Bad steering wheel wobble

[stoner 0]

My 16v has a really bad side-to-side wobble on the steering wheel. It's been getting worse over the last few weeks, at low speeds 15-30mph)it's very bad, with the wheel wobbling as much as a couple of inches, but it's better at higher speeds. I don't think it's bent wheel as it's been a gradual thing, could a wheel out-of-balance cause wobble as bad as this, and at this low a speed?

 

Andy.

[dazzyvr6 0]

first thing you should do is get your wheels off and take a look to see if everything is as it should be,tie rods,ball joints etc..if everything looks ok,get the balancing checked and the tracking :)

[Fine wine, Belgian chocs. 1]

Most likely to be a deformed tyre or bent wheel I'm afraid. Probably a deformed tyre if its got gradually worse.

Any tracking or other alignment problems would cause the car to pull to either side and balancing would cause a wobble at higher speeds than this.

I would get it looked at pronto, if it's a tyre going out of shape it'll go bang pretty soon.

[Henny 0]

Check that your wheel nuts are tight ASAP! I had this problem on my mothers Astra when I'd just started to drive... If there's one thing I don't want to ever happen again it's being overtaken by one of the wheels off the car you are driving! :shock:

[stoner 0]

I had a deformed tyre on an old metro (don't ask!) once, that caused a vibration on the steering rather than a wobble. I've checked the nuts are all tight so I don't think it's that either - looks like a trip to the tyre place might be in order to get it checked out properly.

[andycowuk 0]

Check to make sure the bolts wich hold the stearing rack are secure. There are four bolts either holding 2 bushes in u clamps round the rack on manual steering and on power steering 2 bolts go through rack, and two hold one bush round the rack.

Also check that the bolt that holds the steering column to the rack is securely in place.

[stoner 0]

Turns out it was a tyre...... I'm quite surprised cos it was a big wobble at low speed, you could even feel it at 10mph. Nothing apparent on the outside of the tyre, but a lump on the inside instead. Very happy, I was dreading it was something really expensive!