Wheel Wobble - Not unbalanced wheels

[andye30m3]

I recently bought E30 320 race car and made it road legal in order to put some millage on it before racing next year

Only major problem I seam to have is that there's quite a lot of wheel wobble around 60mph, at first I assumed that it was the wheels out of balance so I had the fronts rebalanced which didn't help.

The bought a 2nd set of wheels with road tyres on (rather than the R888's) and the wheel wobbles still there.

Can anyone give me any pointers as to what else to check

[Strangely Brown]

Discs?

I had a similar problem that was cured only when I replaced the front discs.

[Mr Ben]

Wheel bearing?

[NotNormal]

Also worth checking the wishbone bushes or ball joints. If they are ok, start looking at the steering arms and top mounts.

[jon-]

Apart from the excellent suggestion above - basically anything that could move within the steering arm and suspension components. Worn track rod ends can do this.

[AndrewW-G]

I'd put a dial gauge on the hub to see if that is out of true, then I'd check all the rubber bits in the front suspension

[Crusoe]

If you have ruled out wheel/tyre then the next thing to look at is suspension bits. Can rule out the prop shaft if it isn't while accelerating and rule out the brakes if it only happens around a certain speed. Something like replacing the lower arms and bushes would usually fix it, get it up on a ramp and see if there is any play that shouldn't be there.

[andye30m3]

Thanks for the replies,

It's not particularly apparent during braking or acceleration is anything it's much less apparent then.

I'll get it up in the air over the weekend and have a good look at all of the suspension and steering components,.

[5potTurbo]

Even a slight bulge in the tyre wall will cause a wheel wobble, and it might not be so obvious to you. Just a thought, before you start checking all the other components ^^^^ ...

[5potTurbo]

doogz said:

5potTurbo said:

Even a slight bulge in the tyre wall will cause a wheel wobble, and it might not be so obvious to you. Just a thought, before you start checking all the other components ^^^^ ...

He's tried 2 different sets of wheels and tyres though. Possible, but unlikely imo.

Must.Read.Posts.Thoroughly.

[MadRob6]

Does it get worse under braking? I had an MR2 that had some terrible wheel wobble which I traced to corrosion between the wheel and disc, cleaned that up and it was almost completely gone only re-appearing under heavy braking from higher speeds.

[broken biscuit]

Are they factory wheels specifically for the model? I had an E34 i put some E39 wheels on. I had to buy home spigot rings which changed the centre bore by 1.? mm, as i had the same problem. Measure the centre bore of the wheels and also the hub accurately. you may find it needs spigots.

[Leptons]

You can't rule out wheel balance yet. Not until you have had every wheel balanced. How do you know the new set of wheels are balanced? I had a vibration in one car that didn't go away until I had the rear wheels balanced. Even more so the case in a light car like an e30.

[Celtic Dragon]

I've got the same issue on my 2009 impreza. I've just changed rubber from 205/50's to 225/45 with little issue. Then had replacement rims fitted from subaru and got a wheel wobble. Just had the gro checked and apparently its fine so its going back to subaru for some more warranty work so I'm going to get them to sort it out at teh same time.

I came to the conclusion either the wheel balance is out (lost weight) or the geo is still out. The outside guess is they car doesn't liek the asymetric tread pattern (sessantas).

[Crusoe]

For the subaru it might just be the tyre rotated round on the rim after they have been fitted. Moving the tyre round the rim moves the wheel out of ballance, common on more powerful cars with lower profile rubber as they tend to need more of that slippy gunk to get them on.

[J4CKO]

I had this on an old Golf GTI, was the aftermarket wheels not locating over the hub when tightened as they didnt kind of auto locate, only a small difference