Steering wobble at 55mph

KwackerJack

New tyres, New brake pads, tyre rotation after New tyres to rule out buckle!

Sit at 55 and I get a wobble.....under or over 55 no wobble??

Bent disc?

Bad bushings?

TheBigGreen

Wheel balance or wheel alignment?

KwackerJack

TheBigGreen wrote: »

Wheel balance or wheel alignment?

Wheels were balanced when new tyres were fitted.

I put the rear to the front after to see if it.made a difference but it did not.

pippip

I'd double check the balances again. Make sure non fell off. Easiest thing to check first and cheapest.

kerten

Sometimes slightly buckled wheels can be missed.

Issue in front wheels = wobbling on steering wheel only
Issue in rear wheels = wobbling on car

Be careful about a faulty new tyres.

I once had to replace a brand new looking pair of tyres came with the car to get rid of wobble after balancing(twice) and rotating all wheels.

tin79

Could be a warped disk. I had the same recently around the same speed. Got the tires balanced and it didn't sort. Turned out to be a warped disk.


If you brake hard from that speed can you feel it in the pedal and the steering wheel?

KwackerJack

tin79 wrote: »

Could be a warped disk. I had the same recently around the same speed. Got the tires balanced and it didn't sort. Turned out to be a warped disk.


If you brake hard from that speed can you feel it in the pedal and the steering wheel?

Did actually one time when i nearly went through the window, but not anymore, having said that I haven't braked that hard since.

The disc are worn but not badly. I will replace them anyway and see if that helps.

I'm guessing it's disc but with big cars and all the suspension arms etc it's hard to know

kerten

KwackerJack wrote: »

Did actually one time when i nearly went through the window, but not anymore, having said that I haven't braked that hard since.

The disc are worn but not badly. I will replace them anyway and see if that helps.

I'm guessing it's disc but with big cars and all the suspension arms etc it's hard to know

Warped discs = wobbling kicks in during braking and you feel it at brake bedal most. If wobbling is always there, it is unlikely warped discs.

I didn't feel any wobbling in a car with worst possible warped discs(car was going mental at braking around 30-40 km/h) if brakes are not engaged.

what is the car ?

stimpson

I had a wobble in my last car and balancing didn't sort it. I asked my mechanic to check the discs. He reckoned they were fine and it was a balancing issue. I brought it to Discount Tyres in Ballycoolin and I was told that the last guy to balance it just added more weights. He took off all the weights and balanced again. Result.

Nonoperational

+1 for it most likely being a small bend in the wheel throwing the balancing out a bit.

Cogsy88

Did you check wheel the bearings op?

biko

I've had that 60mph wobble with a bad tyre and with a bad alloy.
If tyre is new then I'd focus on the alloy next.

KwackerJack

kerten wrote: »

Warped discs = wobbling kicks in during braking and you feel it at brake bedal most. If wobbling is always there, it is unlikely warped discs.

I didn't feel any wobbling in a car with worst possible warped discs(car was going mental at braking around 30-40 km/h) if brakes are not engaged.

what is the car ?

Its a 1998 CLK 230. wobble goes when I touch the brake but I can just about still feel it in the sterring.

Cogsy88 wrote: »

Did you check wheel the bearings op?

Not yet but I will on Saturday, cant hear a bearing yet but ill double check with my hands also

biko wrote: »

I've had that 60mph wobble with a bad tyre and with a bad alloy.
If tyre is new then I'd focus on the alloy next.

After I got the new tyres and felt the wobble I swapped the rear to front and I still have the exact same wobble.

I might swap from the nearside and the rotate the tyre's on the rim if the wobble goes.

corktina

I'd avoid doing 55 mph.Could be a sticking calliper

biko

KwackerJack wrote: »

After I got the new tyres and felt the wobble I swapped the rear to front and I still have the exact same wobble.

Hm, that kinda rules out the tyre/alloy theory.
With car jacked up, see if you can feel play in the wheel.

Eric Cartman

could be a problem in the steering rack / linkage , I know the e38 7 series gets this between 45-55mph , no idea if its ever happened to a mercedes model but may be worth looking at.

KwackerJack

Eric Cartman wrote: »

could be a problem in the steering rack / linkage , I know the e38 7 series gets this between 45-55mph , no idea if its ever happened to a mercedes model but may be worth looking at.

The 98 CLK has an old style steering box-rack ( similar to below ) so you may be right.....

The rack itself is brand new as I seen it and have the receipt!!

b318isp

Check the wheel bolt torques. I've seen this a few times when one bolt is looser than the others.

Another tip is to tighten the bolts as much as you can with the wheel jacked up, and do the final tightening with the car on the ground again. This can be a big issue with aftermarket wheels when the hub diameter is not quite the right size. Tighten the bolts in a criss cross order, not in circle.

Also, spin the wheels when jacked up, and check for tyre ovality. Some cheaper tyres are not quite circular - and can cause funny wobbles.

That's the free and easy stuff!

Greyfoot

Steering wheel wobbling is almost always related to brakes. You mentioned that when you touch the brake pedal the wobbling goes, this also points to brakes.

There is no such thing real warped discs(mostly only on race cars), but grooved, patched up discs. Check your front discs for grooves on the surface, run your finger up and down and feel higher, lower spots. The most overlooked feature of a disc is hot spots. These form after a spirited driving, coming to a stand still, applying brakes. The hot pads literally melt onto the surface of the discs, these can cause wobbling at medium to higher speed intervals.

Skimming the discs or fitting new ones sorts this out, but brake pads are also needs to be changed at the same time, otherwise the old pads might re-shape the new disc surface.

Greyfoot

corktina wrote: »

I'd avoid doing 55 mph.Could be a sticking calliper

That can be felt by car pulling to either side, or slowing down rapidly when left in neutral. OP also said pads were recently changed, mechanic would noticed a sticking piston.

lollsangel

Wheel shaking at 90 to 110km is anproblem with the wheel balancing....changed the tyres and alloys on one of the cars last oct, was doing this. Droped it back and the boys sorted it.

visual

It wheel balancing
Go some where else and get it done correctly.

Warped discs will be most noticable when you brake the strearing shakes and you can some times feel it through the pedal.

A lot of tyre compaines are chancers and don't balance tyres on the rear. So rear tyres you rotated to front are probably not balanced either.

Play in your stearing wont cause vibration at 55 it will just be drifting on the road and youll be manually correcting the stearing.

Bearings are a possibility but would have to be bad to cause that so much so that you probably have a whine noise and with wheel jack off ground it be noisy to spin and have play when you grab the wheel move it like your checking ball joints or steering linkage.

Its more likely a tyre problem and it should show up on balancing machine.

KwackerJack

Thanks for all the replys.

I will check the balancing on Sat including discs, tyres etc.

I'll write back when I've found the issue.

matt-dublin

Car needs laser tracking. One of the wheels isn't aligned correctly.

KwackerJack

matt-dublin wrote: »

Car needs laser tracking. One of the wheels isn't aligned correctly.

As in 4 wheel alignment?

matt-dublin

yes