Vibration in steering

[donsrno1]

Recently I have been getting a sort of vibration in the steering of my car (Mk1 1.4RT) when reaching speeds of about 70 or 80 mph and also some vibration in the brake pedal. I had been brought to believe this was caused by a wheel bearing that was needing replaced but having replaced it the vibration is still there.

Has anyone got any ideas on what might be causing this and how I could sort it?

Thanks.

 

[Lunner]

Check the run out of the brake discs.

If its large, well more then almost nohting check teh disc is seated flat ont he hub, or swap the discs.

other thign it could be is cv joints on the driveshaft

 

[donsrno1]

Sorry - not up on all the technical terms - what do you mean by the run out of the discs and how can I check that?

How can I check if it's the cv joints on the driveshaft?

One thing I have noticed is that if you have the car jacked up and you rotate the passenger side wheel the brake pads seem to be lightly in contact with the disc all the time - you can hear it all the way round but on the drivers side this is not the case. What could this suggest? Could this have had anything to do with a bearing going after only 1500 miles?

 

[Lunner]

Run out as in are the discs warped, the pads shoudl be lightly touching the disc at all times, chekc the o/s (drivers) disc, and see if the pads only come in contact wiht the disc for part of the rotation.

Check the cv joints by seeing if there is any vertical/horizontal movement, perpendicular to the length of the shaft in them if there is this could point to a cv joint having gone

 

[donsrno1]

Run out as in are the discs warped, the pads shoudl be lightly touching the disc at all times, chekc the o/s (drivers) disc, and see if the pads only come in contact wiht the disc for part of the rotation.

Check the cv joints by seeing if there is any vertical/horizontal movement, perpendicular to the length of the shaft in them if there is this could point to a cv joint having gone

I think that might be what the drivers side is doin actually would that cause this?? How do I go about checking the discs properly or should I just take the car to a garage and could they check?

Sory bud but I don't really follow your description about the driveshaft. Where am I to check if there is any vertical/horizontal movement?

I really hope this isn't going to be expensive as I've just had to fork out to get a new hub and bearings.

Thanks for the help by the way.

 

[donsrno1]

I've just been out for a wee drive - up and down a stip of the bypass a few times. The vibration kicks in at about 60 to 65 mph an it just gradually gets worse as your speed increases from there. If you touch the brakes at all at these speeds you can feel a vibration through the pedals but the vibration in the steering wheel gets a lot worse when you start to brake.

Does this suggest that it's probably the brake disc thats warped?

 

[cat171]

sounds like it to me.

 

[donsrno1]

I've read in a lot of places that vibration can be caused by the wheels not being balanced and so I'm going to put a set of alloys that have been balanced (siting in the garage) on and see what it's like then.

If it's still vibrating I'll take it to a garage and get them to check the disc - or is there any way I could check the disc myself?

Maybe a good time to upgrade to 16v brakes :evil:

 

[Martin_172]

get your tracking checked, and it could be the wheels balanced wrongly.

 

[caymanr26]

i would say definately balance - had this loads of times but as soon as changed my tyres problems dissapear and thats on various cars.

 

[donsrno1]

Ok, I'll try the different alloys tomorrow but I'm not sure if they have been balanced properly or not. If the vibrations still there I'll get them re-balanced and the tracking done. How much should they cost?

 

[caymanr26]

balancing is cheap - about 3/4pound a wheel ( in cardiff anyway) just make sure if you have centre caps that the muppets in the tyre shop dont pull them off with a screw driver! push them out from inside wheel unless you have genuine renault wheels with the tool to remove them.
Tracking is usually anywhere from about £25 upwards. Worth getting the car properly laser aligned if getting it done - have a look in the yellow pages or something if you dont know where to go.