Steering Vibrations

Submitted: Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 00:00

ThreadID: 61622 Views:2458 Replies:10 FollowUps:5

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Member - Troll 81 (QLD)

Hello all

Driving down the street today at about 60 I hit a pothole and my steering wheel started shaking uncontrollably. I had to slow down to about 10 before it went back to normal. I first noticed this about 2 months ago but it was only doing it so often and not as bas as today. I have a return to center steering damper could that be faulty? I had the wheels balanced and aligned last week as well.

Thoughts?

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Reply By: Louie the fly (SA) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:18

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:18

Had this similar problem in my old girl. It turned out that one of my tie rod ends had a bit of a bend in it. As it is already cranked at the non threaded end what I think was happening was the whole tie rod was twisting slightly on the travel of the ball joint and causing an out of alignment condition, causing a shimmy in the LH front wheel. It was also causing a bit of bump steer. Once I slowed down it fixed itself. Need to replace the whole shebang before it goes back on the road.

Not saying this is the problem yours has, but could be something like that.

AnswerID: 325031

Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:31

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:31

Thanks mate will check that out

FollowupID: 592141

Reply By: Member - Mike DID - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:49

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:49

Your front shock absorbers are worn out.

AnswerID: 325035

Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:59

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:59

Negative replaced them about 2000kms ago with Konis it was also doing it with my Rancho's

But thanks

FollowupID: 592146

Reply By: Willem - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:20

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:20

Morning

You have knocked a wheel weight off the side of the rim and now the wheel may be out of balance

Cheers

AnswerID: 325039

Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:21

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:21

Thought that was the case and I got an alignment and balance done and it made no difference

FollowupID: 592150

Reply By: Rossco td105 - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:45

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:45

G'day Troll,

Just had exactly the same thing start happening to me, pretty scary when driving along at 80kph.

Mine was doing it all the time once hitting anything above 50kph, especially when one wheel hit a bump and started the 'shake' off.

Replaced the steering damper, made big improvement, but could still feel it on the odd occasion (just a milder version through the steering wheel, steering damper must have been keeping problem in check) Then replaced the steering knuckle bearings/sleeves (did the wheel bearings/axle seals while I had it all apart). Problem gone!

If you do a google search there are lots of people talking about this symptom on their (normally mild to crazy lifted) 4wd's. My damper was on the way out, so replaced it any way but as Louie suggests most of the problems are tie-rod end, damper and bearing related.

Good luck,

Ross.

AnswerID: 325046

Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:49

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:49

Thanks Ross,

I replaced my factory damper with the return to center and it's only done about 10000km's if that.

How much did the repair set you back?

FollowupID: 592157

Follow Up By: Rossco td105 - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 22:04

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 22:04

I did all the labour myself, gave myself two full days to do front and rear (first time for me...).

I don't think my damper was the main culprit, just wasn't masking a bigger issue any more.

Parts were about $220 per end for bearing kits (including axle seals), $440 for both swivel bearing kits (I went offset bearings to gain some more camber for the larger tyres), and $250 for a complete genuine swivel hub seal kit.

I know it's quite a bit, but wasn't interested in doing each job twice. Went good quality gear and it has sorted the problems, plus I should only have to do rebuilds for the next couple hundred thousand kays and not have to replace things... the better half wouldn't be impressed if I had to either.

Just a side note, my damper was a return to centre job as well, only done about 12,000km but you can feel it's buggered when off the car. 50% of those kays were done on corrugated outback roads with the larger tyres (and maybe other problems) so may have asked a lot of it.

Hope you get it sorted,

Ross,

Sorry for the essay...

FollowupID: 592249

Reply By: redeye141 - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:47

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:47

Had similar thing and took ages to find problem.

Turned out to be excessive wheel bearing play along with a faulty tie rod joint. Had vibration when driving and under heavy breaking with the camper on.

Garry

AnswerID: 325047

Reply By: Member - Rodney B- Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:51

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 09:51

Check Wheel bearing adjustments and swivel housing bearings. Normally you need a noticeable amount of wear in tie rods or steering joints to produce this shake (by this I mean you can generally feel play in the steering or see it when you rock the steering back and forth). To check swivel housing bearings, jack the diff housing up and grab the wheel top and bottom and see if there is any play or put a crowbar under the wheel and apply pressure under the tyre. You should have no perceivable play in the bearings. Swivel bearings are preloaded (refer to your workshop manual if you have one) and wheel bearing movement should be minimal to non existent. If you grab the wheel at the sides and shake this should tell you if you have any tie rod end wear. Once again movement should be nil. You normally need someone to do the shaking while you look. Also check the play in the steering box and adjust if it is excessive.

AnswerID: 325048

Reply By: Member - MUZBRY (VIC) - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 11:43

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 11:43

Gday Steve
I had similar problems after returning from Wiraweena? last year
On return to Melbourne i found that i had a bent wheel.I put it on the back and replaced the steering damper at the same time.I know the wheel is bent and will replace when i find one.
I hit a large pot hole when fooling around on the dirt road out . I may have learnt my lesson, but am not sure.
Murray

Muzbry
Great place to be Mt Blue Rag 27/12/2012

Lifetime Member
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AnswerID: 325062

Reply By: bbuzz - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 20:01

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 20:01

This happens on leaf spring vehicles fairly often. Had an old jeep and it was really bad.
My 60 series was doing it lately.
Problem was the bushes in the spring ends being worn. Too much movement. Mainly the front but the back ones were sloppy too.
Saw your profile so thats not the problem. Could be something to do with the bushes under your coils or similiar.

AnswerID: 325128

Reply By: Malleerv - Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 22:21

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 at 22:21

Had the same problem in my GQ. The front diff shook so violently that the cross link rod support on the chassis snapped off. Was very scary at the time but I was not far from home. I replaced the bushes in the cross link rod and had the bracket welded back on with some extra bits and also replaced the trailing arm bushes, had no more problems.

Matt

AnswerID: 325149

Reply By: brett patrol - Monday, Sep 15, 2008 at 09:10

Monday, Sep 15, 2008 at 09:10

I had the same thing and turned out it was the front panhard rod bushes.
I run 35's which exaggerates the problem, so generally have the bushes replaced every 12 months. Havent had a problem since.
cheers

AnswerID: 325360