Slight Steering Wobble At Slow Speeds

[Rallim]

I noticed some time ago, not long after I bought the car I could feel a slight steering wobble whilst driving between 20 - 40mph. It was only very slight, but with time it seems to be getting slowly worse, to the point its irritating me now and I want to sort it out. The wobble does not appear to be present whilst braking, just as you cruise along, in the time span I have been aware of it the car has had front tyres and brake+pads changed.

 

Any ideas? Could it be ball joint or top strut mounr reawrelated?

 

 

TIA

 

Gordon.

[johnb80]

Grab hold of the front wheels and try to wobble them top, bottom, front, rear and see if there's any noticeable freeplay, it may be worthwhile driving the front wheels onto some old, no longer glossy magazines (playboy, FHM :( ) this will enable the wheels to move easier. Jacking up the front end may not show up the problem because the suspension joints wont be in their normal operating positions. There are a few known weaknesses in teh Gal i.e. drop links but not sure if they could be responsible for the symptoms you describe.

 

Regards - John

[tim-spam]

Most likely a CV joint - is it worse under power?

[Guest thobbs]

Just my personal choice, but take it to a garage and get them to do a 'free' tracking check? You could also get the wheels balanced. These are the cheapest options - before you go onto the next parts which start to cost more...

[greg_68]

Ditto, I had this, I would take it to a garage and ask them to check to see if the tyre has gone out of shape.

 

This happened on one of mine and when they showed me it was quite disturbing to think I had being doing 70mph on it with the kids sitting above it. As soon as it was off you could see it was not right.

 

Perhaps this highlights the reinforced tyres neccesity. Maybe mine wasn't when it was fitted originally.

[Steven.Langdale]

I had a similar thing issue on my Gal, slight noise and also slight vibration, it was hardly noticeable, but irritating.

 

Turn out to be the front wheel bearings, the local Ford garage though it was a driveshaft or CV joint initially.

 

Maybe something to look at.....

 

Steven

[Rallim]

Thanks for all the replies. :ph34r:

 

I am unable to look at the car properly until the weekend, (which is when I get to drive it, during the week my wife drives it and I'm on my bike, plus its dark when I get home!)

 

I was thinking along the lines of worn bearings or joints, but I might have the wheel alignment and balancing double checked, I had noticed the wobble before the front tyres were changed (about this time last year)... originally had 15" reinforced Michelins, now has Goodyear reinforced.

 

I will try that trick with the magazines, wish I had known about it with my Audi, as its is difficult to check joint/suspension wear if you jack the wheels off the ground as the suspension is at the extreme of its movement witht the struts being held in place by the end caps and not properly held against the strut top mounts.

 

 

Gordon.

[Rallim]

I managed to grab some free minutes and jack the car up this weekend, I pulled and yanked the wheels around but they seemed solid as a rock. I decided as a 'quick' try to swap the front wheels with the back and see if it made any difference.

 

Lo and behold the wobble has gone! :D I am convinced that the wobble was present when I changed the front tyres last year, maybe the wheel is out of shape, when I get chance I will head down to my local tyre place and get them checked.

 

Its also worth noting that I had put Goodyear 'Eagle' (205/60 R15's) tyres on the front, the ones on the back were Continental Contact Sports (same size) which looked like they had been on the car at least 2years. After swapping these to the front they have noticeably more grip than the Goodyears, I know the Goodyears Eagles are the low end of the product range but I did not expect such a noticeable difference.

 

 

Gordon.

[Guest thobbs]

Glad to hear you have a solution, I had the same thing on previous car, a Vectra GSi :D - I took it to the garage about 4 times before I had new tyres on the front and they swapped the back wheels to the front, so I could burn the old rubber away rather than the new stuff :D , anyway the constant wobble at speed had gone, I personally jacked the car a couple of weeks later as the problem had not come back, swapped the wheels over again and within a day or two the wobble was back, I very soon swapped them over again, explained this to Vauxhall - Eventually they replaced the car with a new set of alloys :D :D :D

[Goofygolfer]

Eventually they replaced the car with a new set of alloys

 

that was a good swap a vectra for a set of alloys :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Guest thobbs]

:D :D :D whoops...