Strange Vibration

I have a strange vibration which is a bit hard to describe.

When driving at any speed there is a vibration which is felt through the steering wheel. It gets progressively worse at over 40mph and seems to build up and the whole vehicle vibrates.

It feels like I am driving over a really rough road surface all the time, even though the part of road I experienced it on is very smooth.

The engine sounds and responds fine, the gears are ok and there is no cluncking, thuds etc when taking off or reversing.

If it helps to diagnose the fault, the wheels are all balanced and TP correct. The viscous coupling is fine and when driving round a bend (eg the steering is not pointing straight ahead) the vibration disappears.

Any ideas ?

Worn out shock absorber maybe? How many miles have the shocks done? Is it used off road? What colour is the Freelander?

In answer to your reply

Done 26k miles
No off road use
Colour - Blue, can't see what difference that makes LOL

I had exactly that problem recently. The symptoms were absolutely identical.

I know I've said it before, but go and get the wheel balancing checked and check that your wheels are flat to the hubs.

I had little plastic rings on my hubs that I didn't realise weren't supposed to be there for standard wheels (swapped a set of fancy alloys back to the originals)... when I took them off and refitted balanced wheels the problem was instantly sorted, so I'm not sure if it was the wheels not being on quite straight or the balancing, butr it's sorted.

You could be spot on there

I had a very slight vibration beforehand , nothing really noticable, so I got the wheels balanced and it has been worse ever since.

Took it back to the garage that balanced the wheels and got the usual garble, brake disc warped etc. Naff all wrong with the brake discs as there is no judder under braking. After more money I expect.

I will go to a different garage and ask to have the wheels balanced, but not mention that they have just been done and see what the outcome is.

Thanks

It's pretty easy to knock the balance weights off alloy wheels... I've jet washed them off before now. The garage could have balanced them perfectly, then knocked a strip of weights off - by accident - on your brake disk, when refitting the wheel.

ShotgunDrew said:

The garage could have balanced them perfectly, then knocked a strip of weights off - by accident - on your brake disk, when refitting the wheel.

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Good point, brake disks have ballancing weights too

I had trouble with the rear tyres causing tremendous amount of vibration and noise. Treads were low and stepped. Put new tyres on and presto...............no vibration or noise

Had a new wheel nbearing fitted today. Loads and loads of noise, humming, squeeling like you wouldn't believe

When things go tits up the hippo certainly lets you know about it. Not even my missus can give me that much grief

pompey-john said:

When things go tits up the hippo certainly lets you know about it. Not even my missus can give me that much grief

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ROFWL - how often duz ya missus go tits up? - no need to answer that one. ho ho ho