What else could it be ? Vibrating Steering

Lustral · 25 Mar 2017 at 12:21

Just wondering what else it could be ? Got the missus car wheel alinged and balanced this morning but it still had a slight vibration on the wheel at about 70mph.

It only happens at 70 ish and no other speeds.

Any else i could get checked.

Thanks in advance

Dav4 · 25 Mar 2017 at 12:25

My ST steering wheel vibrated at 50mph and over especially under acceleration ended up one of the driveshafts was broken it's easy to miss unless checked properly

Lustral · 25 Mar 2017 at 12:55

Thanks , bit bad as she said she has only hit a pothole on the near side . I might swing by the tyre place again to see what they say .

SquirrelMadness · 25 Mar 2017 at 13:35

Had the same problem... was 2 broken coils at the front.

Lumeycom · 26 Mar 2017 at 18:46

Driveshaft is my bet if the rest checks out

mollymoo · 26 Mar 2017 at 19:01

Had the same problem and it was the brakes, seized caliper and warped disc.

Teknobry · 26 Mar 2017 at 19:51

worn top mount bushes.

mrk · 26 Mar 2017 at 23:32

mollymoo said:
Had the same problem and it was the brakes, seized caliper and warped disc.

You'd know if it was this immediately after getting out of the car due to one brake releasing much more heat than the other.

Lustral · 27 Mar 2017 at 08:20

It was more or less fine before she hit a pothole , so im guessing she might have damaged the driveshaft. Doubt it is the brakes / disc or anything like that thought , but i might be wrong.

Gepetto · 27 Mar 2017 at 09:26

Could it be a slight flatspot on the wheel? I had a slight vibration through the steering wheel that was only felt at about 60mph and it was the front left wheel. Wasn't a bad flatspot and was only visible when we spun the wheel on the balancing machine.

Nasher · 27 Mar 2017 at 10:01

If it was after hitting a pothole it would be a bent alloy.

Put a claim in with the council

Lustral · 27 Mar 2017 at 10:06

yeah i though it could be a bent alloy as well , time to source another alloy from somewhere and see.

Mysterae_ · 27 Mar 2017 at 11:20

I've got this too on my 640d, the vibration starts around 60mph, gets worse the faster I go then evens out.

So I've a number of jobs to do:
1. Replace the front discs and pads as the discs are 0.5mm above the minimum thickness anyway. Worn discs can cause this type of vibration.
2. Remove and check the condition of all the wheels, removing all existing weights and sticky gunk and give them a thorough clean.
3. Then immediately get the wheels properly balanced and the alignment checked.

If the vibration is still present I'll look deeper in to it, but I suspect it's one or all of the issues above. It's usually exaggerated with 20" wheels and huge brake discs.

Vita · 27 Mar 2017 at 11:56

I had this when I put my new alloys on. Originally thinking that the fronts were not balanced properly. The wobble would occur at 85-90mph. Then it would even out.

Taking them off and reseating them and torquing the nuts up again seemed to solved the problem. Worth checking that before checking more expensive parts.

Fr0dders · 27 Mar 2017 at 12:19

Lustral said:
yeah i though it could be a bent alloy as well , time to source another alloy from somewhere and see.

You said in your OP that you've had the wheels balanced ?

If the wheel was bent, it would have potentially been unable to balance with weights alone. If its still doing it AFTER you've had the wheels balanaced, then its definitely not that.

Lustral · 27 Mar 2017 at 12:25

Fr0dders said:
You said in your OP that you've had the wheels balanced ?

If the wheel was bent, it would have potentially been unable to balance with weights alone. If its still doing it AFTER you've had the wheels balanaced, then its definitely not that.

On the job sheet , it mentions that they have done a computer wheel balance , but i dont think they have actually done anything , i.e added or removed weights. They have merely adjusted some alignments that i can see to get it within spec of the car.

Fr0dders · 27 Mar 2017 at 12:41

Lustral said:
On the job sheet , it mentions that they have done a computer wheel balance , but i dont think they have actually done anything , i.e added or removed weights. They have merely adjusted some alignments that i can see to get it within spec of the car.

If the wheel didn't need any weights adding or removing because it was already balanced then it won't be bent. A bent alloy would be all over the shop on the balancing machine. Plus they guy would most likely have seen it as soon as he took it off and lined it up on the machine.

Mysterae_ · 27 Mar 2017 at 13:07

Vita said:
I had this when I put my new alloys on. Originally thinking that the fronts were not balanced properly. The wobble would occur at 85-90mph. Then it would even out.

Taking them off and reseating them and torquing the nuts up again seemed to solved the problem. Worth checking that before checking more expensive parts.

Cheers for that, I'll definitely be doing this as well, I have to change the discs and pads anyway (already have the parts).

Lustral · 27 Mar 2017 at 13:07

Cool, im gonna take it to somewhere else to get a second opinion when i get the chance , the missus can put up with it , but when i drove it yesterday , it was pretty bad and would not be acceptable in my opinion , im just fussy

Mysterae_ · 5 Aug 2017 at 10:09

Any update OP? I just replace the discs and pads and it's got rid of the vibration at speed and when braking. I now suspect a wheel bearing is a bit bad, not sure what caused what - bad disc causing a bad bearing or vice versa. Going to get it balanced and aligned anyway, as well as change the wheel bearing.