steering wheel vibrations at 65-75mph - mk2 fiesta

[slammage]

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well didn't take long ! right mk2 fiesta 1.1, recently developed a very bad steering wheel vibration at 65-75mph literally It is rather bad, now the wheels have been balanced and checked they are as far as we all know fine- so that can be ruled out.

I have checked for any play in the balljoints and TRE's and there is nothing there, I have noticed recently my brakes have been a bit squealy recently but these are near new discs and pads- is it a possibility that they have warped?? would this cause really bad steering wheel vibrations i'd assume??

go past 75 and say hit 80/90mph and it evens outs .. mysterious?

another thought is potential front wheel bearings although I hear no noises at all though bearing wise.

thanks in advance guys

[optimusprime]

Tracking?
Not got a 'bleb' on one of the tyres?

[willowandmikey]

Whenever I've had that issue its always been balancing slightly out

[bortaf]

Has the car been standing for a long time on the tyres it has on now?
I've had this issue a fair few times and it's usually a balance issue, the problem is tyre balancer machines run at a set speed, go faster and balance can be out also a buckled wheel will balance out on the machine but still be present on the road.

[slammage]

tracking I have not personally done on this car yet as I have had it 2 weeks if that, so I will see if my local race car set up guys can squeeze me in this coming week.

regarding balancing, I'm certain its done but I'm gonna take it to again a local reputable tyre company and get them to double check it all for piece of mind.

going to be a case of trial and error here

[ChasR]

Who balanced the wheels?

On my BMW, the wheels were balanced by a 'reputable' and pricey place in Warwick. I had them redone via a guy who I know can balance wheels and things improved alot. FWIW my guy is about the only person who I know that can balance centreless wheels (everyone else seems to be hopeless at it (other people that I have tried in addition to other Peugeot guys with such wheels bar the dealers themselves who seem to have the knack). What brand are the tyres? Cheaper brands are bloody hard to balance!

Who balanced the wheels? Did you see the wheels? IME if they are buckled no end of balancing will sort it out. Sure you can improve the vibration but erradicate it? Unlikely. With one set of wheels, a tyre guy forgot to tell my friend and happily took his cash.

OTOH, a knackered inner CV joint would cause a vibration but it would be present from about 40MPH on a Fiesta.

[Deleted]

I had the same problem with my mk2 fiesta as well and also seemed to happen at 65-75mph haha how strange..

[slammage]

Nov 14, 2014 23:05:48 GMT ChasR said:

Who balanced the wheels?

On my BMW, the wheels were balanced by a 'reputable' and pricey place in Warwick. I had them redone via a guy who I know can balance wheels and things improved alot. FWIW my guy is about the only person who I know that can balance centreless wheels (everyone else seems to be hopeless at it (other people that I have tried in addition to other Peugeot guys with such wheels bar the dealers themselves who seem to have the knack). What brand are the tyres? Cheaper brands are bloody hard to balance!

Who balanced the wheels? Did you see the wheels? IME if they are buckled no end of balancing will sort it out. Sure you can improve the vibration but erradicate it? Unlikely. With one set of wheels, a tyre guy forgot to tell my friend and happily took his cash.

OTOH, a knackered inner CV joint would cause a vibration but it would be present from about 40MPH on a Fiesta.

I have always used a local guy independant company who is mobile and a very good family friend,have not had any issues like this bit will take it to a proper proffesional tyre fitter shop tomorrow (dartford tyres)
Only thing i know the wheels are not buckled at all you can clearly see they ran / run true but we decided to 'back balnce' the wheels ao no weights are visable.. Think that may be the cause ? I shall find out tomorrow i guess peeps!

And nothing at 40mph it kicks in at 65 onwards as stated

[sonofstang]

Have you tried changing the wheels around............put the rears on the front and retest.

[slammage]

Nov 15, 2014 0:13:36 GMT @dawson said:

I had the same problem with my mk2 fiesta as well and also seemed to happen at 65-75mph haha how strange..

How odd! I mean mine has taken a battering as the roads near me are rubbish! Its a bit too nice to nice for a daily I'm realising... Damn.

Did you find out why it was doing that then?

[slammage]

Nov 15, 2014 0:30:38 GMT sonofstang said:

Have you tried changing the wheels around............put the rears on the front and retest.

Not done that yet as the rears are 8 inch and i have 7s up front.. Have to see if i can borrow another ser if the wheels are not sorted tomorrow .

[Deleted]

Nov 15, 2014 0:32:10 GMT slammage said:

Nov 15, 2014 0:30:38 GMT sonofstang said:

Have you tried changing the wheels around............put the rears on the front and retest.

Not done that yet as the rears are 8 inch and i have 7s up front.. Have to see if i can borrow another ser if the wheels are not sorted tomorrow .

well my steering wheel wasn't on properly for starters so this didn't help it much, I had a 'personal' wheel and it was on at an angle so i'm sure part of it was because of that. Also I had spacers on my wheels which is what I think was causing the juttering at a certain speed. The car didn't do it with the old wheels yet when I put the new wheels on (they were weighted at a garage when put on) It started to jutter and 70-75mph) it never really bothered me much as I would cruise at 60 anyway so didn't really look into it but just google it as there's info on why you might get juddering at high speed or something and it teels you what some of the causes could be.

[slammage]

Nov 15, 2014 0:43:14 GMT @dawson said:

Nov 15, 2014 0:32:10 GMT slammage said:

Not done that yet as the rears are 8 inch and i have 7s up front.. Have to see if i can borrow another ser if the wheels are not sorted tomorrow .

well my steering wheel wasn't on properly for starters so this didn't help it much, I had a 'personal' wheel and it was on at an angle so i'm sure part of it was because of that. Also I had spacers on my wheels which is what I think was causing the juttering at a certain speed. The car didn't do it with the old wheels yet when I put the new wheels on (they were weighted at a garage when put on) It started to jutter and 70-75mph) it never really bothered me much as I would cruise at 60 anyway so didn't really look into it but just google it as there's info on why you might get juddering at high speed or something and it teels you what some of the causes could be.

Got no spacers and they are gen ford wheels this issue wasnt apparant last week at all so its recent.
Out of interest the steering wheel was it a mountney and did you use a mk4 escort boss?

[ChasR]

Nov 15, 2014 0:27:38 GMT slammage said:

I have always used a local guy independant company who is mobile and a very good family friend,have not had any issues like this bit will take it to a proper proffesional tyre fitter shop tomorrow (dartford tyres)
Only thing i know the wheels are not buckled at all you can clearly see they ran / run true but we decided to 'back balnce' the wheels ao no weights are visable.. Think that may be the cause ? I shall find out tomorrow i guess peeps!

And nothing at 40mph it kicks in at 65 onwards as stated

If that is the case and you have had good results with the guy before I would say that things are fine with the wheels. Weights being on the inside or outside would make little difference.

I do not know whether you said the rims were straight but I would check the tyres as well. My other suggestion would have been spacers or a lack of spigot rings but then you said that the car was on Ford wheels, which takes that issue out of the equation.

[collector]

Try to find a shop that balance wheels while on the car, some wheels balance not real good when they are off the car.

[ChasR]

vibrationfree.co.uk/our-services/wheel-balancing/

That may be who you are referring to. They are very much a rarity and do seem to fix vibrations other people cannot but cheap he is not ; I think Will Holman from PPC found that he was about the only person who could fix his wheel vibrations on his Capri despite having the wheels balanced countless times.

The only other issue I can think of with your car is that the mating surfaces on the hubs/discs are not clean;This would also throw a wheel off balance (well, in effect it would).

[slammage]

Hi guys well i have had a visual check this morning as yesterday it was too dark. and i have noticed that the lower arm on the passenger side looks to have hit the chassis thus slightly bending the lower arm!

The chassis is rock solid but the lower arm is not haha! Guess it needs raising a tad and/or a chassis notch!! I guess this might be the cause of my vibrations?? Luckily i have a new arm here but can only fit it tomorrow and will get the tracking done as well.

Hoping thats the cause as visually thats all i can see that looks wrong

[hfstuart]

If not it could be a driveshaft. If you can make it happen at a lower speed (say 50) by holding the car on the brakes (ie throttle on the floor - left foot on the brake) then it's the driveshaft locking under load and running out of true.

[slammage]

Still not resolved was not the tie bars got the wheels checked they are fine! Ibhave a new steering rack laying around so going to pop that on and new tre's and balljoints for the sake of it! Could this be an inner cv joint problem from 60 onwards a bad vibration through the steering wheel

[BLU]

Hmm, other than wheel balance issues the usual suspects on a MK2 are TRE's, ball joints, and any of the 25+ year old bushes, usually tie bar bushes. It could also be that a disc isn't seated properly or the inner part of the hub (where the driveshaft connects to) is worn! Its a bit hit and miss tbh. I'd personally consider polybushing the car though, makes a world of difference and not too expensive either!!

Did it start out the blue or after you had some work done?