wobble on braking , only at 50 ish

[Ryoken]

I'm getting a steering wheel wobble, when I come off the motorways, if I brake slightly to come off the slip road I get steering wobble, from anything from 55 to 70 mph ,the wheel doesn't grab to any side as if the callipers are sticking (not yet anyway) the disks and pads look like new.
if I drive on A roads I get NO wobble

the car has just passed its mot so I dunno?
some one mentioned control arms on these cars are proe, but would that not show up on mot?

4.4, 150k miles
cheers
Steve

[graemeX5]

Hi

You said it doesn't do it on A road but are you slowing down in the same way ?

If so then I know it's a bit stupid but eliminate the simple ones so just check wheel bolts if secure,

then could be wheel balancing on front wheels as it changes over the life of the tyre again a simple on at you local tyre place

If not I would suspect some play I the control there was a recent thread on this say two weeks ago, and given the mileage I think the bushes in the arms are likely to have worn, iirc the thread also mentions here to get some at a reasonable price.

Graeme

[graemeX5]

Hi

Sorry this is the older link

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... #msg125181


Also this one give a link to eBay and control arms

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... #msg130009

Graeme

[Ryoken]

cheers for reply , my nuts are tight, ( that sounded wrong:)), tbh ive not thought about how I'm actually braking ,  I'm just braking .but generally  as I find at low speed  no  wobble or  binding, even if I anchor on, it doesn't pull, just seems to be at like 50 to 70mph
ive got to get my wheels balanced  really as I'm getting like a  rotational noise  from anything from 30 mph upwards, I thought it was a bearing at first, (garage says no) then I thought it was wheel balancing (tyre man says no) he jacked car up (on 4 post) then spin tyres, to listen to bearings , none were worn, he then got his mate to spin the rear wheels , he listened to the diff and said the diff  was a bit rumbly
but we never got the wheels balanced. next job then
id have thought if the arms were worn, MOT man should have spotted them?.

[Pete]

Could be a warped disc. I had something similar happen even though the discs weren't that old.

[shadrack]

warped disc, sticking caliper, worn bushing, mot man not guarenteed to spot a slight ware in bush

[Ryoken]

when the car was in , for its brake pipes fixing (mot failure) I asked mechanics to check the disks and pads and calipers, they said everything looked ok ,
I'm going to looks at the arms,  when I get chance

[grumpywurzel]

If the discs are warped it's not a visual inspection anyway (unless they look like the waltzers at a fair!), you need to have them checked with a run out tool (DTI), Defford sounds like a disc slightly warped.

[Nick73]

Im sure I've read here or on outpost that wear in the from arms is difficult to see until you remove them... I can't remember why though.. under tension maybe?

It also doesn't help that lots of mechanics use a variety of phrases for the same thing... or the same phrase for different things.  Ive had 2 mechanics refer to (what I believe is called) the tension strut as the control arm and another refer to something (I wasn't sure what he was pointing at) as the thrust arm .. which doesn't exist on realoem.  Not a criticism of mechanics, Im sure thrust arm is a common name for it, and they all seemed to do good work ... just that the motoring jargon doesn't help the enthusiastic amateur  :'( :'(

[XDRIVER86]

I had the same issue, slight wheel wobble at motorway speed but really started to shake when slowing from 60mph. I changed the bushes in the lower front suspension arms for powerflex polly bushes and the problem is gone. I had a look at the bushes before I took them out and they looked ok but were hard to see, once they were out you could see the cracks in the rubber.

hope this helps!

[Ryoken]

yeah im not glad i started looking into this tbh

brought car in work just now to look under front end  , ive been on you tube theres a nice video on how to test,  so got  mole grips in hand  slid under car and put my fone light on ,  to be shown a nice sight
(granted i cant send pic at mo will do when i get home ,)
front  driver cv boot wheel side is covered in grease, and various bits, on the inside , so looks like as well as the  judder i got to fix a bloody  drives haft

ill send piccy when i get in ,  been intouch with the garage to get time on a ramp to look at lower struts, now i gotta get it in for drive shafts doing
I cant add pictures

[Beanoir]

How are you getting on with this? 

I have some wobble in the wheel under braking also and decided that given the mileage (70k) that it should probably be done, took advantage of the ECP weekend discount and bought lower control arms for both sides.  Just deciding whether to do them myself or take the car to garage down in my village.