Vibration

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:00 pm

My BX was MOT'd recently, for which the power steering coupling disc had to be replaced. So now the steering feels firmer and the wheel now sits perfectly centered at straight-ahead

... but I've recently been feeling worrying vibrations through the steering wheel - they often kick in when I change up to 5th gear at 40-50, but disappear at motorway speeds. Feels rough, like.. I don't know - and I think I ought to get it checked out. Any ideas? Could it be caused by a worn lower wishbone bush - or a wheel bearing? - but surely something would have been picked up during the MOT test...?

Mark.

ernst stavro blofeld · Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:19 pm

Wheel balance.

tim leech · Post by **tim leech** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 8:56 pm

My car pulls a little to the left on hard acceleration, and the steering seems a little ponderous, it has cheap tyres on it, maybe the tracking needs setting or its something more serious!

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:55 pm

tim leech wrote:My car pulls a little to the left on hard acceleration, and the steering seems a little ponderous, it has cheap tyres on it, maybe the tracking needs setting or its something more serious!

Tim,

"torque steering" as it's called can be caused by several things and from what I've seen, tyres tend more to exaggerate it than cause it.
Common fault is lower control arm bushes worn and allowing the front wheel(s) to slightly pivot.
In my own case, the rear arm bearings were worn even though the car showed none of the usual symptoms of knock knees or creaking etc. I once fitted a couple of directional tyres to the front (Falkens) and it became noticeable immediately after they were fitted. I then had them moved to the rear wheels and it seemed almost unnoticeable (nobody could explain this at the time) but when we rebuilt the rear arms, it totally disappeared and I have heard from others that this also caused it on their cars, so maybe it could be one of those.

Alan S

tim leech · Post by **tim leech** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:36 am

Thank you Alan, im going to chnage the cheap tyres and get the wheel alignment set asap, will get the to check for wear in the bushes whilst its on the ramp at work.

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 11:53 am

I'm beginning to think my vibration is caused by a blow or transmitted vibration from the exhaust downpipe. My garage did remark that the downpipe was beginning to "go" at one of the welds in the section that's under the footwell, and they applied some paste as a temp repair. Also the rest of the exhaust had to be put back together properly after the rear hanger failed...

The vibration through the steering wheel and the associated noise occurs in the 2500-3000 rev range in all gears - but the effect is magnified when I'm in 5th gear in this rev range, so between 45-60 mph or so. There is an issue with worn lower wishbone bushes that I knew about, so there's a clonking/pivoting that comes and goes, but this sensation/noise is new.

Mark.

Oscar · Post by **Oscar** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 3:38 pm

I had vibration, pulling and noise, all of which went when I fitted alloys, new tyres and had the wheels properly balanced. Now I've had the wheels off and on again so many times they need to be rebalanced, which I'll be doing shortly.

Once you've discounted the above reasons, start looking for more complicated mechanical ones.