Wheel shaking at speed

[Toblahoe]

Hi all, once again more problems with the B7...

Main thing is that I've noticed at speed 60-70mph the steering wheel shakes slightly and gets worse the faster I go, at first this was the tyres, two had developed bulges, I got them replaced and the tracking done too as it was out.

The problem appeared again on a trip down to London, I had assumed it was the front brakes as they were worn, I replaced the front discs and pads about 100 miles ago. They were ******, however new discs/pads on fine and they're performing great.

Now 100 miles later the car shakes again at 60mph? I'm lost as to what it is? The bolts are fine, I have the correct spigot rings, the new tyres were balanced correctly.

Only thing to note was that this appeared on the mot as an advisory not too long ago: "Offside Front Play in steering rack inner joint(s)" however the garage said it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks a lot for any help.

 

[Evil Derboy]

Are you running spacers?

 

[Paul battams]

Hi all, once again more problems with the B7...

Main thing is that I've noticed at speed 60-70mph the steering wheel shakes slightly and gets worse the faster I go, at first this was the tyres, two had developed bulges, I got them replaced and the tracking done too as it was out.

The problem appeared again on a trip down to London, I had assumed it was the front brakes as they were worn, I replaced the front discs and pads about 100 miles ago. They were ******, however new discs/pads on fine and they're performing great.

Now 100 miles later the car shakes again at 60mph? I'm lost as to what it is? The bolts are fine, I have the correct spigot rings, the new tyres were balanced correctly.

Only thing to note was that this appeared on the mot as an advisory not too long ago: "Offside Front Play in steering rack inner joint(s)" however the garage said it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks a lot for any help.

Was the hub face cleaned before new discs fitted ???
I had a drive shaft go bad on my B7 last year same symptoms as wheels out of balance drive shaft changed and it cured it.
Is the shake from the front or under your seat?? I’ve done centre bearing carrier on mine(Quattro)



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[Toblahoe]

Not using spacers

Also no, the hub wasn't cleaned.

It does feel like the whole car is vibrating, but can be felt easily through steering wheel.

 

[Paul battams]

Not using spacers

Also no, the hub wasn't cleaned.

It does feel like the whole car is vibrating, but can be felt easily through steering wheel.

Can you check run out on front discs with wheel off that’s what I’d be trying first little bit of rust on hub doesn’t seem much but over a 300mm disc it’s a lot I normally use a flat bar or file with emery cloth wrapped round it


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[Toblahoe]

Thanks, I'll have a check tomorrow.

 

[i3oricua]

This could be a few things. Some things you can do visually and audibly. Look at the CV boots on the axle. Are any of them torn? Any grease coming out? Do you hear any clicking or knocking noises when you turn the wheel in either direction? Vibration is tire or wheel related most times but once you rule those out you can start looking at control arms and tie rods. Rotate the wheels, front to back and back to front to see if the vibration moves or feels different. If the sensation moves then its either the wheels or the tires. It's not inconceivable that the wheels were not balanced right or a weight might have fallen off of one of them.

Just trying to give you some things to try before you start spending money.

 

[Toblahoe]

Haven't had a chance to have a look yet ,but I've noticed on my drive home just now. You can feel the vibration through the gearstick, and the brakes are smooth and responsive. I did some loops on full lock in a car park and I couldn't hear anything.

 

[Paul battams]

Haven't had a chance to have a look yet ,but I've noticed on my drive home just now. You can feel the vibration through the gearstick, and the brakes are smooth and responsive. I did some loops on full lock in a car park and I couldn't hear anything.

Is your car manual or Auto and fwd or Quattro???


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[Toblahoe]

Is your car manual or Auto and fwd or Quattro???

Manual, FWD. It's a 2.0TDI 140, BRE

 

[Charlie Farley]

If you can feel it through the gear lever then it will be may well be drive train related wether its 2wd or 4wd .

 

[Paul battams]

If you can feel it through the gear lever then it will be may well be drive train related wether its 2wd or 4wd .

Ye I was going down that line rob DMF????


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[Charlie Farley]

you need to eliminate parts one at a time really, when it first started happening , what did you fix and did it work , if for only a short time then that wasn't the cause but more likely just masking another issue.....
As you have already replaced the obvious parts then its very likely they were not to blame anyway, i'd be looking drive shafts , cv joints etc as the vibration is looking more a drive/transmission issue …..if you have looked at all thing steering and suspension wise.

 

[Toblahoe]

Thanks a lot for all your help guys,

I'll start with looking at the drive-train, especially the drive shafts, I'll let you all know how I get on.

 

[joinerman]

I assume you have had the wheels balanced !!!!!!!!!

 

[Toblahoe]

Yeah, when the garage fitted the new tyres (after the bulges) they re balanced them, they're fairly reputable so it's unlikely they've balanced the wheels wrong.

 

[Toblahoe]

Hi all, bit late but I've finally managed to get a few hours to spend to have a look at this.

Firstly all the tyres look fine, the wheels look straight and I can't see any cracks or signs of a buckle, it doesn't look like any weights have fallen off the wheels either.

The brake discs look and feel absolutely fine, I checked all the lines for bulges and I couldn't see any, the only thing I can note is that the torx bolt that holds the discs in place is missing both sides.

I also cleaned the face of the disc where the wheel sits as it looked grubby. I tried pulling on all the top arms and tie rods to feel for any play but they were all solid. I noticed that the drive shafts both moved in and out by about 2mm,i guess that's normal.

I'm at a loss as to what to check for now.

Any more help is much appreciated, thank you.

 

[i3oricua]

Look up a video on YouTube on wheel bearing test. You’ll have to jack up the car but it requires you just pushing and pulling on the wheels. Could be helpful.


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[Toblahoe]

Update:

I'm starting to think my new tyres/wheels aren't balanced properly.

I can't seem to find any problem other than one side has Cooper grease in between the hub and disc and one side doesn't. Could this be causing fairly aggressive vibration between 50-70mph?

Thanks all

 

[gavmatt1978]

Try swapping front and back wheels, i had a buckled wheel, got all 4 balanced 3 times in 2 different shops, none mentioned it, swapping them around got rid of the wobble and managed to highlight the dodgy wheel, left it on back for a while., you'll have to sort it though, it'll eventually knacker your wheel bearing!

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[AL (A4 B7 Avant)]

Hey fella

Get the wheels that were balanced double checked.
I've had my wheels balanced and had serious vibrations at about 70mph only to go back to another member of staff at my local tyre specialist in London, who checked the wheels and found 1 was incorrectly balanced, He re-balanced it for me and checked the other 3 too and it was all good.

Was horrible at the time, so worth getting it checked again to eliminate manual staffing error/s.

Also, I see a buckled wheel was mentioned, that could be a factor also and then all the other mentions from other forum members!

Good luck!

 

[LostUlsterman]

Toblahoe,
I had this exact same issue not very long ago.
Had really bad wobble between 70-90, felt like the car was going to shake itself to pieces. Changed all 4 tyres, and had them balanced. And rebalanced. It was only at the 2nd visit to the garage that it was mentioned about several noticeable flat spots on the alloys.
Took them off, had them refurbed/reformed/reshaped, whatever you want to call it, to make them fully circular again.
Wobbled worse than ever. So, rebalanced again, under my supervision this time, and they were fine for 200ish miles. Then it all started again.
Took it in for something else entirely unrelated to be looked at, ended up having dmf +clutch replaced. After the work was done, got in drove off, hit the A1, no wobble. None at all.
I dont know why that would make any difference to the handling of the car, but it is now a completely different motor, almost like turning the clock back 9months.

I swear i just seem to be throwing money at this ****** thing lately.


57 2.0tdi 140 6sp manual.

 

[Toblahoe]

LostUlsterman

Thank you, that is very very interesting, I had a new clutch and DMF fitted about a year ago, recently I have noticed that the release bearing is really squeaky. I wouldn't have thought about the clutch reference this. Might explain why mine is intermittent.