Major steering wobble. Tried about everything.

[markistall]

Whenever I'm between 80 - 100 km/h the steering wheel and the entire car shakes quite violently. Checked the bushes, ballence, alignment, steering dampener, bearings. Im Pretty stuck on this one! Any ideas? Or know of any good mechanics in Brisbane? The hubs are also unusually hot whenever I feel them after a drive. Any advice is appreciated. Cheers.
Mark.

[BigRAWesty]

So you have done wheel bearings, and king pin bearings?
Replaced the lot?


Kallen Westbrook
Owner of
Westy's Accessories (http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?15134-Westy-s-Accessories.-A-small-back-yard-builder.)

[markistall]

i didn't replace the bearing because they looked fine to me, the grease that was in there was quite runny though, so i repacked it.

[BigRAWesty]

I'd change bearings, mainly king pin bearings. They don't spin like wheel bearings and develop flat spots.


Kallen Westbrook
Owner of
Westy's Accessories (http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/showthread.php?15134-Westy-s-Accessories.-A-small-back-yard-builder.)

[johno90]

x2 on king pin bearings. Just buy a japanese bearing kit its about $150 for a full kit of bearings and seals. do it all at once and don't worry about it again for a nice long time.

[choochie]

Yep I did swivels and after removing tie rod I found a big flat spot on driver side hub - all fixed now :)

[markistall]

righto, i'll give that a try. cheers

[Bigrig]

righto, i'll give that a try. cheers

Don't forget to slip by the introductions thread mate and let us know about yourself and your truck ... a courtesy thing we request of all new members and as you've already seen - a willing bunch on here to offer assistance. No harm done mate, but slip over there when you get a chance.

Welcome aboard.

[healy]

Have you been off road recently with low pressure on the wheels? Could possibly just be some mud/ dirt in a wheel I had the same problem a few months back I checked most things and it was just dirt in inside the tire about 300 grams lol

[markistall]

It had been shaking since I bought it. I think it was the tyres. I just bought a new set of muddies and the wobble is gone. I will talk to my mechanic in my up coming service and see if he will check all the bearings anyway. As I'm not really sure what I'm looking at when I do it. Thanks for your help guys.

[threedogs]

now you've found the prob, keep and eye on tyre pressures regularly, and rotate your wheels every 5 k.
tyres will last longer and wear evenly as well. what size muddies, we looooove pics mate wheres the pics???

[Drew]

now you've found the prob, keep and eye on tyre pressures regularly, and rotate your wheels every 5 k.
tyres will last longer and wear evenly as well. what size muddies, we looooove pics mate wheres the pics???

Pics? Pfft I'm still waiting on the pics from Mr & Mrs Goat :) :)

[mudski]

Yep its tyres for sure. I had the same issue with my KM2's. I then bought a set of GU steel rims with almost new tyres on it. I got them balanced,and they balanced really well the fitter told me, and now I have no shakes.
I asked him about this issue and the said larger tyres are really hard to get balanced right and even if they are say 95% balanced, being a big tyre you will feel it more so that on a small tyre.
So balancing is the key I think.

[Squalo]

Well to go against the grain here - I had a freeway speed wobble and tried a bunch of things:

- wheels balanced on a 6-lug balancer (not a cone-type balancer which is less accurate)
- rotated wheels
- replaced bent draglink with a new Superior one
- cleaned and repacked front wheel bearings

Nothing helped. Then I finally got around to fitting the Superior heavy duty lower rear control arms I'd bought months before. Put the old ones on the garage floor and one was bowed... went for a drive and no more wobbles!

[Ben-e-boy]

another thing that helps espicially if you run larger tyres is to add more pre load to your wheel and swivel hub bearings by tightening the hub or removing the shims from the swivel hub bearings.

[mudski]

Hmm it obviously varies on each vehicle. I even read somewhere that a chap had new urethane bushes fitted in the radius arms and he still had the wobbles. He somehow found out that the width of the OEM bushes were slightly wider than the aftermarket ones so he fitted OEM bushes and the problem went away. With my new'ish tyres I have I still get the ever so slightest wobble but nothing like it was before. One day I will replace the radius arm bushes in mine as I have some red coloured bushes in mine. I just had to get hold of a press first...

[Wine_maker]

Hi folks!

I'll take a risk to suspect the cardan shaft. It could be deformated (and as result disbalanced) during offroad driving or result of stacking and hard recovery.
Or balance weight plates can be lost somewhere as resullt of corrosion.

IMHO

[mudski]

Whats a cardan shaft?

[Wine_maker]

Hi mate! Sorry for my curve english.
This is what I mean. (we call it in honor of the first person known to have suggested its use for transmitting motive power was Gerolamo Cardano, an Italian mathematician, in 1545, although it is unclear whether he produced a working model.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_joint#History)

http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21479

[Big Red]

fixing the wheel balance may only stop the symptoms starting.

the major cause of the patrol 80 to 100 wobbles on lifted trucks is the panhard bushes ... but don't fit the eurethane ones cos they are loose to begin with ... fit genuine Nissan bushes.
then go looking at wheel bearings, kingpin bearings etc etc

You need two people to check the panhard bushes as the minutest movement is enough to allow the wobbles to start.
one to push the truck side to side and the other to watch for movement.

[Robo]

Check your rims for Out of Round.
Balance can be perfect 1 buckled rim and you will,
spend a lot of time and money trying to fix everything else.

[tbecroft]

If you have em check the casters by looking for tearing around the eye, had the same issue on a troop carrier. A wheel alignment would hide the issue for awhile but it would come back.

[markistall]

extremely late up date. after spending months and thousands on the suspension and bushes and other items trying to fix this, i bought some new tyres (33" mickey thompson MTZs :D) the problem has been fixed! my theary is that there was some mud or something built up inside one of the old one maybe and that's what caused the shake.

thanks for the help anyway guys.

[Robo]

keep an eye on it.
new tyres can hide a rim that's out of round.
I don't like bursting the bubble, try jacking the car and spin the wheel by hand and have a good look at the whole wheel package, front and side surfaces + including the rim lip.
you are looking for any out of round/wobble at all.

had the same problem new tyres re-developed the same wobble and the rims where the problem.
I went through the same process as you but I bought the rims new "out of round from factory ".
2 sets of tyres ruined, and a lot of money.
so check and re-check.
good luck

[Northern Lad]

Hi, as said before, the swivel/king pin bearings can cause this. I'm not sure if you have done these yet but you can buy a kit with wheel bearings and seals. It really is worth doing the whole job. I also re-bushed the suspension........twice. I found out the hard way that the cheap rubber bush kit wasn't so cheap. Used genuine bushes the second time now my 24 year old wagon is driving like a new one.
Cheers

[GU_Nemesis]

Mate, same thing happened to my GQ a few weeks ago. I thought it was the steering dampener, brakes etc. Checked all of these and eventually I replaced the front wheel bearings. After that, absolutely no shudder under brakes at all. I know you said you checked and re-packed, but if they are stuffed sometimes you won't notice until they start making a huge noise whilst driving. I jacked mine up and grabbed the wheel and there was heaps of side to side movement and free play so I knew mine were shot. I'd be replacing the bearings first and go from there.. worked for mine :)

Cheers,

Scotty

[GUIIIpatrol]

keep an eye on it.
new tyres can hide a rim that's out of round.
I don't like bursting the bubble, try jacking the car and spin the wheel by hand and have a good look at the whole wheel package, front and side surfaces + including the rim lip.
you are looking for any out of round/wobble at all.

had the same problem new tyres re-developed the same wobble and the rims where the problem.
I went through the same process as you but I bought the rims new "out of round from factory ".
2 sets of tyres ruined, and a lot of money.
so check and re-check.
good luck

I had the same trouble with my GUIII Patrol. At around the 80-90km/h mark. And it would come and go some times. Everything was mechanically fine so i went to get the balance of my tires checked and as soon as they put the first wheel on the machine they told what the trouble was. Scalloped tires.

If you jack one front wheel up and turn it out so you are looking at the tread. Spin the wheel and see if the tread has highs and lows on an angle all the way around.

My front 2 where shocking and the back 2 weren't as bad. So we swapped the back to the front. Problem almost disappeared.

Later after saving a few dollars, I replaced all 4. No wobble in the steering at all!!! Problem fixed. Have been told it could be worn shockers or as mentioned above could be the rims not perfectly round.

Hope this helps some.

[rowanchild]

Hi al, I have a GU 111 and have the same problem, it started a few months back, only intermittent at the time, always when over 100k's... did it twice while going Adelaide- Mt Gambia, but not on the way back. a month later all good going Adelaide to Roxby Downs , even went off road a bit, no problems... but on the way back to Adelaide Wheel wobbles..... now it has gotten worse, wobbling at 60k's and above....Have had a wheel balance and alignment.had all 4 tyres rotated, had the mechanic go over it today and he can not find anything wrong with , panhard bushes, wheel bearings, or steering damper, has suggested getting suspension looked at..... does anyone have any suggestions? could it be the suspension or am i just wasting more money, we don't have

[thelawz]

My GU11 had the same problem. I rotated the wheels and it went away for a while but came back. Was also intermittent. My tyres were getting worn and I had to replace. Since I fitted my Cooper ST Max tyres I never had the wobbles again, at any speed. I put it down to my tyres, but I am sure there are more than one cause as everyone find something else fixes the problem. I would suggest finding a good friend with a set of near new tyres and swop for a while. See if it makes a difference.

[nickpeacock36]

I have maxis bighorns and was told they were badly out of balance. The tyre place got it pretty good but after lowering pressure to go off road they were shocking again. They mentioned the coopers on a 4wd Aus mag and said lowering the pressure didnt give them probs with balance as they are a well balanced tyre. Big plug for coopers obviously but i had never considered that lowering and re inflating could cause the problem before i watched the vid. I suppose it makes sense doesnt it?

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

[Robo]

I have maxis bighorns and was told they were badly out of balance. The tyre place got it pretty good but after lowering pressure to go off road they were shocking again. They mentioned the coopers on a 4wd Aus mag and said lowering the pressure didnt give them probs with balance as they are a well balanced tyre. Big plug for coopers obviously but i had never considered that lowering and re inflating could cause the problem before i watched the vid. I suppose it makes sense doesnt it?

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

WT, please explain, balance changes with air pressure.
can understand low pressure may affect it some what, but normal road pressure !

[oncedisturbed]

Just had mine balanced and have maxis bravo AT's. they got mine pretty good as well but advised that may be either the rims or tyres playing or both in combination that has affected the balance. Pressures not a factor in this case


Never underestimate the power of the Tap.

[nickpeacock36]

Thats why i put the question mark mate. It was Graham on the video with the latest mag that said it. Coyld the tyres move on the rim with lower pressures? Mibe were definitely worse after an off road outing

Sent from my GT-S7500T using Tapatalk 2

[Robo]

Hope this helps.
Rims out of round
is a 3 dimensional problem.
up down, left right.
& offset, wobble not running in parallel side to side.

This is how I found Mav's rim/tyre problem
driving on a good smooth asphalt surface, that has a fairly tight long bend at 20-40 kph .
going too quick helps to hide trouble.
having a rim/tyre outta round problem you should feel vehicle pitching around from each side.
the longer the corner the better, trouble can be synchronised, but will change with distance travelled.
cheers

[4by]

Panhard bushes fixed mine after doing several wheel balances replacing trailing arms and wheel bearings. Mate had his tyres balanced at jax quick fit who had a new balancing machine (better than the 6 fingers) and fixed all wobble issues. Its some new high tech balancing machine used for 4wd tyres. He went to epping in vic if anyone is interested. Maybe some other stores have them.
Obviously wheel balance wont fix it if there are other problems causing the shake.

[rowanchild]

got part of my problem fixed, at a cost of $600, they had to replace the steering damper, and they tightened up all the loose nuts underneath, they have also said the control arm bushes are worn and will need replacing.... we want to do it ourselves, but the replacement parts are genuine nissan parts and i can't get them through a spare parts shop. . anyone now how i can get the bushes for the control arms without spending a down payment on a house.?

[Parksy]

eBay. There's a seller that sells them directly from Japan for a good price.