Wheel wobble at 60 mph plus

[andrew_r]

I’m at a bit of a loss. Driving at higher speeds 60+ mph, my steering wheel wobbles as if the wheels aren’t balanced, however I’ve had them re-balanced twice so I don’t think that’s the issue. I’ve also tried three different styles of alloys so it seems that buckled wheels are not the cause. I’ve changed tyres, and brake discs too and the problem has not changed. It’s been through a few services at reputable TVR specialists and MOTs too, and nobody has mentioned anything about wheel bearing issues either.

I’m currently doing a road trip through France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany, so on the higher speed roads the issue is quite annoying, especially on the autobahn. Anyone else have any ideas what could be causing this?

The strange thing is that sometimes I can be doing 70mph and it wobbles a lot, and then other times it will not wobble at all. It’s a manual rack rather than power assisted

Thanks, Andrew

[GreenV8S]

Wheel imbalance or out-of-round is the most likely cause, but it could also be slightly excessive play in wheel bearings or a suspension pivot.

When you changed wheels, presumably you kept the same hubs. An out of plane or off center wheel mounting face/spigot could throw out any wheel you fitted. Even a small bruise or un-noticed dirt could be enough to stop the wheel running true.

[Lincsls1]

Apparently some cars are very sensitive to wheel nut torquing sequence.
Maybe try tightening in a star pattern from a low torque setting increasing over say maybe 3 or 4 stages until max torque is reached.
Also try doing this with the wheel off the ground in the low torque stages. Long shot I know but worth a try.
I'm also assuming that you've made sure that all mating surfaces are super clean, correct spigot adaptors are in use if applicable etc..

[blaze_away]

Do you have spacers ? They can cause wheel to not sit perfectly centrered.

As Lancepar says. Try tightening wheel nuts gradually increasing the torque to spec to help ensure wheels are centered to fraction of a millimetre.

[andrew_r]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, most appreciated. I recently replaced the suspension with Gaz mono’s and the mounting points are all secure, and as best practice, I always tighten the wheels up in a star shape too and ensure the hubs are fully cleaned.

The wheels have the correct centrebore size, and no spacers, so I’m inclined to investigate the hubs and see if any of these are out of true as I’ve eliminated most other things. Thanks for the suggestion.

The issue seems to be felt more whilst braking, so the bearings could also be on their way out too, but with only 29k miles, maybe not.

Thanks again and I’ll keep you posted.

Edited by andrew_r on Tuesday 4th July 21:14

[CerbWill]

I had very similar issues. Given I'd recently bought a new set of Bola B7s and tyres I was pretty sure they weren't an issue. I'd also had the shocks refurbed so ruled that out. Over the winter I refreshed all the suspension. As well as shotblasting and painting the wishbones I changed all the bushes, ball joints, and track rod ends. Vibration gone, who knows exactly what the cause was as I changed a fair few things but my bet was on bushes as some of them looked to be in quite poor condition.

[andrew_r]

Thanks, I’ll also check out the bushes too. Best regards, Andrew

[GTRene]

I had something like that with a Z3 coupe I had, new tires and all, weighted to zero perfect, drive again, same problem, they could not do more...
they balanced it 3 times even all off and again.

but, they said sometimes its the tire with a fault in the side of the tirewall, you then have to take it at a garage with a Hunter balancer, that works different en then they can spot the fault, maybe you have the same.

it drove me nuts, also same speed it happens and when driving faster things became even more crazy, it even won out 1 of the new-ish but not OEM brand bush on 1 side, the side with the bad new tire... so pushed in hard bushes new, bit better but still no solution, then the Hunter balancer and tada...

also at the hunter machine they can shift the tire say a few degrees to see if it then is ok, but if its really bad a fault then no way and it goes back.

so, they send the tire back to the tire factory and I got a new one back, even when the garage were they had the hunter machine, did not sold me the tires.

maybe you have the same thing if the rest is ok.?

edit: I read your story again, you also changed the tires, so I guess not the problem I had.

are the shocks still ok? bushes one maybe bad when forces built up?

Edited by GTRene on Tuesday 4th July 21:40

[Heathwood]

I’ve had something similar. Front N/S calliper was slightly corroded allowing the pads to drag onto the disc. Manifested in wheel wobble around 60mph and, of course, heat build up at the relevant corner.

[dvs_dave]

If they’re balancing out ok but you’re still getting a wobble then it’s most likely a slightly bent wheel. Probably pothole damage and the inner part of the wheel is slightly out of round. Tyre balancing place should have noticed, but they’re notoriously ste operators who either don’t notice or give a st. As long as it balances out with a ton of weights on it, that’s all they care about. They don’t think to consider that as an obvious red flag for an out of round wheel. Muppets.

A place with a road force balancer will pick it up. They essentially press a roller against they tyre whilst balancing it to pick up any out of round, or other issues beyond just plain rotational balance.

Edited by dvs_dave on Wednesday 5th July 02:49

[andrew_r]

dvs_dave said:

If they’re balancing out ok but you’re still getting a wobble then it’s most likely a slightly bent wheel. Probably pothole damage and the inner part of the wheel is slightly out of round. Tyre balancing place should have noticed, but they’re notoriously ste operators who either don’t notice or give a st. As long as it balances out with a ton of weights on it, that’s all they care about. They don’t think to consider that as an obvious red flag for an out of round wheel. Muppets.

A place with a road force balancer will pick it up. They essentially press a roller against they tyre whilst balancing it to pick up any out of round, or other issues beyond just plain rotational balance.

Edited by dvs_dave on Wednesday 5th July 02:49

Thanks for the reply Dave. Initially I thought it could be this, so I bought a new set of wheels, but the problem still persisted. Since then, I’ve changed the wheels again and tyres too, and it’s still the same, so I’m fairly sure that it’s not the wheels. Having said that, to be 100% sure I will take them somewhere to be checked again so I can rule this out.

[KKson]

I had vibration on rear offside wheel. Turned out to be a drive shaft UJ on its way out.

[andrew_r]

GTRene said:

edit: I read your story again, you also changed the tires, so I guess not the problem I had.

are the shocks still ok? bushes one maybe bad when forces built up?

Edited by GTRene on Tuesday 4th July 21:40

I had the issue with my original suspension, and then when I upgraded to Gaz Mono’s last year it didn’t improve, so I’ve ruled out the shocks. Thanks for the info

[andrew_r]

KKson said:

I had vibration on rear offside wheel. Turned out to be a drive shaft UJ on its way out.

Interesting. Did that cause a vibration through the steering?

[TwinKam]

I have had this (on other cars) where toe is perhaps too close to 0... experiment with the setting, within the tolerance obviously, to introduce a bit more loading.

[GTRene]

andrew_r said:

GTRene said:

edit: I read your story again, you also changed the tires, so I guess not the problem I had.

are the shocks still ok? bushes one maybe bad when forces built up?

Edited by GTRene on Tuesday 4th July 21:40

I had the issue with my original suspension, and then when I upgraded to Gaz Mono’s last year it didn’t improve, so I’ve ruled out the shocks. Thanks for the info

yw, not much left then.

maybe try on a old way balancing wheel thing, on the car, so lift the 1 wheel, put such thing against the wheel/tire and let it spin, see if they then see imbalance somewhere else, say bearings or so.

example of something that I mean, because of my poor english choice of words making sence :-)

[Tom8]

When I had issues like this it was always brakes touching wheel. Doesn't happen all the time and varies what speed it happens at, but I think three occasion over many years one was a handbrake issue the other two were pads touching wheels.

[rigga]

Many years ago when I was still in the car trade, we used to occasionally use a very old sit on wheel balancer, as per GTRene's picture above, whenever the normal off car wheel balancer failed to cure any wobble, this old thing was dragged out and utilised, and without fail, cured any wobble issues, don't really know why they disappeared. Balances the whole rotating mass, wheel, hub etc.

As to a drive shaft joint failing causing steering wobble, obviously on a front wheel drive car yes, but on tvrs no, generally a front wheel wobble would cause issues felt through the steering, and rear used to be felt through the seat, as it occilated through the body.

[blaze_away]

Jusy remembered this........son's Monaro had wheel wobble under braking at about 60+

Replaced rotors and pads still there.

Took bells off and fully cleaned the hub faces and bells of all rust and wo.bble was gone.

[phillpot]

rigga said:

don't really know why they disappeared. Balances the whole rotating mass, wheel, hub etc.

.

I would guess a mix of Elf & Safety and they can't be used on front wheel drive cars