Shakin steering wheel.. HELP!

[martynlewins]

Help please!! I noticed last saturday that when i got to 50MPH my steering wheel started shaking but when it got to 60 it would stop... I hadnt noticed this getting any worse untill this morning when driving at 30 was very un nerving... it was shaking quite a bit and i could hear something aswell. I managed to get to work and im gonna call my garage in a mo but im worried... anyone got any ideas??? Its an 8v by the way.

Cheers in advance,

Martyn

[skellem]

I know it's obvious and you have probably checked it already...are all of your wheel nuts tight? (Happened to me before on another car, the wheel almost came off!)

[martin]

get your wheels balanced mate, could be as simple as that.

[Smurf]

Also check the tyre pressures.

It could also be the balancing of the wheels, or if the spiggot rings are missing. The fact that this has only just started though would indicate the spiggot rings shouldn't have gone anywhere (unless you've had it in a garage recently and they lost them when they took the wheels off?)

[Col_UK]

does it do it under braking?
possible warped disks
or maybe the bushes in the wishbones are on their way out which means new bushes or wishbones
mine does exactly the same and it's either of wot i just mentioned
i'm replacing the disks first and if that dont cure it it'll be the wishbones

[Robert_Dale]

I know exactly what it is - as smurf says..... (well fink so) - have you changed alloys or wheels or had them off lately???

when you take your wheel off you should have an orange ring that goes around the centre piece of the hub - this is called a sprigot - if its not there the wheel won't sit centre on the car so it gets thrown off balance.

take a front wheel off and look for it - if you have after market alloys on you should have some metal ones or summet

Rob

[jimmy1979]

My calibra done exactly the same thing. Just get ya tracking done. But i did have this kind of problem with my old 2.9i v6 sierra and the bushes were gone and the drive shaft went. Could also be the steering rack but i would place my money on the tracking will cost about a tenner i reckon.

[Furey]

sounds exactly like my car, most people have told me its probably the steering rack, which arnt very durable on the cally. am gonna replace it and the track rod ends soon, they look worn as well.

how could the spigot rings cause it? surely the wheel is alligned, and supported, by the wheel nuts?

[Robert_Dale]

> how could the spigot rings cause it? surely the wheel is alligned, and supported, by the wheel nuts?

you would think but they don't simply because of the design - the bolts have the thread on them so its difficult to line them up once the wheel is on - hence the sprigot rings

[Furey]

i lost a spigot ring immediately before the vibration started. hmmm.... now ive got to find a company that will supply Autec spigot rings. its worth a try!

[Leigh]

I've never seen a spigot ring yet.... had my wheel off last w/end to repaint the calipers as well..

Do ALL wheels on the cally have/need them? Mine are the 'stock' BBS alloys fitted to the SE5 from the factory. Never noticed any vibration (well, not since I got the wheels balanaced a year ago - used to have the 'vibrate at 60, stop at 70' symtpom)

[Col_UK]

stock wheels probably won't need em leigh
wot they do is make the hub the correct size for the wheel
aftermarket wheels come with a std size hole thru them, the ring makes them up to the right size
i had plastic ones before and they were awful, since i got my new wheels i had alloy ones which i needed to litterally hammer on, very much better
the wrong size rings will cause a problem and you will get problems such as wheel wobble and to an extent tram-lining

[GAZA62]

Martyn had this a while back the vibration through the steering wheel which came and went over 6 months and used to get a horrible knocking sound under the car.Did loads of checks on everything but the last one i did was had the wheels checked and i'd lost a weight of one of the front wheels a very large one thats why when it happened it was so violent so i would get the wheels checked first to save money as it only cost a tenner to fix.

[Festerfly]

I found my car did this when i collected it last week. I was on my way to the Tyre place to have te balancing checked when a tyre lew at the rear and ripped its self off the rim (tear through inside sidewall!) and rolled down the road past me!

So, two new tyres and some balancing later, they found that there were now weights on any of the wheels and that one of the fronts was out by over 100 'points'.....

Since the new tyres and balancing, the car rides quite nice considering (16" rims, rubber band tyres & a 50mm drop....) Still havent got any spigot rings, i think that this couldbe causing my ever so slight wiggle at 65mph (dissapears straight after and is considerably better than before.... couldent hold wheel as it did it!)

Fest

[DAN]

I had a knocking sound like this on my old 8v. The day after I had the suspension lowered 60mm. I rung the garage up who told me to drive the car over to them so they could take a look. Got half way there doing about 40mph on a dual carraigeway. My front nearside wheel then fell off, cally hit the deck. My wheel overtook me, bounced off the kurb, flew into the air about 10 ft high. The wheel then hit a sign and a brick wall and bent in half!!!

Not much damage to the cally as I managed to keep it on the road, just needed a new brake disc. The Garage forgot to tighten the wheel nuts up on the front wheel!!!

The obviously paid for a new wheel (which they had to import from Italy [img]/smile.gif[/img] ) and replaced the discs etc. I wasnt a happy man!!

Anyway just thought I would mention that story, it might make you all double check your wheel nuts!!

Cheers