God damn Patrol wobbles...

[yiannisk]

G'day fellas, I know this has been done to death but I've bought a 2011 3.0TD Patrol about a month ago and some 2 weeks ago it started wobbling.
I've checked the panhard rod bushing, steering damper, wheel bearing, even had a wheel allignment but to no avail. I had it taken to a general car service joint and rhey had no idea what it was. It has a 2" lift and Cooper Discoverer S/T 275/70 R17 tyres.
I don't think its your standard Patrol wobble as it doesn't matter what speed its at the steering wheel likes to sway from side to side proportional to the wheel speed and you can feel it in the cab the faster I'm going.
I'm getting a wheel balance in the next couple days but if that doesn't work it'll be the Tough Dog return to centre steering damper.
Any hints or tips I can get would be much appreciated!
Cheers!

[Avo]

My Mrs front end wobbles everywhere....

[mudski]

My Mrs front end wobbles everywhere....So does my missus...[emoji38]

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[GeeYou8]

Sounds like a bent rim, see what they find when they balance.

[mudski]

If its a sway more than a wobble I could be the steering dampener. I use an rtc dampener with success. For some reason it's much to the disgust of many though to use an rtc dampener.
Not sure where you are but if desired a decent front end alignment place who specialise in this thing. There's a mob called Pro Axle that I used and they were spot on with my Patrol. Cost a whole 80 bux too.
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[the evil twin]

Sounds like a bent rim, see what they find when they balance.

X 2... can also on rare occasions be a dodgy tyre...
And not a big fan of RTC Dampers myself, there is something wrong so better off fixing it than trying to get rid of the symptoms

[Tip12345]

MMMM this will put the car among the pigeons .
Is the steering box in the middle ie have you got the same turns lock to lock ?
This is one of the most overlooked problems . the steering box is set up to have as close to zero clearance in the middle position.
The clearance increases the further it gets from centre .
So the steering box has to be in the middle . or you get the following . backlash !! it sometimes you can hear a knock . check the steering wheel is on straight there is sometimes a whitness mark on the wheel and the spline .
I used to be involved with repairing steering boxes . grindind the internal parts etc . there is not many people who realise it is so important .
We used to have to make custom bits to get them in the middle . Hope this helps

[Cuppa]

Some folk's are lucky to have the missus they do! :D

[yiannisk]

If its a sway more than a wobble I could be the steering dampener. I use an rtc dampener with success. For some reason it's much to the disgust of many though to use an rtc dampener.
Not sure where you are but if desired a decent front end alignment place who specialise in this thing. There's a mob called Pro Axle that I used and they were spot on with my Patrol. Cost a whole 80 bux too.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

Cheers mate, I'm in Eltham, Victoria. I noticed there was one in Campbellfield, is that the one you went to? Also not sure if a rtc is a good idea as I don't want to risk just masking the problem.


Sounds like a bent rim, see what they find when they balance.

If its just that I'll be pretty happy, can chuck the alloys and get some sweet steelies haha


MMMM this will put the car among the pigeons .
Is the steering box in the middle ie have you got the same turns lock to lock ?
This is one of the most overlooked problems . the steering box is set up to have as close to zero clearance in the middle position.
The clearance increases the further it gets from centre .
So the steering box has to be in the middle . or you get the following . backlash !! it sometimes you can hear a knock . check the steering wheel is on straight there is sometimes a whitness mark on the wheel and the spline .
I used to be involved with repairing steering boxes . grindind the internal parts etc . there is not many people who realise it is so important .
We used to have to make custom bits to get them in the middle . Hope this helps

I never even considered that mate. I'll do a solid inspection as soon as I get home. I get why its an overlooked problem though

[the evil twin]

snip... For some reason it's much to the disgust of many though to use an rtc dampener.

Hiya cobber,

RTC don't disgust me as such, it is just that most times they are fitted to hide a problem.

The steering on any vehicle is engineered to return to centre as a function of Castor and to a lesser extent Toe.
The spring on an RTC provides an extra force to assist and shouldn't be needed on a functioning standard or near standard geometry.
When the Castor is out due to lift or there are other component/geometry issues or whatever the Castor should be adjusted or problem identified IMHO rather than RTC

More than happy to see people fit RTC when they have big tyres IE increased mass or want greater RTC feel in the steering IE lots of gnarly off roading or whatever.

Bottom line is, again, only IMHO...
Issues when cruising at any speed around centre - find it and fix it
Issues after a lift - find it and fix it
Poor return to centre with large tyres (bigger than 33) or off road - fit an RTC

[yiannisk]

G'day fellas, I've finally fixed the problem! Before I changed anything I decided to do a wheel rotation and the car drives fine now which means there was a faulty front tyre. Thanks everyone for the help, you guys are legends!