Vibration at 70MPH?

oxtailsoup · Unread post by **oxtailsoup** » 16 Aug 2010, 09:22

My C5 estate has a vibration between 70-80MPH. It is felt through the floor not the steering wheel.

My understanding was that wheel balancing problems caused a vibration through the steering wheel (not my problem). What are the possible causes of vibration felt on the floor?

Going up to 80MPH and beyond cures the problem (when I'm testing the car on my own private race track of course

). Dropping velow 70MPH also cures the problem. This is consistant.

Thanks.

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 16 Aug 2010, 10:20

Oxtail, I would say that if back wheels were out of balance, you would not notice this through the steering wheel? you could swap back and fronts and go for a drive?

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 16 Aug 2010, 10:39

Thats quite a common thing on C5s, they are very sensitive to wheel balancing.

Last year i got some new tyres fitted on the back of our previous C5 estate, i drove home from the tyre place thinking they must have fitted square ones, as the vibration through the car was so bad it felt like a distorted tyre. I took it back and they rebalanced them, the vibration was less but still there. So i took it somewhere else and got them done, they were perfect after that.

Ive had the same problem with my C5 too, both pairs of tyres ive had (front and rear) were poorly balanced. After three attempts of taking it back to the same place ive given up, so it still has a very slight vibration from the rear at the moment. I must get it taken into another tyre place for balancing.

Mine is worse at 60-70, 80+ and its pretty perfect - so thats my excuse if i ever get cought going a bit fast!

C5 wheels seem hard to balance, i dont think the whole through the centre of them is big enough to go on a standard tyre balancing machine, so a lot of tyre fitters have problems balancing them.

oxtailsoup · Unread post by **oxtailsoup** » 16 Aug 2010, 11:02

Thanks, was the vibration felt through the steering wheel or through the floor?

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 16 Aug 2010, 12:03

Through the floor, well seats mainly.

You could try swapping your wheels front to back and see if the vibrations changes to the front.

oxtailsoup · Unread post by **oxtailsoup** » 18 Aug 2010, 10:02

We're currently in the south of Spain and don't really have the time to swap the wheels around so I took the car to a local tyre centre yesterday. I told them that the vibration wasn't from the steering wheel, it was coming from the front floor/seat and they were adament it wouldn't be a balancing problem if the steering wheel wasn't vibrating.He said it would be a waste of money. He did run his hands around the tyres looking for obvious damage but said there was no point balancing the wheels.

Do we disgree?

f00lzz · Unread post by **f00lzz** » 18 Aug 2010, 10:09

Well I disagree! Front tyres out of balance = steering wheel shake
Rear tyres out of balance = feel it through your bum (and headrest shake maybe)

Andy F · Unread post by **Andy F** » 18 Aug 2010, 10:47

Hi all, i'm new to the forum

I am going through the same problems with my c5 hatch. I've had it a week (long story...) and it has a vibration. i took it to a garage yesterday where they balanced and did the tracking. the vibration is a little less than before but still not good. What garage do you recommend for balancing? my usual local one doesn't have the adapter for centreless wheels so i took it to Ebley. Just wondered if anyone has found good balancing in a big chain garage?

It also now pulls a lot to the left, i phoned them up this morning and they want to check front to back tracking tomorrow, is this likely to help?

den169 · Unread post by **den169** » 18 Aug 2010, 12:04

I had a bad wheel wobble on the front and back of my c5 estate for 2 years, And that was after having the wheels balanced twice by Kwik Fit,Started at 70mph i could pull out of it by going faster eventually i took it to ATS who actually knew what they were doing cost £24 and have been perfect since.But the back wheels did make the car vibrate.I would have them done anyway for what it costs,Its worth a try.

Unread post by **myglaren** » 18 Aug 2010, 19:53

den169 wrote:I had a bad wheel wobble on the front and back of my c5 estate for 2 years, And that was after having the wheels balanced twice by Kwik Fit,Started at 70mph i could pull out of it by going faster eventually i took it to ATS who actually knew what they were doing cost £24 and have been perfect since.But the back wheels did make the car vibrate.I would have them done anyway for what it costs,Its worth a try.

I too found that ATS actually knew what they were doing (they said that they had done 800 C5s at that depot alone due to a recall on the steel wheels)

Tyrespot* seemed to manage OK the day before yesterday too.

I think it is more to do with the actual person doing the balancing and how much experience he has (and if he cares at all)

*Only selected branches can balance Citroen wheels.

Andy F · Unread post by **Andy F** » 19 Aug 2010, 12:18

Hi,

just a quick update. Having taken the C5 back to Ebley it was no better, so i took it to ATS this morning and its like a different car, brilliantly smooth.

Thanks for the suggestion

Andy

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 19 Aug 2010, 12:31

Probably 99% of vibrations problems are down to balancing or faulty tyres, I would be very surprised if it were anything else.

cachaciero · Unread post by **cachaciero** » 19 Aug 2010, 14:41

Peter.N. wrote:Probably 99% of vibrations problems are down to balancing or faulty tyres, I would be very surprised if it were anything else.

On earlyish C5's! I wouldn't be surprised at all.

There was a long history of problems with vibration from the back when the car was first introduced and an equally long history of "fixes" which included such things as fitting damper weights and modified subframe bushes. Now arguably all affected cars should have been fixed and should have had the mods done at Citroens expense, but it wouldn't surprise me if a few have escaped

.
I would not have expected a 2004 car to be affected but given the VIN number any Citroen dealer should be able to tell you what has been done in terms of re-calls warranty work etc.

cachaciero

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 19 Aug 2010, 17:25

Didn't know about that

falling-out-with-my-car · 20 Aug 2010, 02:31

if your out in spain ask them if they can balance the wheels on the car something they stopped doing here in the UK a long time ago.

if they still use the old type balancing machine that presses against the tyres it will surely cure any panel shaking from poorly balanced wheels.

it was a brilliant way of stopping panels from shaking balancing wheels on the car, god knows why they stopped doing it over here, probably something to do with health and saftey laws.