Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • car experts help please! Wonky wheel?
  • retro83
    Free Member

    let me preface this by saying i’m a car numpty. I have no idea how they work.

    Problem is: when I’m going slow (0 – 10 mph) my car feels like i’m driving over cats eyes (the reflectors not the body parts). Imagine you had one wheel which was off centre and you’ll get the idea. It bonks around enough to wobble your head about in the car.

    Between 10 & 60, it’s fine, no wobble or vibration.

    60+ I get a vibration like I imagine you would from an unbalanced wheel.

    Would an unbalanced wheel feel like driving on a bumpy road at very slow speeds though? Seems more like it’d be something was bent or the tyre was was out of shape.

    Don’t know how long it’s been like this as the roads round here are really bumpy, it’s only on smooth bits (my new journey to work) that you can really notice it.

    lcj
    Full Member

    Checked the tyres for deformities? Tried swapping front and rear wheels to see if the problem persists? If it does, then start from the hubs and work in through the steering system.

    You could try jacking up each front wheel and wobbling the wheel while holding it first in the 12 and 6 o clock positions and then in the 3 and 9 positions. If nothing there then keep moving through the system checking for play/wear/borked bits

    oldgit
    Free Member

    Bearings. Balancing deffo wheels not prop?

    But check the wheel nuts are on the right way round i.e the chamfered ends go in the holes in the wheel.

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    dave_rudabar
    Free Member

    Get your 2 front wheels balanced & the tracking checked for starters.
    If you go somewhere for it that do suspension replacements, ask ’em to check for worn/loose suspension parts too.

    glenh
    Free Member

    hmm, the fact it’s bad a low speed might make me look at wheel bearings….

    retro83
    Free Member

    Cheers guys.

    Had suspension bushings replaced less than a year ago on the front. Also had new front tyres and tracking sorted about a month ago.

    It’s really hard to tell but I think it might be one of the back wheels rather than the front. Kind of feels as if somebody was standing behind you, moving your shoulders back and forth!

    Think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and take it to a garage, but I always feel like they’re taking the widdle.

    I will jack it up and try the things you’ve all suggested first though.

    PS, it’s done about 46,000m is that a reasonable age for a wheel bearing? Can’t find anything in the service history about them being replaced before.

    glenh
    Free Member

    46k isn’t very much (my last car did 125k no problem), but if your suspension bushings have also given up the ghost then it’s either had a hard time or been clocked (or possibly french)!

    Marge
    Free Member

    check the wheels are bolted on correctly first. It may that they were fully tightened up on 1 bolt first or in a circular pattern.

    Jack up – undo bolts (or nuts) and then retighten in opposing pairs.

    To feel at low speed it has to be a significant non-uniformity…

    retro83
    Free Member

    it’s either had a hard time or been clocked (or possibly french)!

    lol, no not french. It’s a fiesta. Had an easy life as my mother was the owner from new. Probably find out now that she used to rag it round mothercare carpark doing handbrake turns!

    Think the suspension bushings were a specific problem with this model of Fiesta which caused the steering to wander (but again, I felt like I was being taken for a ride by Dovercourt ford when they did this…) It improved things slightly but it wasn’t until I got the tracking done by another garage that the problem was eventually sorted. 🙁

    Only thing I can think of that might have damaged something would be that I used to live on a steep narrow road in Bristol and often people would hare down the road with no chance of stopping and I had to bump up onto the kerb to avoid having a head-on… But like I said this problem seems to have come on recently.

    Will check the bolts asap. Ta!

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Sounds more to me like wheel not bolted on properly or tyre deformity, of finally bearing collapsing, but I’d have thought you’d really notice a bearing issue of that nature at high speed.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    +1

    falkirk-mark
    Full Member

    Deformed tyre

    retro83
    Free Member

    cheers guys! It got to the point where the bounce was really noticeable so I had my boss take a quick look at it. Wheels didn’t seem loose or anything. THen we rotated the tyre and found something like this:

    (mspaint ftw!)

    It was unbelievably bald in one spot. What the hell!
    Couldn’t take any photos as it was dark and I needed to use the tyre to hold the rack under the car in place.

    So what do we reckon? Wheel out of balance causing wear or maybe a bulbous tyre sticking out more on one bit?

    falkirk_mark
    Free Member

    Has the car sat for an extended period of time and created a flat spot on the tyres. a lot of caravans have wheels removed in winter to stop this

    retro83
    Free Member

    2 or 3 months at the most (at uni couldn’t afford food let alone petrol!)

    cp
    Full Member

    i was going to ask whether the car had been stood still in one spot? Standing still for a long time may cause a crater to form on the bearing race which would lead to the wheel doing strange (and vibraty) things when it rotates. this might cause the flat spotting in one place on the tyre.

    Your mum didnt come to a screeching halt did she??!!

    another cause might be a knackered damper, but you’d expect the wear to be more distributed about the tyre.

    Marge
    Free Member

    There is really only one way to cause such localized wear and that is a dragged tyre on a moving car.

    Is the tyre on a rear axle? After the car was sitting for an extended period perhaps one of the rear brakes was seized on. (this type of wear is quite common in Nordic countries but due to brakes freezing on)

    Brainflex
    Full Member

    tyre casing collapsed. Dunlop by any chance?

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    It’s either a dragged tyre (skidding due to err excessive braking or stuck brakes as per Marge) or a tyre that is collapsing internally and bulging at that point, causing rapid wear in one spot.

    TBH if you havent noticed a seized wheel or the fact that you’ve skidded a LONG way you shouldnt be driving and probably dont know when the engine is running, so I suspect the tyre is faulty.

    FWIW during a crash I had when I was younger I locked both front wheels and slid for ~50ft, I lost 1mm of tread on one bit of both front wheels which left them slightly flatspotted and it was clearly scraped and feathered at those spots. If it is bald and smooth without feathering I suspect the tyre has been collapsing over time and has slowly worn down.

    hora
    Free Member

    I had a similar problem not so long ago- It was the inner CV joint and driveshaft fubarred. The boot had split and chucked grease everywhere. I’m also a car numpty but my garage was convinced that it was a clutch problem and I was the one who spotted the Cv joint prob when the car was up on a ramp thanks to people from STW pointing me in the right research-direction 🙂

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    hora – how is that similar to a lumpy tyre?

    hora
    Free Member

    Sure its the tyre though? 😉

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Eh?! I must be taking this too literally or something, I’m completely baffled 😀 What’s a tyre, the CV? Ahhhhhhhh <pop>

    zaskar
    Free Member

    Tracking, tyres, tie rod ends, bushes, cv joints and other bent things like the arms or anti roll bar.

    You need to eliminate all these-jack it up or go & see your local garage.

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