Steering Wheel Wobble 60mph+

[RyCliff]

The steering wheel on my car shakes at anything over 60mph, increasing with speed and also can be worse depending on road conditions and whether I'm going up or down hill.

 

Could it be as simple as the wheels needing rebalancing? When I changed the tyres 3 years ago the garage had a struggle balancing due to the weight of the new tyre (Nankang NS2R) and also didn't seem to believe me about running tyres at 18-20psi. I've also not changed the suspension bushes in the time I've owned the car, should this be done more regularly? I've had the car 4 years.

 

Thanks for any ideas

[SM25T]

If it's just steering wheel wobble, it is front wheel related. Check no play in bearings and track rod ends by lifting front of car and trying to wobble the wheel holding it at 6 and 12 o'clock. Get someone to turn steering wheel back and forth while you look at TRE or hold your hand around them. I suspect it is balancing. I had a fitter try at 18psi and he kept adding weights all over the place as the tyre was flexing or moving. Took them all off and did it at 34psi. Very easy and few weights. Then lowered to 18 on the car. Even better if they put the yellow dot on the tyre next to the valve. If no yellow dot, then red dot 180 degrees away from valve.

[pgm]

It is worth checking that the weights are all grouped together, We have seen some wheels where they look as if they have been thrown all over the place. Would agree that it sounds like a balancing issue though.

 

[JonT]

Consider going somewhere that offers Force Road balancing. I struggled with a similar problem until I got the wheels force road balanced.

I also noticed that my wheels don't have hub locators - instead they're just located by the wheel nuts. So I've wondered if the nuts aren't torqued evenly and while the vehicle is in the air (or only very lightly loaded) whether you could end up with the wheel being torqued up very slightly off centre - just enough to produce some vibration in the wheel at speed. 

[RyCliff]

Brilliant, thanks everyone. I recently replaced the steering gaiters and didn't notice any play in the TRE, will have a check for play in the bearings.

 

The wheel weights are all grouped, but still think it's probably worth me getting the wheel balancing checked. Not heard of force road balancing, is it something the garage would advertise?

[JonT]

Road force balancing - https://www.balancemycar.co.uk/

Not that many places around unfortunately. Costs can vary - I think I've paid standard balancing at ~£10/wheel if they haven't needed to rotate it on the rim, and ~£25 if they have. But still worthwhile - at the least for the front tyres (mine are same f/r and I rotate them, so got the lot done).

[RyCliff]

My nearest is Ninemeister in Warrington, finally an excuse to go there and take a look at the Porsche restomods they do! Cheers for the help

[psarfas]

I had a very similar issue on a tyre of roughly the same age. It turned out to be a bulge in the tread area, which was either delamination or damage to the carcass. The faster you went the bigger the bulge and the worse it got. Very quickly replaced!

[ScottR400D]

Ref the last post, a flat spot on a tyre will do the same thing. Didn’t need to be much and if there is one it will only get worse with use. 

Theres a reason not many places have RF Balancing and why most balancer manufacturers never bothered with it. There really aren’t that many cars in which you’d know the difference and a 7 isn’t one of them. 

If they’re balanced properly on any decent balancer you should be fine unless there’s another issue.