Shuddering at a certain speed

rich_g85

rich_g85

rich_g85

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Joined
12 Jun 2003
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Either Tonbridge or Biggin Hill
Hi all,
Just looking for some advice from people more knowledgable than myself..

My car has developed quite a severe shudder at a particular (motorway) speed. The whole dash is juddering, my coins are rattling in the coin tray and it's just quite unpleasant really!

I have also noticed that when driving in a straight line, the steering wheel isn't straight- I need to keep it slightly turned to maintain a straight line!

I had the wheels balanced which didn't solve the juddering. Would having the wheel alignment/tracking done make any difference to either problem?

I also noticed that my front right tyre is worn smooth around the outer edge, although there's bags of tread all over the rest of the tyre (can attach a photo if it helps).

Thanks
Rich
 
Get the tracking/alignment done asap, should sort the problem if done properly.

Maybe some new tyres as well if they are badly worn.
 
Tracking would almost certainly sort out the uneven tyre wear, but I'm not sure why the car would shudder - that really does sound like wheel balance to me.

Where did you get your wheels balanced because I've seen on here where people have gone to get it done and it hasn't been done properly - think it was kwik-fit.
 
Funny you should say that - it was Kwik Fit that did the wheel balance. I'll ask the local place to do it again to be sure.
 
Wheel balancing is probably the culprit for the judder, but it could also be worn bearings were they reach the point were the resonance from the drive shaft causes the vibration.
 
LizardKing said:
Wheel balancing is probably the culprit for the judder, but it could also be worn bearings were they reach the point were the resonance from the drive shaft causes the vibration.
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You would hear a drone for ages before one of those went - OP would have to listen to loud music the whole time not to hear that.

How long has this been happening, is it possible you slid into a curb in the snow and knocked the camber out or something?
 
ajstan said:
is it possible you slid into a curb in the snow and knocked the camber out or something?
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Tracking out + large imbalance certainly points at some kind of incident in the near past. I would very carefully inspect the tyres for any bulges. Obviously you'd expect a tyre centre to spot something like that, but we are talking about Kwik Fit.
 
In my experience serious wheel judder / vibration is down to either:
a) wheel imbalance (they could have been properly balanced 1 week ago and a weight fallen off you know!)
b) buckled wheel

I have had my tyres balaned improperly before, where the 'tard at the tyre place put the weights on the opposite side of the wheel from where they should have been, but that caused only minor vibration. Serious vibration is often a buckled wheel.

Never had wheel alignment cause vibration, that just knackers your tyres.
 
is it smooth accelerating and only shudders when you're speed levels out? my dad's got a mondeo and he had a problem with the car shuddering at certain speeds but not when accelerating, it turned out to be one of the electrical chips somewhere in the engine. can't ask him yet as he's in work.
 
So it turns out the tracking was WAY out!

According to the printout, the 'Total toe' should have been between -1.36 and +1.36 but was actually -10.75!

It's also had two new front tyres. The steering wheel now sits straight, but I have yet to test for vibration.
 
rich_g85 said:
So it turns out the tracking was WAY out!

According to the printout, the 'Total toe' should have been between -1.36 and +1.36 but was actually -10.75!

It's also had two new front tyres. The steering wheel now sits straight, but I have yet to test for vibration.
Click to expand...

Well, with your new tyres (which will mean your wheels should be properly balanced) and tracking corrected if you're still getting vibration then you either have a buckled wheel (could be front or rear) or one of the rear wheels is not balanced.

Did you feel the shake through the steering wheel or just generally?
 
Havana_UK said:
Well, with your new tyres (which will mean your wheels should be properly balanced) and tracking corrected if you're still getting vibration then you either have a buckled wheel (could be front or rear) or one of the rear wheels is not balanced.

Did you feel the shake through the steering wheel or just generally?
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Not just the steering wheel... the whole dashboard was going as well!

PMKeates said:
Lol -10.75 is pretty good going. Have you been off-roading at high speed in it?! :p
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Not to my knowledge... I really have no idea how it got that bad! There have been some pretty nasty potholes around since we had all the snow earlier in the year, guess that could have done it?!
 
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