Steering Shake Over 100kph?

[AzzurrA]

i don't entirely agree with what they've told you...

for example...

my old Ford Sierra Turbo... was driving along the highway, and noticed that above about 40 - 50kph, and if i turned the steering wheel a little off-centre to the right, there was a sort of 'vibration' coming through the steering wheel... i didn't think any more of it...

drove for about another 100km, and the vibration was getting worse, but still not bad...

drove for about another 100km, and it was now to the point where it was making a noise that sounded like someone banging a hammer on a bit of metal, and the steering wheel was shuddering very violently...

(only reason i had kept driving the thing as i was in the middle of nowhere on a highway up north)

i eventually had to stop it got that bad, and found that it was the lower control arm bush... it had destroyed itself/fallen out, and the arm had about 50 - 60mm of play that it would go up and hit the top, and then hit the bottom, and bounce back up etc, effectively pounding itself into oblivion...

i had to limp the car to a nearby town at about 40kph... as at that speed it wasn't banging, it must've just been sitting in the middle of the hole...

dodgied up a 'temporary' bush out of pvc irrigation piping of different sizes, fitted inside each other

[someonestolecc]

Your wheel hub is a ring at the centre of your rotor that usually sicks out at least 8-10mm. The wheel when you look on the back has a hole that should be the same size, this is your locator.

Thanks for that I figured as much but was amazed I'd never noticed. I'll have to check that out

[J_Red33]

I'll have to back you up on that 1 AzzurrA, I reckon what they've said is a bit of BS.

Think about it for a moment Mr G. When you originally took your stock wheels off & replaced them with your aftermarket alloys did you have problems with vibration on them? Because if not & you all of a sudden have vibration problems with them when you put them back on, it's not going to be the wheels or the tyres. Put a big fat black line through that possibility right now. There is a lot more to your car than wheels or tyres mate & if the problem is exactly the same with 2 sets of wheels, I doubt a 3rd set will yield a different result.... unless you've broken a mirror reacently or something

I've been looking seriously at getting some aftermarket bushes for my car for a little while as I have noticed a bit of a clunk from the front end when reversing then braking. I had a friend look underneath at the radial arms/castor rods & he reckoned there was a bit of movement. I've also had my stockies back on the front this week as my rims were getting a bit of work & guess what? I still have noticed a subtle but noticeable vibration when cornering, so I think it's going to be a high priority for me to get some new bushes very soon.

Also mate did you actually get the wheel alignment done? I haven't noticed you say anything about it. I need to do this myself too & am going to be doing it monday at the latest to see if it helps. Otherwise bushes for me.

I think you'll find your looking at a suspension issue not a wheel issue mate, you may even have more than 1 bush on the way out. I think putting larger aftermarket wheels on the car is actually placing more stress on the the suspension too (due to the lower profile tyre having less damping effect), which is another reason to get stronger more resilient bushes. It'd be nice in a way if you were right & it is the wheels, but I doubt it.

[Mr_G]

Ok, got it all sorted... I put the new rims on on the weekend (2nd hand jap forged wheels) and still got the shaking. Went to a different tyre shop, and they said that the balance was out.... Rebalance of the wheels and it fixed the problem.

All good

I believe it could be the tyres on the other rims putting the steering wheel shaking?? They are falken ziex... I believe they are pretty crap from what i heard?

[JimX]

I have to say I haven't ever noticed tyre balance to have that big an effect on wheel shaking. It has improved, but never fully cured a wheel shake problem. On the flip side, I have lost wheel weights before and it has never seemed to make any wheel shake problem worse. This is particularly so on my motorcycle, where the wheels have never had the shake problem and I've lose more weights off the bike wheels than on most cars I've had.

I've got no idea if the wheels on the GTR are properly balanced or not. I'm not going to bother doing a balance until it needs new tyres because it's got no shake problems at all.

[LatinR33]

just get a wheel balance and alignment. Just do the easiest thing first. fixed my prob and i had the same prob as you.

[Sydneykid]

Speed sensitive shake is balance.

If you drive along a straight piece of road with no shake at 80 kph and there is shake at 100 kph then it is a balance problem 99.9% of the time

Load sensitive vibration is suspension

If you drive along a straight piece of road with no shake at 80 kph, then turn the steering wheel and get vibration, 99.9% of the time it's a worn suspension component.

cheers

[siksII]

Load sensitive vibration is suspension

If you drive along a straight piece of road with no shake at 80 kph, then turn the steering wheel and get vibration, 99.9% of the time it's a worn suspension component.

cheers

Also wanted to add that load sensitive vibration can also be from tyres.

ie. i put a large flat spot (and one small one) in one of my tyres a few weeks ago and you could always feel a slight vibration afterwards however if you were turning (especially at higher speeds and turning hard) vibration got big and you could feel it all through the car .