Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

I've had this problem on virtually every car I've ever owned and never really gotten to the source of it. I've improved it significantly on 1 car (Commodore) by replacing the rims with new ones, but it was still never perfect.

The problem is that at a certain speed (130kph or so on my current car) the steering wobbles slightly when travelling in a straight line. I had new tyres put on about 10000km ago, but surely they don't need rebalancing this often? I would think that if it was wheel balance it would wobble at any speed, not just 130+. I also had the wheels aligned at the same time so I don't think it's alignment either. My tyre wear is fine so I don't think I could get the alignment any better if I tried.

It could still be wheel balance or alignment though, I'm not sure. Other possibilities I thought of include warped rim/rims, worn steering rack, or worn wheel bearings. The gearstick doesn't wobble at all so I've pretty much ruled out an unbalanced tail shaft.

I'm looking at replacing my tyres with better ones within a few months, I'm thinking that at that time I will also send the rims off for a repair/balance in case they need it, and also replace the bearings even though there is no free play at all. Anyone have any other ideas of what it might be?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/
Share on other sites

don't mean to hijack your thread jim, but i have a similar problem except my streering wheel fully vibrates when under gentle - mid braking. under hard braking it feels fine.

very strange. no idea what is causing it either.

I've had this problem on virtually every car I've ever owned and never really gotten to the source of it. I've improved it significantly on 1 car (Commodore) by replacing the rims with new ones, but it was still never perfect.

The problem is that at a certain speed (130kph or so on my current car) the steering wobbles slightly when travelling in a straight line. I had new tyres put on about 10000km ago, but surely they don't need rebalancing this often? I would think that if it was wheel balance it would wobble at any speed, not just 130+. I also had the wheels aligned at the same time so I don't think it's alignment either. My tyre wear is fine so I don't think I could get the alignment any better if I tried.

It could still be wheel balance or alignment though, I'm not sure. Other possibilities I thought of include warped rim/rims, worn steering rack, or worn wheel bearings. The gearstick doesn't wobble at all so I've pretty much ruled out an unbalanced tail shaft.

I'm looking at replacing my tyres with better ones within a few months, I'm thinking that at that time I will also send the rims off for a repair/balance in case they need it, and also replace the bearings even though there is no free play at all. Anyone have any other ideas of what it might be?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-924327
Share on other sites

Nobody has even mentioned tyre pressure yet :)

You say that you had them balanced 10,000k's ago, that is a long time.

It's quite possible that you've lost one (or more) of the lumps of lead attached to the rims. It's very common for them to just fall off, you only need to take a walk down the street and look in the gutter to see how many bits of lead get thrown off.

myr332 your discs probably need machining.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-924644
Share on other sites

Also think about cleaning the inner rim.

Bit's of clogged up dirt can wreck your balance, acting just like a bit of lead they use to balnce it.

I had a wheel balance once then on the way home a here this clunk on the left wheel.

What the???

Then clunk on the right 10 kms later

Well that was a waste of money.....hehe

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-925467
Share on other sites

don't mean to hijack your thread jim, but i have a similar problem except my streering wheel fully vibrates when under gentle - mid braking.  under hard braking it feels fine.

very strange.  no idea what is causing it either.

Does it do this while turning at mid-low speed?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-925663
Share on other sites

I've got new radius rod bushes, via whiteline's suspension kit. The problem was pretty much the same before and after. I did an alignment afterwards. Like with JaseR33, the wobble stops above a certain speed. Seems to only be one "spot" where it happens. Except on my Torana, where it just got worse and worse as the speed went up :)

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-925903
Share on other sites

Get a balance.

It doesn't cost much, and if it doesn't fix the problem, then it rules out another possibility.

Almost everyone has said the same thing, and as I mentioned (Birnie's post backs me up) the fact that your last balance was done 10,000k's ago is a good indication that that is all the problem is.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-925925
Share on other sites

1... have the tyres developed any bulges on the sidewalls? this can happen to new or old tyres and this will throw out the balance.

2... have you been getting the wheel balances done at the same place?, some place only balance to the nearest 10 grams, see if they can balance down to 5 grams or so, some car's steering/suspension are more accepting of out of balance wheels and you wont notice it so much and with others it will drive you crazy.

3 ...another imbalance cause can be just that the tyre looses it shape, some tyres are not perfectly round or do not retain their shape perfectly and this can cause the balance to go out as they wear thus needing rebalancing.

you may need to take the tyre guy for a drive, their machines are not likely to show an imbalance if it occurs at 130 km/hr as their machines dont spin that fast - for safety resaons i've been told (in case things fall off).

I nearly always end up getting tyres balanced more than once.

good luck

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-926040
Share on other sites

I have a similar problem and in fact have had it since I had the car 2 years ago. When I got the wheels aligned (4 wheel steer alignment) was told that there was "run out" in the front rims - ie slight buckling meaning they are not perfectly round.

Mine does it just above 100kmh but then disappears above 110, also none at lower speeds.

They tried aligning it for ages but couldn't do any more. Solution they tell me is to get wheels repaired or replaced.

I just live it with now

Cheers, Al

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/45308-steering-wobble/#findComment-926162
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Well, I'm tired. I'm tired because about 4PM yesterday, before today's appointment someone immediately bought my bumper. They couldn't get it any other day as they're on the way back to NSW. So I had to do that big GTR conversion I had been planning. Unfortunately, the information on SAU about what you need and how this is done is incomplete. So what should be a simple bolt on affair, yeah, it's not. Did you know if you use all GTR items the bonnet won't close? This little manuever sent me into about 1am the night before trying to dodge a way to get it closed. I will have to revisit this in the next few days  - or maybe not, I may let a body shop figure it out. It all needs to come up and my motivation to pull the bumper off is low. It also seems to hit things in the bay where the GTT bonnet didn't. Yes I used 100% new OEM GTR items. Today, I had the joy of driving to the dyno looking like this: Given I had roughed in the fuel and given sensible but pretty conservative timing, I didn't really bet on having the car drive out any real difference than when it drove in. Sadly due to a miscommunication and laptop fun and games (and almost bricking the dongle, prayers and firmware updates indeed), I ended up using HP Tuner credits to licence the car that was already licenced. So in the end my laptop was used. It turns out my butt dyno is still well calibrated after all this time. The 325kw was on 74% Ethanol, the 313kw line was on 98. The other line is the 'before' line which was 281kw. While the numbers are pretty low, they're pretty in line with what you'd expect. Even if US dynos bump the whole result up about 50KW, gaining 10-15% is similar gains.  The curve of the cam is pretty much spot on with what was discussed as well. All this said, it still feels bad to not see the number you secretly want to see. Even if the car drove great beforehand, and I knew pretty confidently the car would drive out much the same way it drove in due to the nature of a wellish dialled in LS1 not gaining much if anything at all from being tuned from where it was. As expected, the car isn't particularly sensitive to running it at anywhere between 12.0 and 13.0 - And the initial timing at 20deg and 12.0 made 308KW. So 3 degrees of timing, and leaning it out to 12.7 for 5kw, anything above stopped giving any benefit until E85 (which has an additional 2 deg as before). Car itself behaved entirely fine. I found out that 100C = 1.15V! IAT at about 7pm was 19C. I might mess with the bonnet mounting.. but given the REO NEEDS TO BE CHOPPED TO FIT A GTR BAR this is possibly something I may leave gathering (more) dust until it returns to paint jail.
    • It sounds farrrrrrr too cold at your place Duncan... Here I was thinking our 10 degrees overnight is getting cold...
    • oh yeah, reminded this morning....bin lids frozen shut too
    • In my case not, because of total reno. But yeah.
    • Did you use an electronic speedo drive? Does you speedometer read all the way to 180km?
×
×
  • Create New...