Shake in steering wheel

Shefwedfan

Ok so all of a sudden today there is shake in car today. On the motorway there is a small shudder when doing 120km. Nothing serious but didn't notice before

But if I brake anyway hard at all there is a huge shudder in the steering wheel

If you are coming up to junction and brake really really slowly there is just a small shudder but any sort of normal use of brake and there is a shudder.

Just wondering what it might be?

biko

Shudder when braking could point to discs but vibration at motorway speed point to wheel imbalance. Shudder at both, a loose wheel?
Start by checking all wheels are properly fastened, then get all wheels balanced and take it from there.

porsche boy

Severe shudder when breaking would be warped brake discs. Shaking @120kph would be wheel balancing

Ronin247

Had a similar thing one time. .. tyre had a big bubble appeared on the side wall. Easy to check .

Bazzy

Sounds like warped brake discs

Time to get them checked

dooroy

If the shake has begun suddenly I would take a close look at all the tyres in case one has been damaged and is bulging , deformed in some way etc.
For the front tyres you can get someone to drive the car slowly forward,wheels turned to the left or right . until you have viewed the full circumference of the tyre. You can only really view one tyre at a time.
For the rears you could jack up each in turn and examine it carefully.Don't run your had around the inside of a tyre in case there are wires sticking out.

ABC101

Warped brake discs causes shudder when breaking.

Shudder at speed, wheel imbalance or could also be worn front suspension linkages / bushes etc.

One car I had would pull to the left when changing gear. So I got the car tracked. But it still reoccurred. Faulty right front lower suspension ball joint very heavily worn. It could have popped out with the wheel ripping the drive shaft out of the gearbox. Cost of replacement part was about 15 quid.

Brake discs can get badly warped by drivers racing up to red lights, then braking hard, which causes hot brakes / discs and then while the lights are red they hold the car on the foot brake (ie not using hand brake). This causes uneven cooling of the brake disc which is still clamped by a hot calliper. It also blinds the driver stopped behind with strong brake lights glaring 8 feet in front of them.

If I do brake hard to stop, I try to stop slightly short of the stop line, then while waiting for the lights to change I let the car ever so slightly roll forward every 20 seconds or so, thereby rotating the hot disc through the calliper in an attempt to distribute the cooling a bit more.

Automatics can be more prone to warped discs, as drivers want to hold the car on the foot brake, rather than taking the gearbox out of drive and into neutral and using the handbrake instead.

Warped discs area common enough occurrence, but it can be made worse by sitting on the foot brake particularly after hard braking.

You'll see it all the time though, take any junction and you'll see several cars being held with the foot rake and rear lenses burning red.

Chris_Heilong

Get your wheels re-balanced and checked, a shake can occur when something is not totally rounds as well, I had this but changed my wheels and its fixed.

Shefwedfan

Thanks for all the advice, I would guess the wheels need balancing. I dont think the small shudder at 120 is major issue

The braking is the problem. I did think it was worse when the car was cold. So the first few times I used brakes after taking off it seemed worse. Then when I was going ti was a little better which did suggest to me brakes and getting better because they are warmed up

Will do a bit of checking today

wonski

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice, I would guess the wheels need balancing. I dont think the small shudder at 120 is major issue

The braking is the problem. I did think it was worse when the car was cold. So the first few times I used brakes after taking off it seemed worse. Then when I was going ti was a little better which did suggest to me brakes and getting better because they are warmed up

Will do a bit of checking today

In most cars brakes are not getting better when warmed up;)

The opposite, actually.

Shefwedfan

I forgot all about it but car is in for NCT in morning, any chacne it would pass? would they check for that?

porsche boy

Shefwedfan wrote:

I forgot all about it but car is in for NCT in morning, any chacne it would pass? would they check for that?

Well it will cost you to cancel now so I'd be putting it through either way. In answer to your question, if the shudder is noticeable enough then it will fail.

biko

Put it through and see what they say. No point in cancelling if car might fail on something else too that needs fixing.