Steering wobble, brakes pulsing and chaffing sound

Steering wobble, brakes pulsing and chaffing sound

Author
Discussion

PistonAFC

Original Poster:

143 posts

60 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
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My car has developed steering wobble, which seems worse if tyre pressure is low. The brakes also pulse at the same point (if that makes sense) and there is a rubbing/chaffing sound at the same point when driving (it speeds up and slows down with speed).

I think it started after I hit a kerb (OSF tyre and possibly OSR) and went over it at around 20 miles an hour on a roundabout but not 100% sure of this. Front pads and brake discs are new-ish, rear pads are also newish but discs are quite old but the car passed MoT with the steering wobble/pulsing brakes issues with no advisories.

Where should I start with a diagnosis of the issue? I was thinking of swapping the front wheels and back wheels to see if that makes any difference to start...

Any other ideas confused ?

Edited by PistonAFC on Monday 19th August 21:01

GreenV8S

30,716 posts

296 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
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Given that history you've got to suspect a buckled wheel, so your first step should be to jack up the affected corner and spin the wheel to see whether it's still round and true.

PistonAFC

Original Poster:

143 posts

60 months

Saturday 22nd June 2024
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I jacked up the OSF (drivers side) tyre and tried to spin it. It stops at the same point and takes more effort to spin it past that point. I couldn't spin it enough to see if it's buckled as it would stop before doing a full spin.

I took the tyre off and tried to spin the OSF brake disc. It stops at the same point and is takes more effort to spin it past that point.

I replaced OSF (drivers side) tyre with the space saver tyre. NO MORE steering wheel wobble but brake still pulses at the same point each time (and speeds up with speed) and feels worse at lower speeds.

My conclusion from the above appears to be:

1) that the OSF (drivers side) alloy is probably buckled which would explain the steering wobble disappearing after using the space saver tyre.

2) brake disc is buckled which is why it stops spinning at the same point and brake pedal pulses.

Am I right?

Any other ideas/comments?

Megaflow

10,290 posts

237 months

Saturday 22nd June 2024
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Sounds to me more like a buckled wheel hub than a wheel. The wheel being buckled won’t stop the wheel, but if the hub is buckled and the disc is no longer running true it will be tight in the brake caliper at some point.

PistonAFC

Original Poster:

143 posts

60 months

Monday 19th August 2024
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just to reply and kind of provide closure to this topic:

Wobbling/shaking of steering was caused by one of the wheels losing their balance metals and getting tyres balanced fixed this. I don't know if the wheel(s) are buckled but will ask mechanic to check this at the next service. But the car is driving free of wobbling/shaking steering wheel.

I diagnosed that the pulsing was coming from the back wheels. To find out I drove slowly and pulled up the handbrake where the same sensation could be felt. I then dismantled the brake and spun the disc whilst holding the pads against the disc surface and there is a difference in disc thickness at ONE point as the pads got pushed out and that is causing the pulsing. The disk is heavily lipped at one point (at other points the lip has rusted away) of the disc and at this point the pads are pushed outwards whilst I spun the disc which I guess results in the pulsing sensation. So the solution I guess is new discs.

The chaffing sound is being caused by the dust shield getting stuck in the caliper and rubbing against brake disc. I pushed the dsut shield back away from the brake disc, but it is pretty rusted and the lower half broke off and the top half that remains is in pretty bad condition. For the time being I just pushed the top remaining half away from the disc but I didn't know whether to just rip all of it off or to leave it.??