disco vibration

Hi all

I have a 96 disco that I have a problem with and can't seam to get to the bottom of it.

It's hard to put into words what it does but I'll give it a go. 99% of the time its fine but then every now and then I get a vibration that feels like a wheel balancing problem only 100 times worse. Never seams to do it when I'm in bends and the weight is either off or on the wheel but only when going straight above about 55mph. You will be going along and hit something in the road to set it off [cats eyes etc] and the whole car feels like it's going to shake it's self to bits. You have very little control and the only thing you can do is come off the gas and brake until it then stops as quick as it came. The sorce off the problem seams to be the o/s/f wheel and I can't stress how bad it is when it acting up. It will then do another 100 mile with out a problem or sometimes only ten miniutes and its at it again. From start to finish the whole thing might only last 5-10 seconds but when your doing 70 on a busy motorway you think your number is up! It's that bad the first time it did it I stopped as I thought the wheel was falling off and then got recovered until I had checked it over.

When jacked up there is no play [or any I can find] in either front wheels. I have renewed the front shocks and bought a poly bush kit and renewed all front bushes just to be on the safe side. I have also had the cv out and had a look for wear.

Where do I go next? The wife has taken it to work this morning and emailed me from work. If I don't get it sorted she wants a new one. I don't like the sound of that it could be expensive.

Anyone seen any like it before?

Cheers in advance.

Andy

Steering damper, TRE's, swivel pins, wheel bearings.

TRE's new
swivle pins had new bearings
wheel bearing not that old but no play or noise
streering damper hmm could well be, just ordered one!

cheers gratch

Recheck the swivel pin pre-load as they may have bedded in.

Sounds like the Landy wobble of death.

Had it on my series three, scared the **** outta me

Swivel pre-load and damper fixed it.

davek0974 said:

Sounds like the Landy wobble of death.

Had it on my series three, scared the **** outta me

Swivel pre-load and damper fixed it.

Click to expand...

Had that on two consecutive Defenders my old boss had, scared the **** out of me as well!

Pull the half shaft and then check for movement in the wheel bearing. Had the same problem and its difficult to feel much with the half shaft in place. You only need to move it out a few mm.

Its the shock/damper on that wheel,lost its oil or internal valves gone kaput. Replace both front dampers quick,cheers. I read your post again and see you have replaced front dampers, still recon you have a duff one.

Andyoak please check my previous post'

Hi tottot

yes mate just seen it. As I said both front shocks were renewed and to be fair when the old ones came off there didn't seam much wrong with them. I know it's hard to tell for sure but they did seam to have their full damping effect, it won't hurt to take a look though. A few people above seam to think it's the steering damper and I have also spoke to one of the mates about it today and he said the same. Thinking about how it feels as well it seams to fit in. The cars not here at the moment so I can't check but when it comes back I plan on having a day on it and getting it sorted. We are down to one door that opens and it's due for a service so enough to keep me busy. i just love fitting those bloody springs with fingers like pork sausages.

To test a shock off the vehicle bolt a plate/large washer to bottom mount and stand on it.Grab the top part and pull it up and push it down,there should be resistance along the whole stroke in both directions. test in the vertical for wheel dampers, horizontal for steering ones.cheers

yeh, bottom between my feet and pulled and shoved and felt fine. I had however already purchased the new um's so on they went regardless. [shocks only not the steering damper]

i had a similar sort of vibration recently and i found that mine was related to the front uj on the front prop that was knackered. i know it is'nt related to the front wheel you mentioned earlier in the thread but worth a check whilst your under the vehicle mate.

once had a front uj fail on a p38, at 80 on the motor way. It was the front end of the front prop so it fell down to the road and dug in. Result was it pushed the transfer box back and everything bolted to it back wards so hard that the engine hit the bulk head and ripped the hoses from the rad and intercooler. Luckly it stayed the right way up but it did close the road while they cleaned up the bits of range rover and oil etc from the road. Since then I always keep on top of uj's, it scared the life out of me. There was no warning either just a bit of knocking a few sec's before it went!

cars now back with me and steering damper removed. Feels same as the front shockers in that is has resistance for the full stroke both ways! Anyway renewed it, checked swivle pre load, double checked front shocks, TRE's , prop u/j's etc and everything seams good to go.

Out on the road and although is hasn't acted up it's not right. Feels like it's on the brink off losing it at any moment!

Just going back under to see if theres any straw's I can clutch at!

There is one last resort, dump it at my local L/R agent for an hour and see what they come up with.