Wheel vibration at 50mph

[piefacemate]

Hi all,

Seems my woes don't start and stop with the alarm issue as I'm experiencing something a little more worrying with the drivetrain.

At approximatly 50-60mph there is a slight vibration through the steering wheel, which can also be felt through the floor plan; this is more evident when braking down through this speed range.

When purchased the car was doing this, but having the car tracked seemed to cure it, at least for a while.

My initial thoughts were a wheel bearing, but I was wondering what the Pistonhead's consensus would be? The car in question is a 2001 XJ8 Sovereign 4.0. The car is running with a set of X350 alloys and neccersary adapters, but was doing this before fitting so I'm discounting them as a possible cause.

Does anyone have any ideas? Since a typical garage doing the usual checks doesn't seem to have worked in the past I'm wondering what my best course of action might be.

Cheers,

Chris

[BOH]

I'd be very interested to hear some knowledgeable thoughts too. It seems to be a common issue - my previous XJ8 did it and now my current XJR does it too.

[Markymark69]

I would get it stuck on a hunter 4 wheel alignment machine first http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ and see if thats all good.

While you are there have a look at your disks very carefully, see if they are warped at all.

[fatboy b]

Wheel balance surely at that speed.

[hman]

if its something you can drive through ( ie. dissappears with speed) its probably wheel balancing.

Find someone with a hunter GSP roadforce machine, this machine will apply a force to the tyres as they rotate to find any soft spots in the sidewall of the tyre as well as balance the wheels very accurately with a laser line for where the weights have to go. It also tells the operator where to put each wheel on the car to minimise any vibration.

Its very accurate.

Most places that have these also have the alignment machine from hunter which works very well too.

I'd do both to play it safe,

http://balancemycar.co.uk/

[piefacemate]

Markymark69 said:

I would get it stuck on a hunter 4 wheel alignment machine first http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ and see if thats all good.

While you are there have a look at your disks very carefully, see if they are warped at all.

Would a warped disk not affect the car at all speeds? Also would I have a vibration when accelerating through that speed bracket?

a said:

Wheel balance surely at that speed.

Suppose both sets of wheels could have been misbalanced, but considering the new wheels had just had tyres refitted I'd be suprised. Again, wouldn't I feel a misbalanced wheel at all speeds?

Edited by piefacemate on Friday 1st October 11:21

[Markymark69]

piefacemate said:

Markymark69 said:

I would get it stuck on a hunter 4 wheel alignment machine first http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/ and see if thats all good.

While you are there have a look at your disks very carefully, see if they are warped at all.

Would a warped disk not affect the car at all speeds? Also would I have a vibration when accelerating through that speed bracket?



I had warped disks doing all sorts of vibrations, but in your case using adaptors and different wheels i would just go and get it all looked at by an alignment specialist.

Well worth 70 quid or whatever.

Edited by Markymark69 on Friday 1st October 11:17

[NormanD]

Markymark69 said:

While you are there have a look at your disks very carefully, see if they are warped at all.

Another thing that often is put down to warped disks is a build up of pad on the disks
A bit of HARD braking should remove it

A couple of years ago I was asked to take a XKR to a car show by a well known dealer in my area
They had prept the car including painting the calapers

I was told NOT to drake hard and damage the paint on the disks
On retuning the car on the Monday they said I had warped the disks
All it was that braking softly had built up the pads on the disks

[piefacemate]

NormanD said:

Markymark69 said:

While you are there have a look at your disks very carefully, see if they are warped at all.

Another thing that often is put down to warped disks is a build up of pad on the disks
A bit of HARD braking should remove it

A couple of years ago I was asked to take a XKR to a car show by a well known dealer in my area
They had prept the car including painting the calapers

I was told NOT to drake hard and damage the paint on the disks
On retuning the car on the Monday they said I had warped the disks
All it was that braking softly had built up the pads on the disks

It doesn't get thrashed about the place so a build up could be the case. Will have a gander at weekend.

But hang on a minute... damaage the paint on the disks?! Don't tell me they'd painted the WHOLE braking system?

[hman]

piefacemate said:

wouldn't I feel a misbalanced wheel at all speeds?

Edited by piefacemate on Friday 1st October 11:21

No, generally in bands of 20mph start to finish.

If you felt a vibration all the time then that would be drivetrain/ mishaped tyre