flutter in steering

[Furey]

when i drive over 55mph i get an intolerable flutter through the steering wheel. it started when i rotated the tyres, but ive since had 4 new ones fitted and balanced. this didnt help. a track rod arm had a bit of play in it, so i replaced that but it had no effect. any suggestions?

[Smurf]

I've got a similar thing at the moment - it vibrates really quite badly at about 60mph, anything below or above that speed and it's ok. I'm hoping that it'll only be the wheels that need balancing... I'm getting some new ones soon so hopefully that'll fix it...

[SteveU]

I've just cured this exact same problem that I had with mine. Cally's, Cav's and Mk3 Astra's all use the same steering racks which unfortunately are notorious for developing play internally. I changed mine last weekend and it's made my steering a million times better. Handling's now much more crisp (there used to be a bit of a delay when I turned) and the wobble at 60mph has now gone.

I got my rack from my local steering repair centre at a cost of £65 inc vat (cash, no questions of course). They're an absolute swine to change and wouldn't recommend doing it yerself unless you're very confident with mechanics.

[sinbrad]

Good to hear that someone's managed to sort out that problem. I was pulling my hair out. Had wheels balanced, fitted new spacers, as had after market alloys, but still had the steering wobble! Garage could not pin point anything (Had it in for a service and replaced a few other things that needed it!?) Will now go down the route of the steering rack and see how it goes. Don't know where I'm going to get one but will have a scoure around the area? When I eventually get it sorted will report back wether fixed or not? [img]/smile.gif[/img]

[se6]

Until i had my wishbones changed i used to get this, i dont anymore. I had wheels balanced numerous times etc, then this cured it. Also stopped shudder from braking aswell.

[calibra_v6_dtm]

so this problem is down to steering rack or wishbones, i have the same prob at 62-72mph

[XEboi]

o god more of this going around must be catching

mines doing just about the same thing i can feel it just a little bit between 30-60mph & then gets worst above them speeds

mines been given the once over by my garage & zip so far

going into vauxhall thursday to have all the wheels properly balanced rather than me doing it on the cheap at my local tyre monkey place, if that fails then its back into the garage to be gone over once again

[ice man]

Mine did that and I found that a spiggot ring had fallen out.

if they are'nt original wheels it's worth checking this out, especially since it only started when you rotated the wheels.

[sinbrad]

Well it's now down to either the Steering rack or the Wishbones? Have had all the other things done on the car and it's still got the vibration going on. So it's off to the garage once again to get the rack and the Wishbones looked at? Will this be neverending?

[calibra_v6_dtm]

new tyres all round on mine this week so hopefully that should sort mine

[pas]

I have that too but only over 60-70 mph - when I changed gearbox I told mehanics to check wishbones to see if they need changing too and they were ok and I was talking to the mehanics about that and guy comes and says that if shakeing starts over 60 mph problem is in back wheels if its under 60 mph then its front and we took off back wheels to get them balanced - and then I found out something I didn't know before - wheel gets balanced perfectly on the machine and its showing 0.0 0.0 but when you look at it spinning in machine you can see it wooble a little - I tought if alloy is bad that you can't balance it but I guess you can... So when you balance your wheels try to look at them while they are spining to see if they wooble cuz guy will balance them but if alloy is bad you will still have problem - now I dont have spare wheels and my pay is crap so I can't change wheels just yet, maybe if my brother sell his car I'll swap alloys to see will shakeing stop then... I have to wait for now but I guess this could help some of you...

[pr0xZen]

I've had this problem two times. First time the spiggot rings were missing, 2. time one of the alloys were bad.

If the alloy is bad, it will eat up all your bushes and all dampening faster than you can say cr*p. It might not look all that good, but if you have the spare tire from the trunk, I advice you to have it threaded with the tire from the bad alloy - as a temporary solution. Better that than a £1000 garage bill in a month or so.

[sinbrad]

Ok, when you say the alloy was bad, what exactly do you mean by bad as there could be a hundred and one things to describe bad?

[pas]

Bad as - not perfectly round, it gets little oval or egg shaped if you hit a curb or go over hole in high speed and million other ways. Cheaper alloys that are not good quality will be more sensitive and distort faster and easier.
Also alloys are cylinder in shape and you have two ends so one end can be perfect circle (one you see looking at the car) and other can be distorted.
<a href="http://imageshack.us/" target="_blank"></a>

That is what is in my case - when I look at wheel balancing outer edge is rolling nicely and straight but when I look at innner edge it wobbles like egg.

[sinbrad]

Thanks for the insight. Had all my wheels checked by the local kwit fit guys and all were ok. Got a set of khans which although aren't dear one's, they aren't cheap either. Still going down the road of the steering rack/wishbones, of course unless anyone else has any suggestions?