Undrivable due to wheel wobble

My car has always had wheel wobble since i did the lift and fitted the bigger tyres but I took it greenlaning the other day for the first time and now the wheel wobble is so bad between 20 - 40mph the car is undrivable.

I though the panhard rods might have been loose but have tightened them up and the problem is still there. Could it be the bearings which might have been bad before when i had the wheel wobble and since smashing the car about off road it had totally killed the bearings?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Could be the bearings, jack the front wheels up and if they are that bad you will feel movement from top to bottom on the wheel.

Also could you have possibly lost any weights off the wheels or bashed one? Try swapping back wheels for fronts to see if any different.

just check play in every joint and check wheel balancing as above if all is fine it will most likely be king pins needed or just shimming to give strength and a solid feel should sort it then

Due to the design of the front wheel bearings it can be difficult to detect any wear by hand. I had terrible wheel wobble at 36mph and it went when a changed a front wheel bearing. I could feel no play in it on the car when jacked up or when I had the hub off in my hand.

I also could not see a problem with the bearing once I pressed it out of the hub but changing it fixed the wobble.

I don't know if you can always feel kingpin bearings when they first start to fail either but they will still cause wheel wobble.

My advice would be to change the kingpin bearings if they have not been done by you before and give the CV's and wheel bearings a good grease up with some of the various waterproof greases you will have read about on here recently. Use hylomar blue on any joints, such as under the kingpins and on the freewheeling hubs.

If they don;t solve it, you at least know the state of your kingpin bearings and then move on to change the front wheel bearings.

Obviously make sure all your track control arms are in good nick first as you don;t want to go through all that trouble just to find it was one of them! The same applies to the front radius arm bushes. If they are cracked replace them before bearings.

Changing things systematically like this I think is the only way to ensure good maintenance and that everything is as healthy as can be.

I have changed all bearings and all bushes and now I know how old everything is and what is has been through.

It's not cheap in money or time though! Martin's prices in the Bigjimny shop are good though.

Kirkynut

I had this a few years ago on a works pickup (a "mis-hap" meant it was recovered by tractor :whistle: ) - all the suspension was checked by our on site mechanic, none of the wheel weights were visually missing and all the mud had been steam cleaned off from underneath - we had one of the apprentices take the all the wheels of and clean the underside and everything - still the wheel wobble occurred. We resorted to taking into the local tyre place who followed the same system as us, they even went out in it to feeel the shakes for themselves. They eventually took the wheels of to check the wheel weights again, and came to the conclusion that we hadnt lost any. They then put the wheels on the balancing machine, only to find that one of the rims had been slightly buckled. With a few wheel weights added, it was fixed. They said its fairly rare to buckle a rim and it not be noticeable, but it does happen now and again

As it was after a trip out I would look for mud on the rims, a buckled rim, lost balance weight or mud forced inside the tyre (If you are travelling down ruts with soft tyres mud can be forced inside the tyre edge and into the tyre without really breaking the seal, when the tyre mech took the tyre off and mud fell on the floor he said "WHat have you been doing to this, off-roading it?"...errm Yes!)

Then start looking around for something bent or collapsed (bearings etc._

Problem Solved !!!!

Turns out the brand new panhard rod bushes I got from KAP are rubbish (or knackered after 2 months and 600 miles :huh: ). I have put my standard panhard rod back on the front and the car now handles better than it ever has done with absolutley no wheel wobble and much sharper steering with less bump steer . I did also identify, while looking for the cause of the wobble, that the 4 bolts holding the front axle to the radius arms were loose (1 bolt could even be undone by hand :dry: ), so I have tightened them all up. I'm greenlaning tomorrow so the car should handle much better now all that is sorted.

Think I'll be giving KAP a call tomorrow to see what the crack is. Annoying when you buy new, bespoke parts at great expense and its actually caused you problems, then put the original item back and problem is solved. Oh well, a lesson learnt and for anyone else with wheel wobble, check your panhard rod bushes (not just that the bolts are tight, my bolts were very tight and there was still loads of play at both ends) .

If you are doing the lane from Marsett to Stalling Busk just be aware that the ford may be deep after all this rain, have a great day, wish I was coming with you instead of working.

Gromit wrote: If you are doing the lane from Marsett to Stalling Busk just be aware that the ford may be deep after all this rain, have a great day, wish I was coming with you instead of working.

Thanks Gromit. I'm not sure as to the route, Mick C is leading this one, but if we do go via the ford, hopefully my lift will come in handy . Its a shame you cant come, we'll try and organise the next one on a weekend so more people can come.

Adamski wrote:

Gromit wrote: If you are doing the lane from Marsett to Stalling Busk just be aware that the ford may be deep after all this rain, have a great day, wish I was coming with you instead of working.

Thanks Gromit. I'm not sure as to the route, Mick C is leading this one, but if we do go via the ford, hopefully my lift will come in handy . Its a shame you cant come, we'll try and organise the next one on a weekend so more people can come.

The climb up the ravine to Stalling Busk after the ford is getting nice and technical and will make you smile

If you have had to tighten the leading arm bolts then you ought to check that the movement has not worn an oval hole in the chassis mount.

Martin