Steering wheel vibration Gen1 997t

[r1flyguy1]

Hi all

Apart from the obvious, what can cause steering wheel vibration that 'doesn't' increase with speed?

I appreciate wheel balancing was most peoples first thoughts when you read the title.

I've checked all the wheels, no weights missing, etc

Not been kerbed,

Vibration occurs 30+ it's not excessive but doesn't increase with speed

Any thoughts please

[Rockster]

Well, ignoring balance, tire inflation can be a factor in vibration. Overinflation I should add. Experimenting with tire pressures I introduced a nice mild but noticeable vibration in my Boxster that was cured by dropping the tire pressures down to the correct pressure.

A tire can suffer a belt failure and become unbalanced, or out of round.

Alignment has to be considered as well. Not necessarily the first thing I'd consider but after you eliminate the other causes/factors you have to consider alignment.

Last but not least, you can't ignore tire balance/imbalance. BTW, a tire/wheel does not have to lose weights to become unbalanced. As tires wear they can become unbalanced as the wear removes heavier areas of the tread. Techs tell me this is becoming more of a problem as tires get bigger. Cayennes suffer from this but I have had this problem with the 17" tires on my Boxster and the 18" tires on my Turbo. As the tires wear a vague vibration appears. The SM has the tech rebalance the tires and the vibration is gone. This issue appears to be a rather recent issue. For several sets of tires on my 02 Boxster this never happened. Tires were balanced when installed and that was that. I'd run them right down to the wear bars or below and there would not be any vibration. But the last couple of years sometimes the tires (not every set) as they wear down the car vibrates and a rebalance cures this.

[r1flyguy1]

I'm a bit anal about tyre pressies and also have TPMS.

Tyres are less than a 1000 miles old

I think the car may be in need if an alignment as I haven't had it done since ownership (2years)

Thanks for the reply by the way.

[RAWENG]

Surely any wheel inbalance vibration or alignment would increase or decrease with speed. This problem is more likely to be a duff engine mount or drivetrain related IMHO

[r1flyguy1]

Cheers for that,

That was my thoughts as yes it doesn't increase with speed, It's under warranty so I may have to get it checked, out as it ruins the feel of the car at the moment.

[drmark]

My money would be on wheels / tyres. And if it only comes on at 30mph then it does increase with speed :-) Resonance explains why felt most at that speed - and that points to balance issue too.

[Rockster]

r1flyguy1 said:

I'm a bit anal about tyre pressies and also have TPMS.

Tyres are less than a 1000 miles old

I think the car may be in need if an alignment as I haven't had it done since ownership (2years)

Thanks for the reply by the way.

A lot of owners balk at an alignment. I can understand as it is a rather expensive service, at least on the face of it. But a bad alignment can have a car -- my 996 Turbo for instance -- go through a set of rear tires in under 8K miles, tires that would normally last over 20K miles with the proper alignment. Rear tires for my Turbo are not cheap.

On a side note in the case I mentioned above I had the car aligned. It turned out the alignment was done poorly. I mention this to stress you have to have to make sure you get a good alignment. I had the alignment done where I bought the car and I certainly had every confidence the service department was quite capable of doing the job right. But I had a feeling the service department's heart wasn't in the job for reasons I won't bother to detail here. Also, another clue the alignment may not be the best: Where alignments have not been good every time the car was "aligned" and I was not provided the customary and usual before and after printout that the tech can obtain from the alignment computer, the alignment proved to be subpar.

Have to point out the alignment may not be that good for a new car. The car may leave the factory with a subpar alignment. Or a perfectly good alignment may get trashed at the dealer as the car is moved in and out of the showroom and driven up and down curbs. I have watched this occur more than once at various dealerships.

Back in 2009 I bought a new 2008 Cayman S. After I drove the car a couple of days it was clear to me the alignment was not right. I took the car back to get an alignment and the service manager balked. I offered to pay for the job if the tech found the alignment OK. If the tech found the alignment not ok the dealer would absorb the cost of the alignment job. The service manager asked when I had bought the car and I told him a few days before. He said the alignment would be no charge regardless of what the tech found. Still I was interested and watched the process. Shortly after the tech got the car on the alignment rack I spotted him under the car adjusting away. Afterwards on a test drive the car's feel was transformed for the better.

[r1flyguy1]

Cheers Rockster

My local OPC we're offering alignment check @ £150 recently, I'm not sure where else to go locally as the other option is CG but at £450 for a setup I think that's a bit much not matter how good everyone claims them to be and no doubt are and I can't spare a day sitting around a garage and road testing etc, as my time off from work is very precious.

Just give me somewhere that will do the job properly, professionally and to the recommended settings. I'm no race driver so I don't need a race/trackday set up.

Just a setup for mainly road with odd trackday.

Anyway, cars booked in for the 06/05 for investigation & other work so let's hope it's a quick cheap fix or a warranty fix