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gradeAfailure

Steering wheel vibration...

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Got a bit of vibration through the steering wheel at about 60-70MPH, though if you're driving at about 20 you can see the wheel moving side to side ever so slightly - just had the front wheels re-balanced, so it's not that, and I've spun the wheels on the car and they're not flat-spotted or buckled...

 

Any ideas?

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I did think that, but though that would just make it pull to the side...? (which it is doing anyway, god I love this car... :roll:)

 

Gonna get it booked in for a full laser alignment thingy doodah soon anyway, just wanted to see if there was anything untoward that might need looking at before then...

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Well if the tracking is out, it could mean that the wheels are wobbling side-to-side ever so slightly, which would give you judder on the motorway.

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Are you using hubcentric rings? (ring spacers to take up gap between the hub OD and the wheel ID) If you have aftermarket wheels you should be using them. I never thought much of it till replacing them cured the vibration.

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Jack the car up, take the wheels off and move the brake discs round by hand and see if the disc is catching on one spot as if passed through the pads/caliper. Mine was making a noise when it did this as it wasn't that bad, but i guess you could feel it if it was bad enought. I replaced the discs and pads, problem sorted. im not sure you'd feel it at high speeds though.

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My previous car did this because I put aftermarket wheels on and didn't have the ringspacer thingys.

 

My rado was doing this because the inside of one of the back alloys was a bit out of shape, I didn't notice this, the garage pointed it out when I took it in for something else.

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"wheel moving side-to-side slightly" ... eh? The WHOLE wheel? Or just the bit on the ground?

 

If it's the whole wheel it could be wheel bearings but if it's just one edge of the wheel (the bit in contact with the ground) you've got a buckled wheel, or it's not on right.

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I have exactly the same problem! After fitting my 8x17s. Initially i thought it was me getting used to the harder tyre ride, but then thought no the sticky weights have flown off, allas not though. Had em re-ballanced and its still well bad, same speed as you.

 

I've also just noticed that my pasenger side wheel sticks out more from the arch than the drivers side! Only 1 ish cm but a bit of a shock.

 

However, my top mounts are original as is most for the gear on the car, so im thinking there could be a number of things causing mine. top mounts, camber, tracking, bushes. I swear one of the arms sits at slightly dif angles but its very hard to juj by eye.

 

Having mine lasered so ill let you know

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check ya wheels matey one of them may be buckled or slightly bent....you couldnt even see mine but i couldnt do more than 80mph changed the wheel and it was fine

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Well, both front tyres are brand new, and I had the wheels re-balanced - turns out one of the balancing weights had fallen off... :roll:

 

The steering wheel wobble has now dramatically lessened but is still ever-so-slightly noticeable, so I'm gonna have a full laser-alignment done when I get paid and see if that helps any...

 

As far as the wheels themselves go, they are the correct centre-bore for VWs, and I asked the guys who did the balancing to check if the wheels were out of shape at all, and they said that they were fine...

 

Cheers for the suggestions so far!

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hopefully this is what was happening to mine, although at a slower speed about 50mph.

 

Got the MOT done, worn track rod end that needed replacing........doesnt seem to do it now!

 

get it checked, should be cheap too!

 

Good luck

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Well, at the RR day, I did notice that the offside front weel was wobbling slightly - though when I had them balanced, the garage said they weren't out of true, so I'm hoping it's just the fact that when the wheels were refurbed, they sprayed the mounting face... Gonna take the paint off when I get a chance, and see if that improves matters...

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I had exactly the same thing happen to me when i first bought my vr and it turned out to be one of the tyres, mind you couldn't see it was knackered by looking at it, was chuffed after though :D

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Check the back tyres too. I thought it was daft when I had a similar problem and my dealer suggested it, but they were dead right.

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Right, bit of an update...

 

After noticing that the offside front wheel seemed to be a little out of true on the RR day, today I took off the wheel and brake disc and cleaned up all the mating faces and made sure everything was aligned and located correctly... Yet, when you spin the wheel you can definitely see that it is marginally out of true. Is there any surefire way of confirming this or ruling it out, other that sending it to a (reputable) wheel repair place...?

 

Starting to wish I'd bought something else now, I really can't afford all this grief... :(

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I suspect the wobble would go if the wheel was on the back, but tbh I'm more concerned as to why I have an out of true wheel now, as I've not hit anything with it... It could be that this wheel was originally on the back of the car before the refurb, so I wouldn't have noticed that it was out of true. Though as I had the lips of the wheels diamond-turned during the refurb, this would have been raised then as you can't lathe something that's out of true... Is it possible tht the wheel is not sitting absoluely flush on the mounting face for some reason? Due to paint in the centre bore of the wheel, they are a rather tight fit... I have sanded this down but maybe I need to remove more?

 

As for the conversion, I think I need to get the car to a state where I'm happy with it as it is, rather than just compounding my misery by trying to take more stuff on...

 

Maybe I'll just go buy a Saxo... ;)

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