Steering wheel wobble on the motorway

Ardent

Has anyone experienced vibration or wobble in their steering wheel and managed to elimate it successfully?

I've made a few changes to my '04 Vectra recently and I'm now getting maddening wobble on the motorway at speeds > 100 kph.

Wobble first appeared after I had 2 new Falken tyres put on the rear - the two other best wheels were put on the front. All wheels were balanced and tracked.

This weekend I had the steering rack tie-rods replaced and the wheels re-balanced and re-aligned at a different shop. The wobble is even worse now, you can see the steering wheel shaking violently. Funny thing, it comes in waves/cycles - a few seconds of wobble and then a few seconds of smoothness, and so on. Only occurs over 100kph.

Anybody have any ideas on what I should check for next? It's really wrecking my head!

Theta

I don't know if its the same but a family member had wobble in her steering at motorway speeds and it turned out that even though she or even the first mechanic to look at the car couldnt see it the front driver side alloy had buckled very slightly causing wobble.

So maybe when you had new tires put on it buckled the alloy slightly?

grudgebringer

Hi

It is likely that your Falken tyres are defective, at least 1 if not both.

I suggest you return to your garage where they were purchased and ask for replacements, the wobble is generally down to either flat spots on the tyre or simply defective (probably recalled) tyres which if raised and spun may even exhibit this defect visually if bad enough.

Did you also change the rims on the car or only the tyres?

mullingar

Best thing to do is swap one of the falkens with your spare.

If its still there, refit the first falken and swap the other with the spare.

If its still there maybe both falkens are dodgy. Swap them to the rear.

If its still there after all this work you have something wrong with your suspension

Ardent

I'll the check the alloys for any defects.

I bought the tyres off Camskills. Only the tires were replaced but as I say the wheels were moved around. Is there an easy check to see if the new tyres are defective? Is spinning and inspecting them visually good enough?

Stevie Dakota

I would have thought if it was the tyres then it would have showed up when being balanced (assuming they were done properly, check that the balancing weights have not detached). More likely suspension related? Dave McCanns would be top of my list of people to call.

Cosmo K

Get your wheels balanced, and not just the front ones, the rear wheels as well.

mlmcelligott

Sounds simple but start small. Before you spend loads of money on new parts that might ot have been defective in the first place get a buddy to drive behind you and in front of you and let them look at your tyres. If its a buckled rim or tyre they might see it. Could even be a worn bearing too.

BlackWizard

It really just sounds like balancing, but the garage should of done this for you. I'd bring them back to the garage that fitted them.

Ardent

In case this helps anyone in future, I solved the problem finally.

It turns out that the two front tyres (Infinity/Triangle) had different types of treading. This meant that each of the front tyres planed differently at a certain speed. Replacing them with two brand-new, identical Falkens has removed all vibration in the steering wheel and I feel like I'm driving a different car!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

vectra

Ardent wrote: »

In case this helps anyone in future, I solved the problem finally.

It turns out that the two front tyres (Infinity/Triangle) had different types of treading. This meant that each of the front tyres planed differently at a certain speed. Replacing them with two brand-new, identical Falkens has removed all vibration in the steering wheel and I feel like I'm driving a different car!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

LOL
And you forgot to mention that the Tyre shop that advised you on this "Saw yoiu coming a mile away"
Absolute rubbish
I would guarantee that a good wheel balance would have fixed it as good.
After all.. They did Balance the Falkens after "Selling" fitting them for you.?

Ardent

I bought the tyres online. I was thinking of putting Falkens on all four corners anyway.

Fair play to the guys who informed me of the problem - it was my first time bringing the car in to them to be balanced (yet again) and they could have charged me for that.

Edit: Oh, and I got the tyres fitted elsewhere as well. So, no, not absolute rubbish - balancing issues are usually manifested at 60-80 kph.

CountingCrows

Ardent wrote: »

I bought the tyres online. I was thinking of putting Falkens on all four corners anyway.

Fair play to the guys who informed me of the problem - I had brought the car in to them to be balanced (yet again) and they could have gone ahead anyway and charged me for that.

Who sorted it out for you? No harm to recommend them

Ardent

United Tyres in Donnybrook, Dublin. Their recommendation was to replace one of the front tyres with the same directional treading as the other.

I had read your earlier post as different depths of threading Makes sense now

metzengerstein

ive had the same on diffrent parts of it ,i reckon its the tarmac ,it happens on other roads also when theres a ripple in the road it can pull the car over some direction or give a wobble..i used to go to work every morn on the m50 as it was being upgraded and noticed this when driving on the new bits ..