Steering shake

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JAC

JAC

New Member
Posts
431
Location
Derby
Hi
I changed my steering damper at the weekend, seemed fine driving it yesterday, relatively low speeds!
Drove to work this morning doing about 70mph had to brake relatively hard, and it violently shoke the whole car, well that's what it felt like!!

Have i done sumat wrong with the damper? or does it sound like something else is the problem?
I should add to that aswell that my brakes make a squeeking noise when im cornering, so was thinking that they mite have a burr on the caliper pistons, so that there not releasing properly, and also wondered if this could cause the shaking i experienced earier???

Thanks
 
Well drove it home tonight and i could feel it trying to shake, went over a sort of ramp thing on a bridge at 65mph and it started to shake like it did when i braked this morning, eased off the gas and that controlled it abit.
Does this sound like a broken belt in the tyre then?
Is there an easy way of telling it's got a broken belt in it, or have i got to swap each tyre for the spare and hope it cures it?

Thanks
 
I would have your brake disk checked, and have the front two tires taken off and put on a balancer, that will tell if there are any broken belts. The shake on the bridge aproach sounds like a bad ball joint though. If they have grease fittings you can pump them full of grease and drive it again. If the shaking stopped then replace the ball joints. If there are no grease fittings you can jack each tire up and put a pry bar under it....if you have someone pull up on the pry bar while you watch the ball joints....if you see movement it them they are bad.
 
If any of the disk were warped you would feel it kicking in the brake pedal.
If your tyres were damaged you should notice them at speed without having to brake. As stated you could get a free wheel check to put your mind at rest.
Slight squeaking from the brakes on cornering is common. There's lots you can do to stop the annoyance.

Can you be a little more specific. Did you have any of these problems before you replaced the steering damper if not it seems more likely to be the damper is faulty. The symptoms are the same
 
I can feel it after 60, but it shakes violently for a couple of seconds when i hit a change in tarmac i.e rough or bumpy. The braking part i think just started it into the shaking, so don't think now that there is an issue with the brakes.

It has been squeeking for a while, but didn't have the other issue before i changed the damper. I have had another thought tho, when i did the damper the track rod that attactches to the damper on one end, when i turned it, it made a squeeking noise, so it could be that instead of the breaks!
Is it possible that with the old damper on it didn't show this problem up because it was worn. maybe the track rod end needs replacing, so with the new one on it's probably having to work harder? just a thought!!!!
However i have tried grabing hold of the track rod and shaking it, but can't feel any movement in it!

Planning on getting wheels balanced tomorrow to rule that one out the equation!!!

Thanks
 
I had serious shaking problems with my wheels for a long time and couldn't figure it out if it was front or rear. The whole car shook all over the road like someone had put lead weights in the wheels to throw them off balance everytime we hit rough surfaces and going round curves was a fight for survival. I decided to replace the whole lot underneath and bought suspension upgrade, bushes, trackrod ends etc. Would you believe the first thing I changed cured it. Yes it was the steering damper. I still fitted the rest and yes its totally transformed the handling. All those little bits of wear add up. My faulty steering damper had about 5mm of free play so look at yours carefully.

Trust me, if your old damper was faulty then it wouldn't have improved things.

What type of new damper did you fit, was it standard or gas? If it was standard did you check it before you fitted it, ie did you pull it in and out and did it have any free travel even if it was just a few millimetres. Are you certain the end connections are realy secure ie no free play, not even the slightest.
You mention that it starts after you hit 60 well that could be wheel balance so I agree get it checked.
 
Yeah, dons right about the speed. Shaking at certian speeds is most likely a tire issue....either out of ballance or a broken belt. If a broken belt is bad enough you will be able to see the bands sticking through the tire a little. If not that bad they will need to be ballanced to find out which one is the issue. Hope we where helpful...let us know what the outcome is.
 
Yep, you've both been a great help, thanks.
Well took it into a bloke that i know today, to get him to have a look over it for me. He found loose front bearings any idea how hard they are to tighten up? and also the track rod end that i've mentioned (1 that's attatched to steering damper)
so going to sort these out and go from there, i think it's certainly a good place to start.

But don has got me paranoid now about the damper being securely fastened, sure it is but will have to double check now to put my mind at rest!!!!
 
Well, tightened my front wheel bearings, changed track rod end cause that was nakered, had tyres rebalanced and he couldn't see anything wrong with the tyre. It feels alot better than it did, but is still doing the same. Has anyone got any suggestions as to what to try next?
 
Right starting to get peed off with it now, to recap it's had new track rod end, new damper, wheel bearings tightened, front wheels and a rear rebalanced. So thought stuff it and took it to a garage, they reshimmed the swivels, it is better but can still feel it in rough tarmac or potholes above 50, anyone got any suggestions what to do next??
 
go to a few garages and get them all to give a guess at wot it is, may get same response from a couple or few useful diffeent things.
or start looking for a deepender!
 
Yeah already thought about getting a deepender, but it's still a Landrover init!!!!!

I was under it today, and both swivels had been leaking N/S was worst, it was all over the inside of the tyre, splattered all round the wheel arch, and had grease running down to the track rod end.
It definately wasn't doing this before it went in, but if it was then i'd of thought that theyd of spotted it.
So any ideas if the garage has cocked up, and either put to much or not enough preload on the swivels, or anything else that they might have done??
 
An easy check for your swivels is to lift both wheels off the ground and move them so your steering wheel turns, you should feel some resistance but they shouldn't be to stiff or slack.

Chances are that they've filled the swivels with grease and it's leaking out of the seals and the reason it wasn't doing it before is 'cos there want none in!!!

Have you checked the panhard rod for play? while the front wheels are off the floor get someone to turn the steering wheel left to right while you look for any kind of play in the bushes or bolts at either end of the rod. Also grab hold of the wheels and try gently waggling them feeling for play in the bearings you should feel a faint clunk as your waggling. Anything bigger and they'll need resetting.
 
Cheers Grunt, i'll have a look at the things youve stated hopefully this afternoon.
So the grease leaking out of the swivel seals, should i be worried or is this quite normal, especially as there seemed to be a reasonable amount leaking out??
 
Thanks thats put my mind at rest abit. Will it probably just be the seals then? is it a relatively easy job?

I had to tighten the bearings they had some play in them. I had already done them before the preload was reset, but the shaking probably caused them to come loose. Didn't get chance to look round anything else, it was T-time you know how it is!!!!
 
There are so many bushes at the front end that you need a good damper to take away any shake. when you go over a bump at speed the rubber bushes will flex and without the damper the steering will shake violently until you slow down. I would first off check when someone is shaking steering wheel that there is no play at the panhard rod bushes. I would then slacken the panhard bolts and the front radius bolts then retighten. Never mind the torque just make them as tight as you can.
 
Well just been under it again!!!!! couldn't feel any play in any of the bushes, nor track rod ends when the wheels were turned from side to side.
I did notice that the wheel on the passenger side was harder to spin than the wheel on the drivers side,(and yes it was on axle stands at the time!!!!:D ) i'm pretty sure it was like that before i did the bearing. When i tightened the bearing up i did notice the wheel got harder to spin, but it also sounds like the pads are in contact quite hard. Could this be related to the problem do you think?

Also, the steering damper was making quite a noise, when the wheels were turned, i no its the oil moving around inside, but does it normally make a loud noise when in operation, or should it be quite a faint noise?

Thanks for all your help so far
 
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