Wheel Wooooooble

[Lloyd Evans]

Hi all any help would be much appreciated

 

I have a 2001 vw sharan 112000 miles

 

when driving at about 55 - 70 the steering wheel wobbles (rotates left and right ) there is no forward / backward movement I have also noticed I am getting uneven tyre wear on the front passenger side tyre - wear on the inside edge. if you let go of the wheel the car stays in a straight line

 

Any ideas where to start would be great!!

 

Cheers

 

Lloyd

[seatkid]

:blink:

 

Howabout check your (front) wheels/tyres are balanced correctly, at the same time inspect for tyres for damage/bulges etc. Front passenger side might be a clue -_-

 

:blink:

 

If not the above, check tie rod ends for wear/play.

[Lloyd Evans]

cheers .... the tracking has been checked and the tyres were fine .... has since eaten the inside of the front tyre ..... so off to TPS tomorrow night tie rods

[credless]

could also be driveshaft releated if wobble is worse under acceleration, do a search wrt CV joint , intermediate shaft problems

[sparky Paul]

cheers .... the tracking has been checked and the tyres were fine .... has since eaten the inside of the front tyre ..... so off to TPS tomorrow night tie rods

 

Seatkid mentioned wheel balance, not tracking... symptoms are classic for out of balance wheel/s.

[Lloyd Evans]

Had wheels balanced and seams much better but still not perfect!! Vibration the same in neuteral costing at 50 as when accelerating does this rule out drive shafts??

[seatkid]

You need to do all 4 wheels. If it persists, then they didnt balance them very well,this often happens with quick fit type places - take it back and ask them to check them and redo them if they are out, FOC of course. Edited June 18, 2012 by seatkid

[sparky Paul]

You need to do all 4 wheels. If it persists, then they didnt balance them very well,this often happens with quick fit type places - take it back and ask them to check them and redo them if they are out, FOC of course.

100% agree with seatkid, too many of these places simply cannot balance wheels properly. It should be child's play with the equipment they have, I can't work out if they don't know what they're doing, or if they don't know how to recalibrate the machines.

 

If balancing improved the situation significantly, then the wheels must have been out of balance before... and I would guess probably still out of balance.

[Lloyd Evans]

I'll go winge to kwik fit and ask for them to actually be balanced

[octo0072000]

get them to balance the rear wheels and put them on the front then rebalance the front wheels and put them on the rear

wearing out the inner or outer of tyres is normally tracking out run your hand round the tread on the inner worn bit does it seem to be feathered easy to run your hand one way more than the other :(

[inchley313]

You may also want to check for play in the steering rack, I used to run a tyre bay here on the Isle of Man and had a 2001 galaxy come in for what you are describing, I found there to be play in the rack that was wearing the inside of the tyres out. Balancing the front wheels sorted out the wobble for a week or so but as the tyre was wearing unevenly and very quickly, the balace soon was out again!

[octo0072000]

could also be the bottom arm bushes that are worn

[raziel2710]

I fit tyres for a few years. If it happens only at speeds of 50 to 70mph then I'm pretty sure it is the balancing. And you don't need to get the four done unless you have rear/four wheel drive. Just the fronts will do. Watch them when they're balancing the wheels and make sure that the balance machine has nothing but zeros on it before they put the wheels back on. Some tyre fitters are of the opinion that a 5g weight discrepancy will not affect the balance of the wheels but I assure you it does. Also make sure they get a wire brush to the inside of the wheel to remove and tough mud/dirt that may have gathered there BEFORE they balance them. A lot of tyres have a colored dot to indicate where the valve should be (as in have the air valve as close as possible to this dot). If the dot isn't as close as possible to the air valve then get them to align it with the dot. If it persists after you are 100% satisfied they are balanced right then it could well be a bulge in one of the tyres or a warped wheel. Also be sure they have the correct tyre pressure. I hope it is a tyre issue and nothing more serious.

 

octo0072000's advice is sound. Get them to swap front and rear if after balancing the problem persists.

 

Good luck

 

EDIT: Uneven tyre wear is 100% tracking. Could just need to be aligned properly or it could be a bent tracking rod. I've seen people do this on my car when I get mine done and I have to tell them they're doing it wrong!! There are some places out there that just show employees how to do tracking but in my opinion it should NEVER be done by anybody who didn't have proper training on it.

Edited June 26, 2012 by raziel2710