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MG MGF Technical - Slight wobble

My 2000 F has a vibration which starts about 60MPH (feels a bit like the wheels need balancing). The wheels have been balanced and a new front NS botom ball joint fitted but it's not gone away. The wobble feels to be more through the car than through the steering wheel. I've swapped the front and back wheels and that makes no difference either. There doesn't appear to be any free play in the steering. Any ideas?

Keith
Keith

Have you done any thing to the front brake recently? If the discs are not re-fitter true and flat they can generate a wobble.
Steve Ratledge

keith

Can you get the wheels balanced on the car - if wobble goes away then either the wheel wasn't balanced properly before or the hub/disk is out of balance.

I had a car where we balanced the wheels several times. Eventually did a 4-wheel balance on the car and it turned out to be a rear disk that was causing the problem.



JohnP

Keith, this sounds like the kind of problem you get when the tracking is out. How are the tyres wearing? You may also feel a temperature difference across the width of the tyre after a run: the hotter patch of tyre being where the most load is being placed upon the tyres.

I'd recommend a re-track. Should only cost about 40 quid from a decent tyre specialist.
Rob Bell

Have you ever had a bump?
it might be the driveshaft is out of true.

Will Munns

Had similar problems with mine, had wheels balanced several times, had 4 wheel tracking carried out but could not get rid of wobble / vibration through steering wheel. It turned out to be a bent drive shaft which must have been caused by some idiot when I had the tyres replaced.
Bent drive shaft was only found when I had some work done at Techspeed and they test drove it
stu

Rob,

Just had the ride height and tracking done a few months ago. New tyres on the fron don;t seem to be wearing unduly. I'll have a feel of the temp after my journey home. One thing that I did notice was that one of the wheels was balanced with the original stick on weights left on, so theres now a stonking great knock on weight directly opposite it on the inside of the rim. However they reckon it's still balanced. Would that make a difference?.

Keith
Keith

The wheels are checked on a dynamic balancing machine Keith, so assuming that it is properly calibrated, used in the correct way and that the machine is sensitive enough, then no, it should make no difference how much weight is added or where. The true skill, of course, is to use as little weight as possible in a place where it isn't seen...

I've had this odd wobble before on my car. I was convinced that it was wheel balance at the time, but no, it was tracking in my case (occurred not long after the car was lowered by Motobuild as well).

I hope it is not a bent drive shaft: I'd hate to think how Stu's d/s was damaged by his tyre fitters!!! :oO
Rob Bell

i have a similar prob at the moment,,,only started when i fitted a set of s/hand wheels and tyres.had them balanced twice now..got a bit of play in a bottom balljoint, so i'm doin that at the weekend.then i'll have to get the trackin checked i spose.really spoiling the driving experience at the mo..if it dont cure it i'll put the old wheels back on and see if that makes a difference.
j watson

Worth checking that none of your alloy wheels are buckled.

They are quite soft and the inside of the rim can get bent inwards if you dropped into a huge pothole.

Jack the car up and hold your hand steady against the inside of the wheel while you rotate it. You will soon notice if one is out of shape.

I would have thought that the tyre balancing guy might have spotted the problem though - they discovered mine :-(

jt
John Thomas

jt, they discovered your buckled wheel because it was. Maybe Keith's aren't so they didn't.
JohnP

This thread was discussed between 08/09/2004 and 09/09/2004

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