Steering wheel wobble woes - Help needed please!!

[janderson]

It did improve, before this I put up with it for 2 years

[BigRAWesty]

Fair enough mate.. Well I'd start with New panhard bushes and a re tension of all bolts to do with steering and suspension.. Rear aswell..

[NP99]

That was way too much lead for a new tyre. Also should have the red dot on the tyre aligned to the valve. Any tyre fitters on the forum?

[mopargreg]

Hi westys, I will ask the shop to tension everything. Thanks.

Np99 - I will have a look for a red dot. I dont recall seeing a red dot on the tyres but Ill have a look tomorrow. I think the most lead is about 40-50grams now on the worst wheel. Originally when they were fist balanaced one wheel in particular had like 150 or so grams all lined up. But now only 40-50.

[Anaurath]

Hi Mopargreg,

I had the same issue with the standard 16" rims and 265/75 and I started to look at it in several forums. After reading a lot I noticed that is a common issue in the Patrols and there are a lot of points should be looked at (Bearings, Shocks, Steering Shock, rims/tyres, and so on...)

Four months ago I fitted MT 305/70 16 in a Speedy Dessert Rat rims (Sunrasia type) and issue is gone now. I would like to think that guy who balanced and fitted the wheels did an excelent job. I'm located at Perth and this guy owns the following business:

Warren's Tyre & Brake Service
Address: 277 Walter Rd W, Morley WA 6062
Phone08) 9375 9994
Transit: Wheeler St After Walter Rd

[Astro]

My shakes were caused by the king-pin bearings.

Removed the shims and shakes gone.

I will get new bearings in before long though.

[mattsgu]

+1 for king pin bearings. Solves nearly 90% of your problems

[pbk1776]

Mine wobbles same speed 80-90km/h when slowing down in a quicker pace
Might check my bearings as I've done all alignments, rotor machined and
balancing

[mopargreg]

Hi everyone. Just thought I would update this. My steering wobbles are all gone now. The problem was a mixture of alot of things & each thing I did helped it. So after the visit to Proaxle I noticed it had a loose wheel bearing. I got that tightened. Then I replaced both ends of the front panhard bushes, even though only 1 side needed replacing. After those 2 things the steering was still wobbling but it was improved.

I swapped back to my 17" alloys with road tyres & we went on a road trip. Driving mainly on sealed roads. Some of the sealed roads were lousy though. At speed I was all over the road, doing between 80-110kms per hour it really wasnt a comfortable ride. When I got home I booked it into another place for a wheel alignment as I knew something was not right. Upon inspection my total toe was at -6.8, -4.1 on the left & -2.7 on right. They said that that is way off. They adjusted it for me to a total toe of +0.6, +0.3 each side. Took the patrol for a spin & stright away it felt better. Easier to control & again less steering wobble whel I had the muddies on. The alignment shop recommended that 100% a good wheel balance will solve the last bit of steering wobble. They recommended a place around the corner who are perfectionists when it comes to balancing.

After the wheel balance the Patrol is perfect! No wobble with the steel wheels & muddies. An absolute joy to drive now. Never since owning this since new has it driven this well. SUper smooth even with mud tyres. I have to say I am a little annoyed that Proaxle sent me away with the toe way off on my Patrol. They even adjusted the toe so Im not sure what happened there. ALso Im not sure what Proaxle were doing with the on-car wheel balancing as it was a waste of time. The last place that balanced them perfectly said all wheels were out of balance between 60 to 150 grams. The guy was balancing the wheel was shocked when 1 wheel was 150 grams out.

ANyway I stoked with the outcome now. Im just amased at how many sets of hands I needed to go through to sort it out. Also I was amased as all these bits that needed adjusting or replacement add up to a big wobble. Even something in alignment with the toe being out added to the wobbles. Thanks for everyones help.

[Bloodyaussie]

Thats great news mate and thanks for updating us with the outcome!!!!!