Vibration thru steering column
Turbo Mini Forums

When drivng along, when you hit approx 50mph I get a vibration thru te column, it makes the wheel shake a fair bit, take the car past 50 then it gets less, now my first thought was wheels out of ballence, I ahd two tyre fitted recently and all whells balenced, but this didnt cure it. I have checked over all the suspension and steering but cant faind the cause of it, I have checked everything for play, but found nothing. The only thing I can think of thats left is a drive shaft CV, anyone any thoughts?
Cheers
Shane

shockers knackered?
Dave

Hi,
Start with the easy things first.
Swap the front wheels with the back
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Hi, the shocks have minimal miles on them, so dont suspect these are at fault.
Bat, I have tried this but to no avail.
Does anyone else have any thoughts?
Cheers
Shane

CV ?

Just had the same problem on the van, it was the inner one tho.

When we checked it the other week we couldnt find anything but it kept locking so when checked you couldnt feel the play in it.

Rick

have the brakes knocked off your balancing weights?

Hi,
Driveshaft or CVs would be my next guess.
Bent driveshaft or locked up CVs as said above...
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Hmm, interesting one,

I recon its worth pulling the disc/flange of and seeing if theres any crap on the spline.

failing that check the drive shafts for axial play, maybe it could be somthing like a missing ball at the inner end causing the shaft to rotate on the piss.

also check the pot joint for axial, could be a goosed diff flange bush.

make sure the cv nut is Tight!

I had a similair issue on an equinox once, i found the drive shaft nut to be loose so i tightened it and it stopped.

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Ballence weights are all present and correct Nic. outer Cv joints are ok, but I think it might be the inner ones, as I have not changed these ever, and I have had the car nearly 8 years! What is an exceptable amount of play in these? Cheers
SHane

I have this exact same problem on my wifes car. I recently put new discs on it so I need to check the runout, and I know the o/s wheel bearing has play in it. Pulling up the hub nut has done no good so I'm hoping a new bearing will help.

neil8p has a point check the discs for run out and the bearings

Cheers Steve, put a dti on the disk and there is miniaml run out, no play in bearings, but backed off the cv nut and retightended (using big washer) but still no joy, when I next get a spare few hours I might start swpping drive shafts out?
Cheers
Shane

Sorry to drag this back up, but my mini currently has this exact same problem.

The front of the car and the steering wheel will judder over roughly 45 - 50mph and will not stop untill you go below those speeds again. It seems to judder more or less depending on how hard you are accelerating as well? It does not judder at all if you take your foot off the accelerator however.

This has only started happening since the car was crashed and the front passenger wheel hit a rock in a mud wall. The tyre came off the rim so i'm guessing it was a fair impact. The tyre has since been changed for a new but that made no difference. All wheels have been balanced recently.

Getting a bit annoying now as I have put up with it for a fair while, but just want it sorted!

Have you looked at the tie bars and bottom arms? They could be damaged/bent/loose. It's also possible that your wheel coult be bent, but I would expect that to show up on the balancing machine. You may have damaged the steering rack or track rod ends. Probably worth checking the rack U bolts are tight.

Not relevant to your problem, but more to the thread in general. I had the disk to flage bolts come loose once

The steering rack was replaced as it got bent in the accident, along with the steering arm from the affected hub. I'm pretty sure the rack U bolts are tight, but will double check them.

The tie bars are new, but the affected side bottom arm is still the same so it could be that.

I had this on a mk1 golf I used to own, strangely enough the problem was found in back right wheel. Just beacuse its shaking the steering column, dont assume the problems up front. Just a thought.

Greg

Edited by CR# on 3rd Dec, 2009.

my money is on a bent rim.

A wheel dos not have to be round to be in balance. I found ths out only a few weeks ago when I took my car to them Kwickshit lot. I said that there was vibration around 65mph.

They took all the wheels off and checked the balance, and said that they were all fine. It wasnt untill they put all the wheels back on the car and started to look at the drive shafts, that I, yes thats right, ME, spotted that both front and read nearside wheels were bent on the inside edge!

Edited by Sprocket on 3rd Dec, 2009.

Sprocket, that was my problem, bent inside lip on the rear rim.

Are you guys refering to Shane or me with your solutions? Just to clarify :)

I'll take the front wheel off and inspect it when I get chance. Don't have any tools at uni!

Just a NB as well, the car was fine before the accident!

If the tire came off id bet the wheel is buckled.

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I have a vibration at over 65 on my car, how do you test the CV joints?

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
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I have had this problem on virtually every car I have ever put aftermarket alloy wheels on. I would find that my wheels weren't centralising correctly. Jack up the front end and spin the wheels. You will see if your wheel is bent or not running true.

I had the same problem and changed everything on the front drivetrain with no luck.

Then I found this:
http://www.pro-align.co.uk/products/balancers/psgsp9700.htm

It appears not all wheel balancers are the same. I had mine balanced at 3 different places until I found a place that had one of these. Also make sure you balance the wheel with the weights on the extremes of the rim. It might not look pretty on the outside rim of your fancy alloys, but you have a better chance of it being in balance.

This worked for me.