New shocks & steering damper, now terrible shudder...

Background is that there was a bit of what seemed like drivetrain vibration, that was noticeable but nothing scary, and high speed was generally fine.

The rubber coupling on the rear prop shaft is new, and the front prop shaft is a new greaseable one. No other obvious slack or looseness at either end of either shaft. Radius arm bushes look ok, and the track rod ball joint has been replaced at some point, but drag link ball joint has not.

I also recently had the hub+CV & front left axel out to do a seal and no change to driving behaviour afterward.

Fast forward to today and I've fitted new front and rear Bilsteins and a new Bilstein steering damper. All four of the old original shocks and the damper were totally shot.

Went for a test drive tonight and bugger me, it's now much worse than it ever was before! There's a terrible shudder / wobble - if feels almost like an one or more wheels out of balance, and is bad at speed but gets worse while slowing down.

There is however a big improvement in damping after going over speed humps, and it seems a lot less vague with what feels like much less roll when cornering.

I'm going to double check for stupid mistakes like loose wheel nuts etc in the morning then take her in to get the wheel alignment checked.

Any thoughts or comments on what might be the problem?

No idea, but interested to find out!

After a good nights sleep I went out this morning and had a good look over to see if anything obvious.

One of the rear wheels was out of balance. How could I tell just by looking you ask?

Some f@&$ing idiot (me) forgot to tighten up the wheel nuts. All on left rear were just lightly threaded on by hand. I'd forgotten to tighten after a late finish the night before.

Anyway, problem solved!

Ps. It drives like new now - what a difference. No more like a spongy shopping trolley.

98418665 said:

After a good nights sleep I went out this morning and had a good look over to see if anything obvious.

One of the rear wheels was out of balance. How could I tell just by looking you ask?

Some f@&$ing idiot (me) forgot to tighten up the wheel nuts. All on left rear were just lightly threaded on by hand. I'd forgotten to tighten after a late finish the night before.

Anyway, problem solved!

Ps. It drives like new now - what a difference. No more like a spongy shopping trolley.

Click to expand...

Don't beat yourself up about it mate. I did the same a few years ago with a Ford Mustang convertible I had at the time and on the test drive, going down a hill, the front lhs wheel came off and rolled down the hill in front of me !!!!!


How stupid did I feel? Spectacularly stupid that's how !!!!!!!!


Dave

PS Happy for you that the Disco is running right, now.

Glad the wheel didn't come off and it was a simple fix too! :doh:

Did tightening the wheel up fix the problem?

Yes, all fixed. Just now need to get the drivetrain vibration sorted.

Here's a pic of my setup, on the way back from the desert. Have to say that even with bog standard road tyres it runs well across the dunes (minus the trailer).

I'll be interested to find out what that drive train vibration is as I have the same problem just can't seem to place it.I know it's a process of elimination but would be good to be able to fix it.

I bought the car already with a recent front prop shaft replacement (aftermarket), but even though it looks alright and is not old, it sure feels like it could be the major cause of the vibration.

Not sure if I can run the car without the front prop shaft, as a test, because I don't have the CDL..

I've been looking at these as a potential replacement:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/29082908000...l?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=290829080001&_rdc=1

bet theres no rust on your chassis

Yeah I reckon this place would be a good source for rust free wrecks...

It does rain here sometimes - just not very often.