steering shake

[pieman18]

hey guys

ive searched for topics like this, no one has ever had my problem and made a thread about it

basically, ive got a killer wheel shake whenever i go over around 70-80kph

its been happening for a while, and its really starting to give me the shits bigtime

ive tried to solve it in the past, ive had 2 wheel balances, checked all the nuts and bolts of the steering, checked wheel nuts many times, and i found nothing

im yet to check my steering rack, so im unsure whether or not its rooted AND as far as i know the wheel weights that are on my front wheels (14x8 inches) were added when it had 245/60 tyres, and when i had those ridiculous sized tyres removed im pretty sure they left the weights on, also at times the steering feels a little vague if that makes any sense

have any of u guys had this sort of problem before?

any ideas on what could be causing the shaking?

thanks guys:thumbup:

[todd]

bent wheel/s?
edit: or even a bad wheel balance.

[DRFTR86]

you touched the brakes at all??? sticky caliper slides???

other than that, buckled rim/balance

[patience]

I would say steering rack, mine shakes sometimes as well, but not badly.
Jack the car up on one side, grip your tire with a hand on the top and bottom of the tyre and try and wiggle it towards you.
If there is any movement your rack probably has play in it.
This could mean a recondition and/or new rack bushes.

[Vezza]

Well if it's speed dependent, you would think it's a balance issue. Does it go away if you drive even faster?

[driftke70]

if it goes away 90 - 110 its balance,

when you balance, your more often balancing the tyre than the rim, so if they have changed tyres but not balances then theres your problem.

faulty parts will just make a shake a little worse but you can feel the play in the parts pretty easy. if its a vibration in your shell or seat its the rears, if its in your hands its the fronts.

[DR86TY]

Check on the inside of the rim for dried mud or anything that shouldn't be there.

I had this issue and found out it was only crap built up on the inside of my rim

[Chrisso]

While your at it this could be a good time to replace suspension bushes and reco your rack, if it needs it.

When I got my first sprinter it wandered all over the road, shuddered and was a general bitch to drive. Replaced all the suspension bushes and she's tight now. Bushes were and ball joints were stuffed.

In your case, a shudder at a given speed is likely a wheel balance issue, but why not tighten up the lot while you're at it. It'll drive like a new car.

[vivioman]

If you are using aftermarket wheels (as in your avatar), check to see that the centre bore of the wheel is the same size as the bore on the wheel hub cause I had the problem where the wheel centre bore was bigger. I had to get a set of hub centric rings and the shaking stopped.

[Low Style]

if you figure it out with all the tips above please write up a article about it so in future if people need it its there!

i had the same problem from 120 -150 everything shook was scary on nebo lol. got wheel balance and some new wheels/tyres issue resolved

[pieman18]

hmmm, there are so many different causes of this haha

-my wheels are not bent
-there is no build up of anything on the inside of the rims
-the shake gets worse as the speed increases, although, occasionally it goes away, but it always comes back within 30secs to a minute
-its definately an issue with the fronts as all the shake comes through the steering
-the fronts are 14x8 with 190/60 tyres i believe (cbf goin to check tyre size)

silver styler, i will definately do a write up if/when i fix the problem

how much would it cost me to reco the rack/get a rack in better condition, and replace all my bushes?

cheers guys

[Low Style]

have you put different wheels on the front and gone for a test drive? stock's maybe?

[vivioman]

Try swapping your front wheels one at a time with the rear ones and go for a drive, if shaking goes away then you have found the culprit.

Otherwise could the wheel bearings also be a cause?

[Sprinter86]

i dont see this as a complex issue at all......youve changed the front tyres, but havent had them re-balanced to suit the new tyres...

I would be balancing ure wheels before looking at anything else as the fault.

my 2c.

[sundee]

i dont see this as a complex issue at all......youve changed the front tyres, but havent had them re-balanced to suit the new tyres...

I would be balancing ure wheels before looking at anything else as the fault.

my 2c.

Im with you sprinter 86, that is the most obvious thing. i would go for a wheel balance and i can bet your vibration will be gone.

if it was the rack.. it wouldnt vibrate.. it would just pull to one side, the same as the front wheels being out of alignment.

the rack has to have a centain amount of play in it, i dont think it would cause a vibration at 80km's or whateva, because it would start to virbrate at a slower frequency and get faster as u get faster.

just get a wheel balance, just grab your wheel while the car is stationary, turn it left to right, dont be soft with it, if u hear some clunks then u have some play, then check tie rod ends, wheel bearings and then the rack.

hope this helps some

and invest in some urethan for the front.. cheap and makes 300% difference

[FUTO_GT]

hmmm, there are so many different causes of this haha

-my wheels are not bent
-there is no build up of anything on the inside of the rims
-the shake gets worse as the speed increases, although, occasionally it goes away, but it always comes back within 30secs to a minute
-its definately an issue with the fronts as all the shake comes through the steering
-the fronts are 14x8 with 190/60 tyres i believe (cbf goin to check tyre size)

silver styler, i will definately do a write up if/when i fix the problem

how much would it cost me to reco the rack/get a rack in better condition, and replace all my bushes?

cheers guys

I have this exact same issue, same speeds and all. I figure it is from front lock up and flat spotting the tires.
I have some new tires i'm going to get fitted and see if that fixes it.

Let us know how you go but.

[ke_70]

I have this exact same issue, same speeds and all. I figure it is from front lock up and flat spotting the tires.
I have some new tires i'm going to get fitted and see if that fixes it.

Let us know how you go but.

flat spots = a legit excuse for a skid

[shift_rook]

check all your ball joints and steering components, could have play through them, makin shit vibrate, other wise wheel alignment or yeah a good tyre balance..

[spoon]

check your' shocks, if theyre worn out it could make the shakes, especially as you go faster...

[kronix]

not enough positive caster will cause caster shake

[todd]

i heard only virgins get steering shake?

[Ade_Mc]

i heard only virgins get steering shake?

so do pedo's when they see 12yr old boys.
....on a serious note, sounds like shocks. mine did the same, wasn't to bad till i got to around 80-100, then the shakes and vibration hit.
took the stuts apart.....the right shock had gone.

[pieman18]

ok, i got a spare 30 mins yesterday so i took vivioman's advice and took the front wheels off, chucked my ma61's on the front and stockies on the back AND im happy to say........

its fixed, the shake is gone

i cant believe i didnt think to check the wheels before, ive been dealing with this shaking bullshit for ages now, anyway, i noticed when i took the fronts off that 1 of the wheels has a 10g AND a 40g weight on it, whereas the other wheel only has the 10g weight on it

if i was to pry off the 40g weight from the one wheel, making them even, would that solve my issue when i put the wheels back on or should i take them to a shop to get the properly balanced?

on a side note, the steering still feels wuite vague so ill still replace all the bushings and possibly reco the rack in the near future

[todd]

wow that was the first reply u had in the thread and it took u that long? lol

no point in trying to pry off the weights. the balance on each wheel is INDIVIDUAL not balancing both the wheels together. different variables can control how much or how little extra weight is added to the wheel (tyre mould, valve indicator in the right position, quality of the wheel, bent wheel etc) so it would probably make it worse altering the weights.

just go to the tyre shop and get them to balance the wheels+tyres properly like u should have done in the first place to avoid all the dramas lol.

[LittleRedSpirit]

Sometimes it can be scrub radius exposing slop in a bearing. I had some freshely re rolled rims on my car for a while and I got a shke similar to what you described, increasing at speed.

If I ran different wheels I didnt get it.

I had worn out wheel bearing tapers in a hub, so despite having decent enough bearings to begin with they wore out fast and when i put the nice wheels with the wider scrub radius on I could really notice the shake.

The solution, a new hub that wasnt rooted and a new bearing and seals.

[Dom86]

Bearings?? Nobody has mentioned worn bearings... You may want to check the bearing nut has a split pin still inside and the nut isn't loosening off.

[ae71]

loool. think his wheels would have come off by now if they didnt have a split pin in the nut :P

could be castor bushes, i seem to remember to talking to beau (FBC) and he said the corollas have a poor castor bush design which causes shake. putting new bushes may help but would more then likely just chnage the point of vibration. the only real way to completely get rid of it is to swap to rosejointed castor rods.

thats just what he told me.

i have run and currently do run slightly bent wheels on the front. very very very few cars actually have wheels that run perfectly true! i worked at a tyre joint for a while, there was a bmw m3 that came in for a balance and rotate, fairly sure they where actual "magnesium" or at least a very light alloy (18's where uber light) and all 4 wheels where rather knackered!

you are sure when you put the 14x8's on that they are nice and centred?

when i put wheels on i tighten 1 or two nut up so they are in contact with the wheel, then give them a bash/wiggle so make sure they are centred with the wheel nuts as they are non hub centric.

i have a bit of a shake at the moment but i know the bearings arnt brilliant and the wheels where give a "rear" balance which often isnt as accurate as the front balance..

[RUF086]

i get steering shake when i brake, could this also be related to balance?

cheers

[todd]

warped rotors/uneven pad wear usually

[Vezza]

yep, if shaking under brakes it'll be the brakes. To double check, just jack the car up and with the brakes off try and turn the wheels. If it tends to stick at certain spots and doesn't rotate smoothly you'll need your rotors machined and generally the pads too.

[RUF086]

sweet as ill give it a try this weekend.

[FUTO_GT]

I just worked out what my front wheel shake is! Its the 10mm spacer plates,
they were throwing em out of balance.
I ditched em and shake is gone.

4 sale 10mm spacers 114.7 pcd :D

[LittleRedSpirit]

lolzer

[Matt-AE86]

I would check things in this order

1. Tyres
2. Wheel Balance (Make sure they remove all old weights)
3. Wheel Bearings
4. Tie Rod Ends
5. Rack ends
6. Play in Steering rack

Are you running any slip on spacers or bolt on wheel spacers. These can sometimes cause iregular wobbles.

I use to regularly drive with front tyres not balanced and for some reason 100km/h was when i started getting small wobbles in the steering wheel. It wasn't bad enough to complain. Holding the steering wheel with 2 hands would make me forget about it.

Is yours like this or is it more violent ? ie; feels like wheels are about to fall off ?

EDIT: Didn't read 2nd last post. Slip on spacers. Lul.

[Ade_Mc]

i also get the wheel shake when i hit 100km.
will be throwing on some new rims & tires.
if this doesn't kill the problem i'll staart checking everything else that has been listed above.

will update how things pan out.

[sotiros86]

Also check if your tail shaft is out of balance. My mates old AE71 use to get terrible shakes, which were caused by the tailshaft being extremely out of balance

[Ade_Mc]

just put on my 14" simmons with fresh yokohamas.....steering shake is almost gone now. there is a little bit of shake at around 110km.

when the car is hard parked, and i thrash the steering wheel left to right there is a clunk noise. is this a sign that there is a bit of play in my steering rack?