Another V70 steering wobble
 

Hi all. After doing a search i though i would stick a post up to see if anyone has had the same issue.

I've been chasing knocks and wobbles on the fron end of my 2001 v70 T5 (156000 miles) for a while now and so far cured all knocks, but can't seem to bottom out a vibration from the steering, which is also felt throughout the car.

So far i've replaced all 4 shocks, top mounts, inner and outer track rods, antiroll bar links, wishbone bushes (polybush for the front, HD rubber for the rear) and front wheel bearings as they were all shot. The car handles great, but the vibration remains.

I've had the wheels balanced several times now and this makes no difference. The vibration starts around 40mph and cannot seem to power through it. It gets worse on very heavy braking down to a standstill. No vibration aparent under normal braking.

I've inspected the tyres and found no lumps or bumps, and cannot see any obvious buckles in the wheels.

Any ideas before i fork out for new wheels, tyres or brakes?

Sounds to me like you may have a warped brake disc buddy or even a slightly binding caliper.

I would get in and check the brakes first before replacing wheels.

You could try jacking up the car and spinning the wheel to see if it rotates freely all the way around, if the disc is warped you will feel some resistance at some degree of the full rotation.

Worth a try!

I second RAN60 - disc warped, not seated correctly or slightly sticking caliper.

Let us know how you get on?

I spent over £1k on an Octavia once trying to fix this kind of problem... but that was before I did all my own stuff.

Cheers chaps.

I did wonder about warped discs, but sticking caliper hadn't crossed my mind.

Thankfully i'm able to do all my own work, would hate to have to pay a garage for the work i've done already!

I'll take a look at the weekend and post my findings.

So. I've checked the brakes out and replaced the lot. Front disks were at minimum thickness and the rears had about 1mm of material left on the pads. Also found a sticking rear caliper so replaced this too.

However, still the vibration remains. I noticed this week however that the steering wheel vibrates at ticking over. Can a worn engine mount cause steering vibration? My heavy vibrations (felt throughout the car and heavily through the steering wheel) becomes apparent between 40 and 50 mph and doen't let up no matter how quickly you go, which is leaning me away from replacing wheels or tyres for the minute.

Any other ideas?

Top and lower engine torque mounts fail bit having said that I'm leaning towards a buckled wheel.

Checked the engine mounts today and it looks to have very little play in it. Can't rock it more than a couple of cm and all rubbers look OK.

Swapped the wheels front to back once before but all appeared the same. Will see if i can talk my parents into swapping wheels for the day, see if that gives me any indications.

I had steering wobbles, it was a stuck caliper that then also warped the disc. Also, check wheel balancing too as well as wheel alignment.

Does the gear stick vibrate and wobble at idle?

R

Steering racks and subframes have been known to come loose. There is also a vibration damper ( lump of metal) bolted to the bottom of the subframe itself. Was the rack replaced at some stage. Some of the fasteners are stretch and may have been reused.