Vibration felt at 70 mph

steviewonder7 · Post by **steviewonder7** » 03 Jul 2006, 19:00

Hi folks,

I was wondering if you helpful chaps might be able to help me with this
slight problem:

Whilst on the motorway and only on the motorway I find when driving at 70-75 mph only,there is a slight vibration through the car that can very vaguely felt through the steering wheel.The vibration is not evident outside
of this speed range.
I've had new tyres fitted recently at the front,but the fault was there before the new tyres were fitted,so perhaps that counts the tyres out

Cv joints dont appear to be giving me any trouble as I cant feel any knocking/rumbling when driving around roundabouts or sharp corners.

Could the wheel bearings be on their way out?If so how do I check them?

Could that right hand (drivers side) drive shaft intermediate bearing be going ?

Could it be the inner cv joints going?Do I have to remove them to fault them?
What else could it be that I've overlooked?????
What are your suspicions folks ???

The car has now done 120 Kmiles

Look forward to reading any of your replies
Thanks Steve

James.UK · Post by **James.UK** » 03 Jul 2006, 19:36

It sounds like you need to get your wheels balanced. That should solve the problem.

steelcityuk · Post by **steelcityuk** » 03 Jul 2006, 22:10

Hi,

Could it be that the wheels are buckled?

Steve.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 03 Jul 2006, 22:19

If the tyres are new and balanced on the wheels it would tend to point to something else in there! Have you done a good tug/pull/push of all the suspension when it's depressurised to pick out the wheel bearing/ball joint.

Give the driveshaft a good tug too in all directions to hear/feel for anything untoward. Then it's not your strut tops is it!?

Have you tried swapping the tyres in pairs from each axle. Apparently the best/new tyres should be on the back...

<<he says ducking swiftly...>>

Andrew

Post by **Peter.N.** » 03 Jul 2006, 22:31

If the symptoms are the same as before the new front tyres were fitted, the next place to look would the back tyres. I would say that at least 90% of vibration at wheel speed problems are associated with the tyres, or at least in 50 years of motoring that has been my experience. Uneven wear, ply seperation or loss of a balance a weight being the usual problems.

The only problem I have ever had that wasn't caused by the tryes was on a CX safari and was caused by worn inner driveshaft joints. The car had covered in excess of 200k miles at the time and the vibration only occured on a long journey when the grease had heated sufficiently to to not be viscous enough to fill the space left by the wear.

steviewonder7 · Post by **steviewonder7** » 04 Jul 2006, 16:08

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.I will obviously take them into serious
consideration.
The rear tyres,I must admit, are nearing their life's end,tread just above legal requirement,thought they would last another thousand miles !

I will take the car to a local motorist centre and ask them to rebalance the
nearly new front tyres again and perhaps swap them with the rear tyres to see if the situation improves.

steve

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 04 Jul 2006, 16:42

Just been to a local tyre fitting place and a thought on this subject [I know I'm sad!!] struck me!!

Are any of the tyres handed for direction of rotation as their braiding may be unbalanced - yet when the wheel is tested OFF the car it may be OK...

NOT SURE IF IT MAKES A WHOLE WORLD OF DIFFERENCE APART FROM WATER DISPERSAL MIND!!

Andrew

steviewonder7 · Post by **steviewonder7** » 04 Jul 2006, 16:52

I know what you mean and will check this. Thanks

windysurferuk · Post by **windysurferuk** » 04 Jul 2006, 17:38

I had a similar thing on my ZX

At almost exactly 60 mph a slight vibration.

Turn out to be the cv joint on its way out

howiedean · Post by **howiedean** » 04 Jul 2006, 18:09

These problems can be a bug$£r to find. I had a Hyundai Lantra that had the same problems of vibration at a certain speed.
I had the wheels balanced and the problem was still their. Eventually the tyres were swopped over and the problem was still their.
Finally I swopped the wheels around and noticed that the problem went away. The problem was down to a buckle in the wheel and although not bad, it for some reason had been masked by the previous tyres.
The strange thing was that even though the wheel was balanced but it still caused a vibration!!

Regards