Front Wheel Vibration

[dah_man_ben]

Hey guys,

Got a VYII Berlina with 70,000 on the clock and its been pulling left for a while and vibrating when doing about 80 - 105 km/h. Iv'e been meaning to get it fixed and I finally did today cos my wheel rotation was due.

Got a wheel rotation today, told them to align it and balance it for me while they're at it. They did the alignment no worries and its now straight as on the road, and they reckon they balanced it but between 80km/h and 100ish km/h I am still getting vibration through the steering wheel! This is starting to piss me off because I just want it fixed and no joint can seem to tell me what the problem is, just that they have balanced it.

Any suggestions on what this could be, worn bushes or something, would be greatly appreciated as I want to get it fixed and not keep paying $$$ for balances etc.

Thanks heaps.

Ben.

[daniel555]

I would think it would have been the balancing too. Umm, I know mine gets a little wobble between 90-97km/h. but after that its good.

Im not to sure, sorry.

[thewheeldeal com au]

run your hand around the tread on the tyres (all 4) and also a across the tread...(yes, your hands will get dirty)... you should feel a uniform shape across all four tyres.... what you are looking for is any kind of bump/lump/ridge/bubble/rise.... anything that may indicate tread seperation on the tyres... it's not always easy to feel if you don't know what to look for.

Even if a tyre tread has seperated, it can still be balanced 100% and it WILL cause vibrations, whether its on the front or back..

Here's a link if you have the time to read it > Tire Tread Separations, Defects and Blowouts

Aside from that...I would take it back to the tyre store and get them to fix it... you took it in with a problem, then paid them and it wasn't fixed..

[dah_man_ben]

Ok no probs thanks for the replies... I will be taking it back tomorrow anyway and having a winge to them. Maybe also a nice feel of my tyres tomorrow aswell

haha. thanks again

ben

[vywgn]

ive also found warpped brake rotors 2 cause this problem as well at my work have had it a few times

[dah_man_ben]

yeah mate i know that problem but thats only when your braking... got mine machined like 5000km ago anyway so thats no worries.

cheers anyway

[jazza15]

Someone else with a similar problem to mine.
I've narrowed it down to either a bent half shaft (rear drive shaft), the broken engine mounts (worn) or something top do with the struts (mounts/bearings). In order of likelyness imo.
Although it comes through the front wheel, I do now believe it could be coming from the back.
I too have no brake shudder. I've had multiple wheel balances, currently have a completely different set of wheels on atm (stockies) changed nearly everything in my suspension and steering (just need to do strut tops and VY IRS conversion) and still no fix. Doing the radius rod bushes did dull the vibration down as expected though.

[HSV.006]

the actuall wheel is probably out of balance, as in needs a weight put on

[Mig]

wheel bearing?

[calais24/7]

I have the exact same problem(s) as you, my car pulls slightly to the left and the steering wheel shudders when going over about 90 + got it aligned and balanced but still no good but they said any dramas go back so its booked in early january and i hope it gets fixed its a pain in the arse and you get dead arms after a while

[dah_man_ben]

thanks for the replies... yeah its a real prick and annoying! hmmmm they are hopefully open on monday so I will go down there and complain... I need it fixed!!!!! As i said, iv had it balanced twice by two different mobs.

Could it possibly be shit tyres cos they are crap cheap ones that came with my mags. I was thinking of running them out then replacing them with something decent?

[Sean880]

1. Wheel rims.
Like others have mentioned here, if you have aftermarket mag wheels - especially if they are the made in China budget variety - you will potentially have a badly built wheel with a heavy spot that is impossible to balance. This does happen even with some of the better quality brands where suspect wheels slip through quality control. Some of these are so bad that a vibration is evident when fitted to the rear.

Also, if you bought second hand wheels spin the fronts with the car jacked to to see if you can detect any minor warping in the wheel rim. This should usually be detected on the wheel balance machine.

2. Tyres
Cheap tyres are bad news because they are often poorly built - sometimes with heavy spots in them that are hard or impossible to balance out. Never buy budget priced tyres as it's a waste of good money and their performance will be poor.

I always buy quality Bridgestone tyres as I have never had any balance issues with any of their tyres on the 7 commodores (or other cars) I have had. I recently fitted a set of 17 inch Bridgestone Adrenalin RE001 tyres on my VY(II) S. These perform very well and have no balance issues.

A lot of guys are buying 19 by 8 - 9 inch and 20 by 8 - 9 inch rims for the looks and because the good quality tyres are so much more expensive in these sizes many are fitting el-cheapo tyres that are offered by a lot of dealers.

3. Wheel bearings. If the rims and tyres are OK and the problem persists I would be definitely pulling out the front wheel bearings and replacing them . This is not expensive to have done.

However I expect you will find the problem is the wheels or tyres or both and that they are impossible to properly balance. My guess is that the tyres you have are rubbish.

[jazza15]

Someone else with a similar problem to mine.
I've had multiple wheel balances, currently have a completely different set of wheels on atm (stockies)

I have a similar/same problem, have removed wheels/tyres as a possible cause.
My front left wheel bearing is gone, but has been for some time. This vibration occured after someone decided to drive my car up a kerb. Nothing is bent by the looks of it.

[dah_man_ben]

Thanks mate for the reply - yeah they are second hand rims, but holden ones though.. don't seem to have anything wrong with them.

As I said, they came with cheap crappy tyres on them. I have always used bridgestones on my VS and never had any problems, so when its time to change the tyres on my current VY, I will most likely just get some Bridgestone Turanzas. Hopefully that is just the issue. I could just get my old factory rims re-fitted and see if the vibration is there? They had decent tyres on them.

I will follow your advice, I may upgrade the tyres to something more decent (they are loud, hopeless things anyway.) then i can see if the vibration continues, and if it does, I will replace the wheel bearings and so on.


Cheers for your helpful advice champ,
Ben.

[Sean880]

Ben

If the wheels you have are Holden then I doubt the wheel rims are the issue unless they have been damaged. I have yet to come across anyone with dodgy undamaged "holden" alloy wheels but that's not to say there are not a few out there.

If you have other wheels, with tyres fitted, to test on the front do it and see if you still have the problem.

I can recommend the Bridgestone Adrenalins RE001 tyres for both performance and noise level. (Excellent value when bought on special.) These are unbelievably quiet. I could not believe the difference in noise - even at very low speeds - after running the original equipment factory fitted Bridgestone Potenzas for so long.

Given that the only thing between disaster in your car and full control is 4 little patches of rubber contacting the road, always buy the very best tyres you can afford. (I would rather have a sticky performance tyre that is good in wet and dry conditions than one that will let go much sooner and give me perhaps 7000 kms more wear. Good tyres and brakes are much, much cheaper than bent panels). Keep the front wheels aligned and the tyre pressures up above the minimums and you will get good mileage out of your tyres when driving sensibly.

Cheers

[calais24/7]

1. Wheel rims.

2. Tyres

3. Wheel bearings.

My wheels are genuine VR clubsport wheels, My tyres cost 300 each and are BFgoodrich. However im not quite sure about the wheel bearings

[fatbats]

May need to get you tailshaft balanced or a loose bolt ?
I had a shudder in my WH Stato, had wheel alignment done and everything, turned out to be a bold missing from the tailshaft coupling..

[Sean880]

Hiclas

If you are still having trouble there is a suspension shop in Sydney, - West st. Crows Nest, that used to balance front wheels while bolted to the car. They jack up the vehicle and spin them up. I reckon this is the only way to really get a good balance but most of the "experts" seem to differ on that - probably because they cannot do it that way I suspect. I had various RWD cars of mine done this way at their shop (as well as a complete performance suspension change on one of my commodores). They always got the balance perfect on 5 different cars I took to them over quite a few years and they always did the on- car wheel balance.

I have not needed to use them for years but you could give them a call and see if they still do balances this way and give it a try when you are next in Sydney. I found on one car I had that the fronts would only balance properly, and be vibration free, when they balanced the wheels on the car. (When it is done this way the wheels have to be put back on the hubs in the same spot if you remove them after balancing. So you need to mark the wheel and lug before removing them).

They are "Safer Steering" west St Crows Nest
see this web page for contact details:
NRMA - Approved Repairers Network

You could call them and see if they still do wheel balances this way. They have had at least one change of owner since I started using them and I not sure who owns the business now.

I was referred to them by a new car dealer service guy years ago who told me all the car dealers in the area at one time would send their clients cars there when their own mechanics could not figure out how to fix a suspension, steering or balance issue.

[calais24/7]

Thanks for all of that info mate really appreciate it, however i dont plan to go to sydney anytime soon so i might ring around a few places in canberra if goodyear can't fix it, they originally did the balance and alignment about a month ago so i will take it back and see how we go.
Cheers mate

[foo27]

what tyre pressure are you running? i have found that that can have an effect on vibrations on any commodore you should be running 36psi MINIMUM and always check your pressures cold.

[slammer]

I think you will find its the tyres themselves
The Wheel deal guys are spot on with their advice
Had the same issue myself and even after a zero readig with a finger balance I still got the steering wheel shake
Put some new better quality tyres on and it was gone
Cheap tyres are the biggest cause of wheel shake

[dah_man_ben]

yeah no probs okay I'm gonna wear these tyres to the ground i think and chuck on some decent bridgies. i normally pump them to about 35PSI foo27?... any more and they are rock hard, and less and they are to soft and draggy.

thanks for all your advice guys..


ben