rebuild my 4 pots. Any excess grease will probably get bled out anyway. Its not caused me any problems in the last 3 years since they were rebuilt.

Got it from Lucas many moons ago.

Wayne.

Tie rod ends - if you mean the ball joints on the end of the rods from the steering rods, changed last Oct 07 for whiteline items when wishbone ball joint was changed ( bump steer kit ).
Rest of front wishbone end bushes were changed for PU 2-3 years ago, inc.anti lift kit.

Steering rack clamps - could be working loose, I had the bushes changed, for PU again, 12 months ago, not been under to check those since then ..!


Checked tyre dots and position near valve, pretty much line up, only an inch or two out !


Moved lock nut around opposite valve, 'may be' a slight improvement ?


Hope it is a simple loss of a wheel weight! Heard a couple of under car noises since having all 4 tyres changed for F1 GSD3's ( do these pick up and throw road grit/stones etc? Loads more under wheel arch bangs since these went on! ).

Had front wheels balanced. No change.
Changed ALL 4 tyres and had all balanced, same place as 2 years ago which was fine then, and STILL have this new vibration wobble at 65 mph on.

I have been out today and done 130 miles mainly on motorways / A roads, so had a chance to play. Seems vibration ( steering wheel moves an inch up / down from vertical, looking at wheel spokes ) and vibration felt through wheel, not through rest of car / box etc. Hard to drive one handed! Shudder about too much.
No pulling to left or right ( slight tramlining on bad camber roads or road paint ).
At approx 90 - 95 mph on my personal airfield ;) it seems the vibration / wobble goes away!
Hmm, think a call to the tyre place and re-balance is on the cards!!!


Thing I am concerned about is that steering etc. was fine before car went back to Thames Valley Motorsport for remedial work / inspection due to unsatisfactory clutch performance after they had gearbox off for clutch change and gearbox build ( PPG ).

Car was fine, they took it, I picked up 3 weeks later and Rally Colin stated "there was a problem with vibration at 80 mph, better get balancing checked".

Odd, maybe they smacked a kerb while the lad was test driving it, or something they disturbed during the driveshaft removel / refit? What do they need to remove to pull the driveshaft from the gearbox?
Will that upset 4 wheel alignment?

Old tyres / same wheels ( fitted in similar positions - front on front etc. ) gave vibration, new tyres on same wheels / same position STILL gave vibration, so I think it is not the wheel / tyre combo ??


Yes, swap wheels front to back next job, then full rebalance, then into some decent garage ( Demon Tweeks did a good job on the new front ball joints, top mounts and read adj. links so may go back to them for diagnosis! ).

Ta guys

I had a slight vibration in my steering for almost a year, had new tyres fitted when I bought the car which were balanced and the rims ran true, I later fitted brand new struts springs top mounts, front and rear drop links, 2 wheel bearings, front and rear anti roll bars, new lower ball joints all at the same time, oh yeh and new steering arms. The vibration was still there at about 70mph on the motorway but it was very slight so I wasnt to bothered about it.

Last December I went in past Apex to get a fitting done for theyre K sport brake kit, while I was there I bought a set of wheel nuts because mine were looking a tad shabby, guess what No wheel wobble now!!!!

They were a hex key wheel nut and a couple had a slight split in the side but you were still able to tighten them up no problem.

Im not saying this is whats wrong with your car but once youve tried the obvious it can be hard to trace things like this.

I was sure I posted in this thread before...hey ho

Ive got a similar issue at the moment at around 80-85ish. Its been in and balanced etc etc, needs teh steering rack doing so i'll get that done at the next service and let you know.

What about propshaft?

no better news...
 

Well, prop could be vibrating, but whole car would feel it not just steering wheel.

Did go from a 2 piece prop to 1 piece when I thought whine / vibration was due to it, and changed rear diff due to whine at 70 mph! Cured those probs.


What I've been doing :
Moved locking wheel nut - bigger than others - around the studs...
Moved front wheel round a stud at a time in case hub/wheel unbalanced ..!
Changed all 4 tyres for new GSD3's and rebalanced.
Changed brake pads, checked discs, bled calipers and checked all pistons moved in and out easily. OK.
Swapped wheels front to back in case a wheel had been bent.

Still shudder ery badly between 65 and 90 MPH.

Listening with window open / radio off, the first time steering is moved after parking for a while, or sometimes on hard cornering, there is a CLUNK from the front suspension / steering area, and a kick in steering wheel. Could be a loose bolt in wishbone arm/bush or steering rack, a damaged bush ( but were new Polystyrene all thru front including steering rack mounts, and track rod end & wishbone ball joints new bump steer mods too etc. over last 18 months - so damage not wear ), or similar.

As it only started after clutch was changed I'd say some thing is damaged or left loose., what suspension bolts were removed, or ball joints / bushes disturned to get the box off / drive shafts out? The garage say only the rear wishbone mounts and subframe to chassis bolts removed to remove the under brace ... but swinging the damper units to pull out driveshafts may damage / disturn something ( pillow ball top mounts / AST struts/springs).!

Any more ideas guys?

Thanks

Hi Ollie - what needed doing with steering rack? Mine is a classic, circa 1995 with original rack! But new PU bushes for rack and new Whiteline track rod ends and wishbone ball joints - anti bump steer mods .

Wellll......I havent been yet :) 3 weeks in Australia have delayed things slightly. Once the bank balance has recovered a little she's going in for new rack and a service.
I'll let you know when Alliance and Leicester are a little happier with me :)

Think I'll just check the front wishbone etc. bushes and links and remove the front under 4 point brace, and the if not sorted get it down to Powerstation!

Certainly seems like something damaged or not fitted/tightened when gearbox removed / refitted.

vulnax, just been sorting out my garage and found my spare ST2 alloy wheel.
Now, I know you are wondering what it has to do with you problem, but this is a wheel I removed and replaced as my local tyre fitter noticed that it was out of round and gave a funny vibration on the rear end.

It still balanced up ok though.

Are yours all ok?

Interesting thought.

Still had the vibration at speed, and as I had only swapped the o/s wheels front to back ( dunno why just these, may have thought it was from that side ) I swapped the n/s wheels front to back.


Wierder and wierder.

Now the vibration at 65-90 is FAR less, BUT the car wants to pull to the right a bit now, and is very twitchy on road camber, white lines etc! Need to hold wheel straight where before I swapped n/s it ran dead straight!



Really think something must be worn / broken or loose and am in contact with PS to get it in and looked at / set up as needed!


Wonder if the n/s front wheel is bent or out of round as you suggest, and was set up on the bent rim?

It's a 17x7 WRX 2003 wheel in the silver grey ( NOT gold! ).

That is interesting. Would be good to see what happens if you swap the wheel to the other side....

Ive still been pretty useless and havent had anything done on mine!

who balanced the wheels?

i have just had mine rechecked today by revolution and both front wheels were 75grams out :eek:

kwick fit balanced them up, and only did one of them last saturday as well :rolleyes:

Something else thats quite interesting.

Although my wheels are balanced ok I do get some vibration at certain speeds, nothing to worry about though.

Anyway, last week I used some MagicSeal tyre sealer (ebay £12). Its the stuff that is liquid inside your tyre and seals it when you get a puncture, well thats the idea.

After filling each tyre I went for a drive which included some motorway miles. The vibration at first was nothing short of bone shaking. It did settle down and now I get nothing at any speed, no vibration at all.

Wayne.

was this ever solved?

Wow that's a good thread resurrection!

Mine is now solved. I changes the steering rack, didn't solve it but I had to do it anyway as it was creaking.

What did solve it for me was refurbishing the brakes...I had a warped disc on the front, it was obvious when it was all warmed up and I braked. This was causing a judder through the steering.

WOW!!

Yes, solved it - sold the car!

Actually moving the wheels around fixed it, so likely an imbalane of wheel on hub for some reason.