Steering Shake Over 100kph?

[Mr_G]

Hey guys,

just trying to figure out what my steering wheel shake is. It only shakes over 100kph, and is very annoying! Under that, no dramas.

I used to have a set of 18's on the car, but took them off cause of the shake, and put stockies on. The stockies dont shake as bad as the 18's though. However the guy at a wheel shop claimed the re-treads on the 18's were the cause of the shaking, since the wheels were quite balanced after checking them?

Anyhow, i got the stockies on now, shaking is minimal compared to the 18's but still there. Ive checked the castor bushes and they are quite new and not split. I also get alot of shudder when braking, which im pretty sure is the rotors that im changing this week.

I think possibly it could be the wheel locaters? Since I dont have any on the car, could it be those making the car feel shaky over 100kph? Ill be testing a 3rd set of wheels this week, but i have a feeling its not the wheel problem, something else in the suspension.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

[J_Red33]

Could be a buggered wheel bearing mate, I've had bearings go on other cars I've had fail & it causes similar problems.

[GTR_STEALTH]

Sounds a bit like you need to get your rotars re-ground. Same thing happened to me in the Commodore years ago.

[Nathan_G1]

get a wheel allignment

[J_Red33]

Rotors don't normally cause any trouble unless ur braking, although we are talking commodores here

MrG, I'd try just putting the car up on the stands & try grabbing & moving all 4 wheels up & side to side to see if they have any movement in them if they do move, you know you've most likely got a stuffed bearing. It could be a rear wheel too which would not transmit to the steering until you are going a fair speed. Try this first only takes 10 minutes & a bit of effort to find out.

[Resin]

could be the fact that u dont have wheel/ hub locators ......mine did it over 80 km perhour when i got new tyres ...but it was fine when i had the older used tyres on.

[lingeringsoul]

Mr G I have EXACTLY the same problem.

A while back I got a set of second hand rims with tyres on them , had them put on and went for a drive. The result was bloody horrible. The car was shaking so badly that I went and got the wheels balanced, which made it just a bit more bearable. After the wheel balancing, it was ok for under 80k driving, but above that it was shaking so bad that I thought the car was going to break apart. I thought it might have been the rims being out of shape, but anotheer tyre shop guy said to drive it for a bit longer and see how it goes. Gradually, it got better, now its good at 100 and slightly shakes above 140k. I was going to get a wheel alignment the other day as the tyre is wearing out on the inside but they couldn't get the car up and referred me to another place. I haven't been yet, but I'll I hope this helps. I'll let you knw what happens when I get the wheels aligned.

Before the current skyline, I had a series one R33. and a wheel alignment fixed the shaking problem. So I'm counting on it again.

[Mr_G]

Thanks for your help guys, im getting the alignment done on thursday or friday this week, and hoping to solve the problem Just put new rotors on tonight and yet to be tested, but hopefully the problems go away.

I went to East Coast suspension today and they reckon the wheel alignment should ease out the shaking

[chrissso]

Get your wheels reballanced. Happend to a mateof mine where this happened, and it was just the ballancing was out a bit... They though it was a bearing but after she took it back, the tried a quick reballance, fixed the issue. Might be worth a try.

Maybe your wheels are egg shaped?

[Mr_G]

Get your wheels reballanced. Happend to a mateof mine where this happened, and it was just the ballancing was out a bit... They though it was a bearing but after she took it back, the tried a quick reballance, fixed the issue. Might be worth a try.

Maybe your wheels are egg shaped?

Ive tried 2 sets of wheels, im pretty sure they arent egged plus i did get one set checked out which is in great condition, ie no warps or buckles...

Ill be getting new rims this week, and also wheel alignment and new rotors, so we should hopefully sought it out

90% Says the wheel alignment will fix it up according to ECS...

[AzzurrA]

check out your lower control arm bushes as well... if they are worn/have alot of movement in them they will cause these symptoms also

[r33_racer]

more then likely its an alignment thats needed and rebalancing...but tie rod ends might be shagged and have slop in them...hopefully the suspension place will do it properly and check everything under there just to be sure.

[JimX]

I've had this happen to some extent on every car I've ever owned except for one. I suspect it's a combination of things, because new wheels and tyres in the past have improved it drastically but not cured it, and gradually the problem would come back to varying extents. The worst it's been has been due to outright warped wheels which balancing can't fix. But you can fix warped wheels even though I never did, I usually replaced them or put up with it.

I think also it could be due in part to a slightly off-centre axle, caused by crappy bent wheels. I think what might happen is that after a wheel gets bent due to a pothole or the like, it will now continuously put strain on the axle in that one spot on each revolution of the wheel. After thousands of km's like that, it might start to permanently bend the axle in that direction. Only very slightly, but enough to notice at highway speeds. I don't know for sure though, because steel is fairly elastic and it might not be enough to do it permanently under normal circumstances. It's just a theory.

The only car that's never done it is my GTR, which is the only car that has had forged alloy wheels. Also my motorcycles had alloys and never did it but its axles were usually supported on both sides. The VFR800 single sided swingarm was the exception but the axle was still very short and strong. So on a bike it'd be harder to bend the axle and even if you did you wouldn't notice it as much.

[TurboX]

Guy's, the wheel studs are there to hold the wheels on the hubs

- NOT SUPPORT OR CENTRE THEM!

This symptom is endemic to this situation.

If your wheels are not supported and centered by the raised portion of the hub I believe your driving an unroadworthy car.

I am constantly suprised by the number of GTR's in particular that have forged wheels with the centre hole not supported or centred and with a few mm gap.

I believe you can buy the right sized rings to fit in there from wheel shops that know what they are doing.

If you disagree, talk to the hand.

[lingeringsoul]

actually, thats a really valid point, guys at the tyre shop told me that as well, wonder why I didn't do anything about it.

[Mr_G]

Thanks everyone for the input, its been very helpful indeed...

Im gonna get the wheel alignment done tomorrow or on friday, and also getting a set of forged wheels on saturday... If this doesnt fix it, then im going for the plastic locaters aswell!!!

As for the "ROTOR" theory, i put new rotors in it late yesterday evening, and they dont make a difference to the shake over 100kph, however they dramatically helped where i used to get brake shudder! NO MORE BRAKE SHUDDER

I ended up buying RDA slotted rotors, and they work very well. For $240 for the pair, cant go wrong!

[someonestolecc]

Guy's, the wheel studs are there to hold the wheels on the hubs

- NOT SUPPORT OR CENTRE THEM!

This symptom is endemic to this situation.

If your wheels are not supported and centered by the raised portion of the hub I believe your driving an unroadworthy car.

I am constantly suprised by the number of GTR's in particular that have forged wheels with the centre hole not supported or centred and with a few mm gap.

I believe you can buy the right sized rings to fit in there from wheel shops that know what they are doing.

If you disagree, talk to the hand.

This is going to a very stupid question then... I've pulled my wheels on and off and put others on etc and never noticed any other guides etc... I've never noticed anything that would go over the hub to centre it/support it...

What gives? I'm lost.

[godzl1975]

Do the basics first like:

get your wheel balanced and wheel alignment done. also some aftermarket wheels have different centre size to your hub usually they use a plastic or more expensive alloy spacer that fits the wheel to the hub. Tyre places should have these available.

[J_Red33]

Your wheel hub is a ring at the centre of your rotor that usually sicks out at least 8-10mm. The wheel when you look on the back has a hole that should be the same size, this is your locator. When you put a wheel on the car it should sit on the hub via this locator so it's nice & central.

I have had this problem myself with my own set of 18's, I had 1 wheel that was slightly out of balace & no matter how many times I did the wheel back up, over time it would slowly work its way back loose again & start to shake. You also find that you have to work your way around the wheel very slowly, doing each nut up a bit at a time so that it centres properly & that they are fully done up, if you don't do this they can shake instantly, or even bob up & down!!

I had already intended on getting a set of reducers for the hub locators made from the moment I bought the wheels (it was a moment of opportunity sale only noticed the problem later on when I put them on, still a good buy). I went a mob out the north of town called Galpro (or Galaxy Products) & he'd done loads of them for the same reason, BMW's were apparently the worst for this problem.

He made 4 CNC machined, marine grade aluminuim locators for me for about $260, & they were worth every cent. Not only did they cure the problem once I fitted them, they looked fantastic too. Also putting them on is not longer a drama, it just pops straight on, dead centre & it only takes 2 or 3 bites max on each nut & it stays there, just like it should. Believe me guys you may not want to spend the money on them, but it's definantely worth it.

Having said all of this I think a few of you guys missed something in the fact that Mr G put his original wheels back on & it still had the same problem. Just about all factory wheels have the right size hub locators, especially Jap cars, & Nissan is no exeption.

JimX: Your axle theory has a fair bit of thought put into it, but unfortunantely has a few flaws. For a start most modern cars don't have axles, but they do have drive shafts. The problem with this is that the drive shaft has absolutely no lateral loading placed on it. All lateral load is transferred to the suspension system of the vehicle, the drive shaft simply slots into the middle of the hub & knuckle assembly which the wheel is attached to & has CV joints to prevent any lateral load occurring.

So to going by what's been said, to me if it's not a wheel bearing, it's most likely going to be suspension related, like the other guys have said.

[Mr_G]

Most appreciate your input there electro.

I went to a different suspension place today, and he said its definately a problem with the wheels or flat spots on the rubbers, as he said the suspesnsion had literally nothing to do with the shake at a certain speed.

Ill be getting some proper jap rims this weekend, and ill see how i go, cause these ones will have decent jap rubber, where as the ones i have at hte moment, both sets of rims ran the falken ziex rubber, which in my opinoin is pretty crap now! lol...

But im hoping that the vibration will go away by testing these new wheels, if not, time to get some locators