Steering vibration

[lewisflintham]

Right then, I hope someone can help me please. Car is a 2008 197 with 36k on the clock. I used to have a slight vibration through the steering at about 50 to 65mph. I had some new front tyres last weekend and had the front swapped to the back. They balanced all four wheels. I've now got a more severe vibration but at about 35 to 40mph. So I went back and I've had them all re-balanced. Somehow they'd gone slightly out in 1 week. So I'm stumped. Do I have a warped wheel. and if I had, would it never balance? Or could it be bent the other way, e.g into a slight ellipse? My steering seems to have started making much more of a knocking noise now too! I really noticed it the other day going over snow which had been made into 'tracks'. So is the steering rack screwed too? All theantiroll bars and drop link things seem solid. Sorry for the life story. Thanks guys and gals

 

[Chip-mk1]

Might be play in the track rod end or track rods allowing the wheel to slightly flap about.

 

[lewisflintham]

Well the rattle through the steering column has been sorted tonight. It was the bolt at the bottom of the column near the carpet that had come loose. The garage tightened it and it's now fine. Is was rattling all through the steering column when the road was rough before. They couldn't find anything else wrong which could be causing the vibration through the steering wheel though. I'm off to the tyre place tomorrow to get my wheels swapped front to back to see what effect this has on it. We will see.

 

[lewisflintham]

Went to the tyre place this morning and had my wheels swapped front to back. They balanced them again. It turns out that both the original continental tyres are a bit out of shape. The tyres are cracked in between the tread too. Now the continentals are back on the rear the shaky steering wheel problem has stopped. So it turned out to be an expensive job as I've just ordered another two Goodyear tyres at £112 each. At least it'll be sorted next week.