Wheel wobble annoyance :(

[Piggy]

So had a bit of wheel wobble with this car from day one...

But first alloys I drove home on were completely buckled, then I had some winter tyres/wheels on which werent even balanced

Put me shiney new alloys on and still had a bit of wheel wobble.
So checked all the front end, fine, got the wheels balanced again, fine and all true.
Cleaned up all mating faces again, which were basically still shiney from doinf it first time

Still wheel wobble.

Its at certain speeds, only over 67/68 though and I noticed last night, it can depend slightly on load/throttle position too.

My only other thought is hub/wheel bearing?

[John1.4]

driveshaft?

[Piggy]

They are tight, no play

[Toms306]

What did you check on the front end? Bushes and balljoints? Top strut mounts?

The problem is, the amount of force through things at 70 cant really be replicated at standstill. I cant remember the last time I had a 306 without a wobble at speed though lol.

[Piggy]

There shouldnt be wheel wobble at 70 in any car to be honest!!

yeah, all joints are fine, CVs are faultless, bushes spot on...all to be expected as they are only 10k mile old.

The only things I didnt change when I did the build was the wheel bearings, which is what I am wondering.

I may have a creaky left hand strut top bearing though...not known one to cause wheel wobble though!?

[Toms306]

There shouldn't, but on an old car, unless every single rubber part, bush, ball joint, bearing etc is replaced there will always be various amounts of wear on those parts leading to slight movement which is magnified (if that's the right word!) by the wheels...

The strut bearing wont cause an issue afaik, but if the rubber mount itself is worn it'll allow the strut to move very slightly.

[Piggy]

Hmmmmmm

New top mounts doesnt sound cheap

[vincent1]

years ago when i was in the tyre and exhaust fitting game there was a machince called on the car wheel balancer this machine was used in situations like yours and did solve 99% of issues as this was doing the balancing on the car it was taking into account hubs/drive shafts etc as long as you marked the postion the wheel came off and put it back on the same position you was usually fine.This method was ok in a situation like yours where you have replaced most parts with new suspension items. we mainly used this on police and fast response cars. The company i used to work for was nts not sure if they still have the machines as it was very time comsuming as well.

[toseland]

have a look at dynabeads, its dynamic wheel balancing and we use it a lot in the offroad community to balance Large profile mud tyres etc that would require a massive amount of weights to balance.. (mine required over 70g of weights on one side, filled the tyre with dynabeads and its job done)

[zx_volcane]

have you swapped wheels front to back to rule them out? or chuck a spare set on

warped disc / sticking slider?

bulge in the tyre somewhere or mishapen

doubt its bushes / suspension if its a wobble coming in at a certain speed / throttle position / load

engine mounts could be worth a check too

[daddyfixit]

if all wheels are balanced spot on, no play in drive shafts /cv joints the only other suspect items are the tyres themselves;
if a tyres got an egg/bulge in the tread it will not show until weight is ON the car (when you are driving) the faster the tyres rotate the greater centrifugal force is, so the distortion gets worse/tyre out of shape= imbalance ??

[Piggy]

Tyres are fine.
Checked and double checked

Guna check top mounts and engine mounts.

Then I suppose swap wheels front to rear which will be a bore coz the fronts are bolt on hubcentrics and the rears are just hubcentric spacers!!

[Piggy]

swapped wheels front to back.

It seemed worse. Certainly not better.

Back to tyre shop...rebalanced the fronts, they stripped the weights off and startedfrom scratch. The wheels are true, I watched them on the machine, and within 2.5g of balance now. So pretty spot on.

But exact same wobble. at 76/78mph (on my private runway) you have to grip hard to hold the wheel. Then at 80 its fine...then beyond 85ish-100 it makes it pretty scarey!

So.....only one last thing to try...swap the front spacers for the rears.

Any other ideas?

[silverzx]

Sounds like it wants scrapping. Gvie you £150?

[Piggy]

Speaking of scrapping cars...once youve scrapped the datsun and the 205...
What you buying?...or is £150 what you got at the scrappies for your datsun and 205 hence the offer?

[Toms306]

Spacers!? That's probably the issue here... Take them off and try without if you can.

[Piggy]

They wont clear without...will swap front to rear though and see

[Toms306]

Have you got any other wheels that don't need spacers?

Could at least rule out wheels and spacers if it still happens... But I have had spacers before, caused wheel wobble everytime! Granted they were only cheap ones though.

[Piggy]

These are proper bolt on hubcentrics. Second hand though.
Will try the new non bolt on hubcentrics I got.

[silverzx]

Speaking of scrapping cars...once youve scrapped the datsun and the 205...
What you buying?...or is £150 what you got at the scrappies for your datsun and 205 hence the offer?

Hehe, the Datsuns for life now unfortunately. No point selling it as the Mrs says. It's worth more to me then anyone would be willling to offer for it and finding them is getting pretty impossible now.

The 205's gonna go on eBay/here or whatever next month though, if no one wants it I'll take all the running gear/engine out to drop straight into another 205 shell (GTi) and strip/scrap it.

[Piggy]

Bloody wobble still there over Xmph

Feel it in whole car, not just steering wheel...and even at constant speed/throttle its not consitent.

Any ideas? Really doing my nut

[Piggy]

so serviced brakes this evening, hoped to find some corrsion behind disks...or something!!!

Nope.

When you really nail it on a private road between 80-100 you have to be careful that your eyeballs dont fall out!! worse when accelerating for sure.

Leading me now to driveshafts. Especially as I realised I had a similar wobble in the green turd, and I used those driveshafts,
Got a pair spare, so will reboot and grease and swap them when I do clutch I think.

any other suggestions?

[cully]

yup drive shaft probably the compression spring in the back of the cv has collapsed to one side

[doogle-d turbo]

Right size ball joint /hub? I had a garage put 16mm joint in the 18 mm hub and this caused bad wobble with mine.

Needless to say I didn't return

[Piggy]

Yes, right size ball joint. As said joints are all tight. A 16 ina 18 would be blatently obvious tbh

[doogle-d turbo]

Yea didn't want to undermine you just seem to be running out of ideas. Driveshafts must be next port of call then

[DazzaHDI]

You sorted this out yet bud?

[Piggy]

Nope

Guna switch driveshafts when I do the clutch

[DazzaHDI]

Nope

Guna switch driveshafts when I do the clutch

I was going to say, since I had my mishap last year ive had various wheel wobbles and now she is all sweet! But I have: changed both driveshafts, both wishbones, swapped wheels round, had them balanced, changed both suspension legs and top strut mounts and changed both tre's and now she's spot on
Hahaa but yeah she should be fine once driveshafts are swapped!

[Mike]

Piggy.. i had wheel wobble the other week, Around the 65mph mark.
I replaced my rack ends on the steering rack and it sorted it for me mate.