Steering vibration

[Mcpx]

Any ideas welcome, have a 2007 V50 D5 SE Sport that has developed a distinct vibration through the whole car, but most discernibly through the steering wheel at anything approaching or over 40mph. It is fairly consistent but is more pronounced on acceleration. Last mot advised some of the suspension bushes were worn and a rear anti roll bar ball joint had slight play. Car had two new front tyres put on and a near side track rod end. A 4 wheel tracking check showed front and rear were out of camber but there is no adjustment, although they were able to correct a slight toe out.

Initially it felt like a wheel out of balance but that checked out and has steadily got worse to the point where it feels like something is sticking in a tyre, like I am driving on a bolt.

Car is going up on a ramp on Friday to get checked out so my first thought is bushes, but has anyone else experienced similar? If it's not the bushes could it be shocks? Or does the worsening on acceleration point to an engine mount?

[scoobysn7x]

I had similar issue, solved initially by having the wheels balanced a few times, first place weren't very good so got them rebalanced again, that improved it, but was still there, a few weeks later I changed the discs and pads and this solved the rest of the vibration issues, so I think I may have had a warped disc

[Mcpx]

That's interesting, thank you. Yes wheel balancing and tracking did improve things temporarily. Due for pads so changing the discs at the same time would be no problem.

[Welton]

I've had plenty of problems with vibrations/shaking with my car. These platforms seem very sensitive to tyres/balancing/bushes.

Tyre balancing seems to vary a lot from place to place and I think the fashion for not wanting balancing weights on the outside of the rims doesn't help.

I've had trouble with tyres going 'out of shape' on mine twice now and it's difficult to spot and often overlooked. My theory is that high torque engines actually distort the tyre carcass until it remains slightly egg-shaped and no amount of balancing will help.

You really need the wheels of the ground and rotating steadily so that you can observe the tyre against a fixed backgound to watch for movement up/down. Also look at the inner rim of the wheel as this may have been buckled.

[spottedhaggis]

about 3 weeks ago I noticed a bad shudder/vibration when braking from motorway speeds, even slightly touching the brakes at speed caused it.

I had the wheels re balanced, and it made no real difference.
Took it in and had warped disks, so got 2 new front disks and pads
This has cured the brake vibration but now I have vibration as described above, heavy acceleration and it is severe, cruising on smooth roads and I can feel the ever so slight vibration. On crappy british roads I hardly notice it, but in Europe I def notice it.

So in my case its not the disks, any other ideas.

S60 D5 185 2006 model

[Mcpx]

Mine was finally nailed down to a worn drive shaft/cv joint although there may have been other contributing factors. Both ball joints have also since been replaced and now I'm getting a rotational noise like the wheel arch liner or something is rubbing on the tyre (it's not). There is a possibility it's just tyre noise but will have to experiment to find out.

[Bac2ba6]

Lower bushings on the suspension arm (wishbones)
Worn gives these symptoms . I changed mine got the tracking re done ( a must after replacement arms ) and steady as a rock now . this was after I had gone down the balancing and new disk routes