Damn P38 Death Wobble, L322 alloys,wrong tyres ?

Ok, I've got the death wobble , starts at 55 etc, you know what I mean, you've heard or experienced it before my baby has been in the garage- LRR Range Rovers SE7- for a week, this is what we've checked -
Ball Joints
panhard bushes
track rod arm/ bushes
new steering damper
wheel bearings
cv joints
drag link
anti roll bar bushed
I won't list them but all the usual suspects as I found here on the numerous previous posts under ' Death Wobble' ( thanks to all who posted for pointing me in right direction)

Basically it's been up in the air with wheels hanging free and pushed pulled then road tested for over a week now and although they have reduced the vibration, it's still there when you hit an expansion joint on the A2 or a bump. Today they had a tyre specialist visit them ( ooh they're good ! ) and he told them that the almost new good year tyres which haven't even done 300 miles are warped ? I bought them online through Blackstar but as the car needed work it has been on my drive for 2 years just 3 weeks after I bought them so no chance of any comeback from goodyear. My question for you guys is what is the best tyre for my L322 vogue alloys. I run them on my P38 with reducing spigotts and bigger wheel nuts, but if good year are no good then what ? someone on here suggested general grabbers at 21 but I'm a DJ and have no idea- cheers - LSR
Oh yeah I should point out that I DO NOT use for off road at all, so I need a reliable road tyre

I've been dealing with death wobble on a coil sprung classic. After much research and personal experience it seems that it is resultant of several factors. On the classic the biggest culprits are bad panhard bushes, improper swivel pin pre-load and funky ball joints. However, other issues like wheel balance and and weak dampers can add to the storm. A badly aligned front end can make things even worse. Have they checked the shocks and toe-in?

After replacing the ball joints, panhard bushes and steering damper, as well as increasing the swivel pin tension and doing an alignment, my RRC can be driven at speed again.

That death wobble leaves an impression doesn't it?

And a duff steering box can be the culprit.

An impression ? freaked the living granny outta my mrs !

Like I mentioned though , thanks to the posts on here we have tested everything, but the car was sitting on my drive for 2 years because it broke down shortly after fitting new tyres, so this may be the reason they are warped, what I need is a suggestion from other P38ers who also have 20 ' alloys to see what tyres they recommend

Anything over 18 inch handles like ****e-well known problem

Luckysoulradio said:

An impression ? freaked the living granny outta my mrs !

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Same here. My wife has a medical condition that is seriously affected by high blood pressure. We had it happen 5 or 6 times on a 250 mile journey. She was a white knuckled wreck. It was so bad that it slightly bent my cross rod (or track rod or tie rod). I replaced that too. Dampers are next for me, but I'm skint.

Don't forget the UJs on the propshafts too. They can give you a nasty speed specific wobble, I've found. There was a real killer of a wobble on my Defender when I bought it, at about 55 mph, and the dealer gave me a new propshaft which cured it. It was coming back a few weeks ago so I changed the other propshaft and that got rid of it again.

All new Land Rovers come from the factory with 50 psi in the tires too avoid flat spots while standing. Also as Fanatic says they all drive better on the smaller wheels.

Thanks for your replies guys, now it overheated badly yesterday, I had ordered a new rad because of this, ( yes we checked for air lock first) but it hasn't arrived yet ( brand new £120. Island 4x4) So I've a busy weekend as it's hissing coolant from back off block , I'm hoping it's the u shaped hose and not the head gasket ! Boody typical, I'm going on holiday in it in 2 weeks, I'll keep you posted, and when I work out how I will post a photo of Old 'Strawberry ' my less than faithful P38

fanatic said:

Anything over 18 inch handles like ****e-well known problem

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Agreed, mine came with 20" L322 wheels when I got it, and handled like a hovercraft. All is good since I changed down to the correct P38 wheels (16" in Winter and 18" in Summer)

Well I bit the bullet and got a really nice set of 5 18" sparkle alloys for £198 !! spotless not a mark on them , bought some pirelli scorpion zero's from Asda tyres ( yep they do e'm now ! ) cheaper than blackcircle £ 737 balanced & fitted - And guess what ? It drives like a dream, I went back over known points of local roads that used to give me grief and tried from 50 -55 60-70 .. nothing, where it used to go kerdugga,kerdugga,kergdugga, kerdugga,kerdugga,to infinity and beyond now at the same points it goes very lightly - dugga, dugga,dugga and gone , it's like the bumps are still there ( obviously) but Old Stawberry my untrusty P38 feels like it muscles down into the bumps & just shrugs them off if that makes any sense ? One thing I will say is the look is totally different - I've had a facelift at the front and with the 20 " it looked very cool & ' Vogue"ish but no point having a good looking motor that you can't drive is there ? i hope this will help others with 20" on a P38 who have had the death wobble and strongly advise that before you spend out loads of money,( £600 for me replacing ball joints ,dampers etc,) just try it on a set of 18 : first, you could save yourself a lot of grief- Jackie Jackson Dj - lucky soul radio ( all the www's up front with a dot com @ the end )

Luckysoulradio said:

Well I bit the bullet and got a really nice set of 5 18" sparkle alloys for £198 !! spotless not a mark on them , bought some pirelli scorpion zero's from Asda tyres ( yep they do e'm now ! ) cheaper than blackcircle £ 737 balanced & fitted - And guess what ? It drives like a dream, I went back over known points of local roads that used to give me grief and tried from 50 -55 60-70 .. nothing, where it used to go kerdugga,kerdugga,kergdugga, kerdugga,kerdugga,to infinity and beyond now at the same points it goes very lightly - dugga, dugga,dugga and gone , it's like the bumps are still there ( obviously) but Old Stawberry my untrusty P38 feels like it muscles down into the bumps & just shrugs them off if that makes any sense ? One thing I will say is the look is totally different - I've had a facelift at the front and with the 20 " it looked very cool & ' Vogue"ish but no point having a good looking motor that you can't drive is there ? i hope this will help others with 20" on a P38 who have had the death wobble and strongly advise that before you spend out loads of money,( £600 for me replacing ball joints ,dampers etc,) just try it on a set of 18 : first, you could save yourself a lot of grief- Jackie Jackson Dj - lucky soul radio ( all the www's up front with a dot com @ the end )

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Told ya

Luckysoulradio said:

Well I bit the bullet and got a really nice set of 5 18" sparkle alloys for £198 !! spotless not a mark on them , bought some pirelli scorpion zero's from Asda tyres ( yep they do e'm now ! ) cheaper than blackcircle £ 737 balanced & fitted - And guess what ? It drives like a dream, I went back over known points of local roads that used to give me grief and tried from 50 -55 60-70 .. nothing, where it used to go kerdugga,kerdugga,kergdugga, kerdugga,kerdugga,to infinity and beyond now at the same points it goes very lightly - dugga, dugga,dugga and gone , it's like the bumps are still there ( obviously) but Old Stawberry my untrusty P38 feels like it muscles down into the bumps & just shrugs them off if that makes any sense ? One thing I will say is the look is totally different - I've had a facelift at the front and with the 20 " it looked very cool & ' Vogue"ish but no point having a good looking motor that you can't drive is there ? i hope this will help others with 20" on a P38 who have had the death wobble and strongly advise that before you spend out loads of money,( £600 for me replacing ball joints ,dampers etc,) just try it on a set of 18 : first, you could save yourself a lot of grief- Jackie Jackson Dj - lucky soul radio ( all the www's up front with a dot com @ the end )

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could have saved all that money and grief if you would have asked earlier.like fanatic said,it is a well known problem with this model using the wrong size wheels.

gemsdad said:

could have saved all that money and grief if you would have asked earlier.like fanatic said,it is a well known problem with this model using the wrong size wheels.

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didn't I just say that ? hah hah::fencing::, Mate, I did ask and was told as Fanatic so diplomatically put ...... But after reading every post regarding death wobble I, like many others hoped to save the expense of new wheels & tyres, but saying that my garage - LRR in Charlton are good lads and they wouldn't replace the damper , ball joints etc if they wernt needed. On the plus side A: the car is safe to take the family on holiday next week and B: the 20" wheels are in great nick so I can sell them on, I'll leave the tyres on a a gift as I wouldn't feel safe selling second hand tyres- Jackie

Luckysoulradio said:

didn't I just say that ? hah hah::fencing::, Mate, I did ask and was told as Fanatic so diplomatically put ...... But after reading every post regarding death wobble I, like many others hoped to save the expense of new wheels & tyres, but saying that my garage - LRR in Charlton are good lads and they wouldn't replace the damper , ball joints etc if they wernt needed. On the plus side A: the car is safe to take the family on holiday next week and B: the 20" wheels are in great nick so I can sell them on, I'll leave the tyres on a a gift as I wouldn't feel safe selling second hand tyres- Jackie

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ahhh shaddup,lol.glad it got sorted out though.now you can enjoy just driving it and playing the best type of music ever invented,that and tamla.

Damn wobble has returned ???? new wheels & tyres, new set of spigots when fitted, tightened up 3 times , fine at first but 2 trips from kent to weymouth and it has come back , first when you hit a bump at 55-60 and when you brake from 60 -50, now it starts wobbling at 55 on the motrway. So it's back to the drawing board and into a different garage, the one that services my works van and my mrs car, fingers crossed they might figure it out, hopefully before my 20" wheels sell on ebay cos I really like them and they always used to drive ok.

Luckysoulradio said:

Damn wobble has returned ???? new wheels & tyres, new set of spigots when fitted, tightened up 3 times , fine at first but 2 trips from kent to weymouth and it has come back , first when you hit a bump at 55-60 and when you brake from 60 -50, now it starts wobbling at 55 on the motrway. So it's back to the drawing board and into a different garage, the one that services my works van and my mrs car, fingers crossed they might figure it out, hopefully before my 20" wheels sell on ebay cos I really like them and they always used to drive ok.

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fer gods sake get rid of those stupidly big wheels,they are putting to much stress on the steering gear.go down to 17's max.

gemsdad said:

fer gods sake get rid of those stupidly big wheels,they are putting to much stress on the steering gear.go down to 18's max.

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He says that he's fitted a set of 18s with new tyres, mind you posting at 4am I'm not surprised that you didn't notice.

Start with basics, see if you've lost a balance weight then try swapping wheels front to rear and see what happens.

dogsbody said:

He says that he's fitted a set of 18s with new tyres, mind you posting at 4am I'm not surprised that you didn't notice.

Start with basics, see if you've lost a balance weight then try swapping wheels front to rear and see what happens.

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ok,but his last post mentioned the 20's again.oops.