Wheel Wobble

Hi folks...

I have what might be a stupid question.

I suffer chronic wheel wobble at about 50 mph. (Disco 200 tdi). I have had the wheels balanced but to no avail. My son suggested that since our PAS box in completely knackered, the wobble might be originating as a consequence of it not doing it's job - or alternatively that the steering damper may be knackered and that that might be leading to the wobble we are experiencing.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Any chance that he is right?

steering damper could be shot. Not sure about the PAS box so much. If The wheels have been balanced, make sure it hasnt thrown one of the weights off, or that there isnt a clod of mud stuck inside the rim of your wheel.

Also i dunno how much this makes a difference, but on the drivers side near the front, just behind the axle, there is a big thick circle disk thing. Cant remember what its called, its there to stop harmonic resonance (iirc) See if its still attached

This should have been done at balancing, but just in case, check that you don't have a deformed tyre. They can go figure-of-eight shape and produce this symptom (and a lot of tyre wear!). You could also try rotating the spare with each wheel to see if that made a difference. Had this problem once on a transit and it was the front suspension bushes - almost impossible to track down but luckily it was a known fault. My bet is the steering damper though.

everything ,swivel brgs ,wheel brgs, track, rod ends, tracking,radius arm bushes ,panhard rod bushes ,wheels tyres etc and steering box if there is free play in box with steering centered either adjust or preferably replace

OK guys... thanks for that. Its notthe tyres since it remains the same when I put the muds on last night. Thinking that I will start with the steering damper - getting a replacement steering box in any case and we'll go from there.

Cheers

Ryder said:

OK guys... thanks for that. Its notthe tyres since it remains the same when I put the muds on last night. Thinking that I will start with the steering damper - getting a replacement steering box in any case and we'll go from there.

Cheers

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In these circumstances I would be looking, in this order at:

1. Wheel bearings

2. Swivel bearings

3. Panhard rod bushes

4. Track and tie rod ball joints

Ryder said:

OK guys... thanks for that. Its notthe tyres since it remains the same when I put the muds on last night. Thinking that I will start with the steering damper - getting a replacement steering box in any case and we'll go from there.

Cheers

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Hi Ryder, so you got a touch of death wobble eh!

Main contender has to be steering damper followed by the various bushes, ball joints and bearings but also check the swivel pre-load. IMHO get a gas steering damper, a little more expensive but so worth it - I got mine from Dingocroft.

Thanks Kev... I shall check out their site now... stupid this is I put a brand new one on the V8 just before we got rid of it... damn thing had only done a couple hundred miles!

Ryder I'd also swap out your PAS box out pretty soon the input bearing/bush/sleeve whatever it is in the input is Propper naffed. Defo MOT fail and would not let you drive at a comp for sure. Probably one of the worst ones I've ever seen. I have a 4 bolt but TBH it leaked like a seive and was a recon when I fitted it so probably no good to you. Recon box are about £100 exchange if your lucky, or £170 normally again exchange.

For the price of them just buy a full set of ball joints and know they are sorted. Wheel bearings well worth a check doesn't cost anything to have a spin and rock. Your quite lucky you have the plain drop arm which takes a normal ball joint which saves messing about with swapping the ball joint in the drop arm which some people find really hard.

Steering damper is usually to blame as Kev says can get bloody awful. Try driving one with it disconnected and you will see just how bad I drove about 4 miles and its pretty bad when you try and hold it straight or hit a bump.

Drop arm, check suspension mounts Panhard rod mount has been know to rust and fall off but would give different symptoms. Rear A frams ball joint worth a check to see if its good or not but again would give a knock or wandering

Ryder G man has a PAS £50

I dont know if this is any use but I fitted new track rod ends, and got the tracking wrong, my 200 tdi did exactly the same thing, fitted a new steering damper and it ate it, leaked big time and worn the seals out,it was still shaking, so I retracked the steering again and the shakes stopped, I refitted the old damper, 10.000 miles later.

Thanks for that mate... was thinking about changing the track rod ends in any case so I guess I might as well do that and get it tracked afterward.

tbh mate you can do the tracking yourself with a tape measure, unles you're either very wealthy or really cant be arsed

just set it to dead ahead (0 toe) and it'll be fine

Mr Noisy said:

tbh mate you can do the tracking yourself with a tape measure, unles you're either very wealthy or really cant be arsed

just set it to dead ahead (0 toe) and it'll be fine

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I did the tracking on mine with a bit of string. It didn't feel quite right so I had it laser tracked a few weeks later. I was only 1mm out but that 1mm made all the difference.

Piece of string first then... and get it checked if it still aint right!