GU Steering wobble @ 80kph

[Dee]

Ive had my lift (3in) and wheels (33's) in for quite a while now.

Ive recently had my tyres rotated. But i think this happened once or twice just before i had that done. When doing just over 80 (83-85) i get a shake left to right in the steering wheel. Its quite annoying and concerns me a bit.
Does anyone know what it could be? Symptoms of a common problem maybe?

[manno74]

I've had this on occasions with my tyres too.

It's probably just the tyres getting out of balance. You said that you've had them on for a little while... when was the last time you had them balanced? Because you're running larger rubber, any little difference in balance is thrown out further because of the physics of the thing. That and I understand that GU's can be touchy in this regard... It's easy enough to throw a weight off in the bush too.

It should only cost you around $10 a tyre for a rebalance - had my MT's done the other day for an up-coming trip (maybe!). If you still have troubles, get the tyre shop to do an on-car balance and have it fully aligned (castor, camber and align). It'll save expensive tyres in the long run.

[turps]

Could also be worn panhard rod bushes. This also cuases a shake when braking hard. My shorty does this, not all the time. But am 100% sure it is the bushes in my case.

[Troll00]

Oh what a question with so many answers?
Tyre balance?
Locking hubs in?
Steering Dampener?
Panard bushes?
leading arm bushes?
King bearings?
Wheel bearings?
Or rear wheel balance????
Tail shaft?

Just some of the things to check, good luck!!!

[HARMZ]

Ive had my lift (3in) and wheels (33's) in for quite a while now.

Ive recently had my tyres rotated. But i think this happened once or twice just before i had that done. When doing just over 80 (83-85) i get a shake left to right in the steering wheel. Its quite annoying and concerns me a bit.
Does anyone know what it could be? Symptoms of a common problem maybe?

Had it happen to my GU with Cooper ST's on first rotation, end up having an on-car balance at another place, cost bugger all, problem solved,

On another note in order to maintain warranty i have to get rotation done by selling dealer every 10000kms which is again next service, but what going to happen if after they do the off-car balance and put back on a problem is there again???

[PigDog]

just the other day i was in toolangi and run 3 of my silverstone extreams of the bead luckey i had a couple of my road tyres (mickey t raidels) on board but thay are usheley on the back and when i got out on the road from 60 to 100 you could not hang on to the wheel got all the mickey t's balanced and still no good but put the the one's off the back back on the back and all good

p.s. has any one found a silver stone on a gu rim in toolangi latley (reward)

[zookjedi]

also with wheel balancing its easy to overlook clay mud stuck on the inside of the rim giving the old i need a balance bad feel and because of the centrifugal force it can stay on till you get in there and clean it manuelly made my work 4x4 feel like a death trap till i finally cleaned the rims

just a thought

[BigMav]

definitely have a good look at your panhards, mine was doing the same to a dangerous point where i thought the wheels were about to fall off. The bushes were completely torn to pieces. But yeah could be heaps of things or a combination of what was said above.

[adamant]

yeah my gu ute with only 10,000km on it has same vibration at the same speed, an my truck is stock as, so i dont think any bushes are worn out on my truck, taking it back to nissan tommrow, so il let you know what they say

[Dee]

thanks all,

taking it in tomorrow to get it checked out. Heading up the beach on friday arvo and dont have the time between now and then to get under it and check it out.

[Dee]

thanks all,

taking it in tomorrow to get it checked out. Heading up the beach on friday arvo and dont have the time between now and then to get under it and check it out.

[sierrajim]

From what i've been told by the tyre guys i know you should balance tyres anytime they are rotated. Why, i don't know.

Have had the same on mine since i rotated the tyres. Didn't bother balancing them as the 35's go on this week.

[Tangles112]

I went 4x4ing one day, and went into a mud pit. I drove home with violent shakes through the steering. So much so, that I thought I was going to break something.

Found out is was mud acting as a couterweight inside the wheel.

If you have been 4x4ing lately, you may have a rock or a piece of mud stuck somewhere....

I'm not the most mechanically minded, but that was my problem, and I thought I'd cover another possible cause.

Hope your prob gets fixed mate.

[Dee]

thats the thing. I cant think of anywhere ive been where i could have gotten mud. I have experienced the mud thing before. went 4x4ing and on the highway home i thought I had broken something with my brand new suspension setup in as the shakes were horrible. Just got the hose out when i got home. All good.

I will have a look however. I have a feeling it may be my wheel balance though.

[Dee]

thats the thing. I cant think of anywhere ive been where i could have gotten mud. I have experienced the mud thing before. went 4x4ing and on the highway home i thought I had broken something with my brand new suspension setup in as the shakes were horrible. Just got the hose out when i got home. All good.

I will have a look however. I have a feeling it may be my wheel balance though.

[Tangles112]

Not good mate. Hopefully it's just something small and inexpensive.

Maybe tighten the wheel nuts haha

Doesn't sound like mud...

being a mechanic would be so handy sometimes :p

[Area54]

What sort of caster correction have you had fitted?

[Dee]

castor corrected bushes... suit 3" lift (2-3 deg maybe?)

[Area54]

2-3 degrees is fairly substantial for a 3 inch or so lift, you would nearly have got away with next to no caster correction for your lift and tyre combo. You would prolly be running closer to 4 degrees. Have you also noticed the steering is a bit heavier? Scrubbing on the inside of the front tyres?

[bogged]

castor corrected bushes... suit 3" lift (2-3 deg maybe?)

I fitted no bushes with my 3inch lift kit when I had it. 4 springs 4 shocks, and check brake lines. that was it

[Dee]

no scrubbing. Dont really think the steering is "heavier". Im not sure how much castor correcton was put in. All I know is steering was twitchy before as wheels were sort of "digging" when i turned. It's nice now.

Just got it back. They tightened left hand side wheel bearing and did another wheel balance. Got rid of 95% of wobble. They took it for a test drive and said it can also depend on the road, going one way down the motorway at around 85 it was non existant, coming back it was just feelable.

Might look at throwing on a steering damper. Also, ive had a problem ever since lifting it, steering pulls to the left, and when driving straight, i have to hold steering wheel a few degrees to the right. This is obviously because of the lift, and greater distance between chassis and diffs and pull on panhards and tie rod.

However im not sure about the 'pulling to the left' part. Was talking to the guy at the shop and he said they did a 5 inch lift on a GU ute last week, put adj. panhards on and drop boxes and didnt have to touch steering. it was sweet.

[Dee]

Not good mate. Hopefully it's just something small and inexpensive.

Maybe tighten the wheel nuts haha

Doesn't sound like mud...

being a mechanic would be so handy sometimes :p

yes it would wouldnt it? they have a postition available there at the moment, i would love to take it and be a grease monkey then i could know what the hell to do on mine... Wish there was a way of doing two jobs at once...

[Dee]

Not good mate. Hopefully it's just something small and inexpensive.

Maybe tighten the wheel nuts haha

Doesn't sound like mud...

being a mechanic would be so handy sometimes :p

yes it would wouldnt it? they have a postition available there at the moment, i would love to take it and be a grease monkey then i could know what the hell to do on mine... Wish there was a way of doing two jobs at once...

[Dee]

went up the beach last weekend. Still there...

starts to kick in around 85 k's. Im going to throw on a steering stabiliser/damper. See how that goes. While im at it im getting under there this weekend to clean out all the sh!t off the underbody, im gonna try checking all my bushes etc, as when driving along a bumpy road there is a "squeak". and its annoying (i hate squeaks and rattles). cant hear it inside the car. Only when driving slow and through some bumpy stuff with the air con and stereo off and window down.

[Tangles112]

D,

What kinda damper mate? Return to centre's look pretty awesome God I'm a poser.

Hope you get it fixed soon mate, coz it doesn't look like anyone can figure it out.

When you get it all sorted, let me know and we'll head out wheeling sometime....and screw it up again :p

[Area54]

A new damper will not stop it, wasting your money.

I could not get rid of it by installing 2 rancho dampers - and they had a lot of resistance.

Still sounds like too much caster for the lift. Have you recently installed a heavy winchbar or winch and dual batteries? Hit any jumps hard, that may have over-compressed the front springs?

[Dee]

A new damper will not stop it, wasting your money.

I could not get rid of it by installing 2 rancho dampers - and they had a lot of resistance.

Still sounds like too much caster for the lift. Have you recently installed a heavy winchbar or winch and dual batteries? Hit any jumps hard, that may have over-compressed the front springs?

ah nope, and nope... its going into nissan for its 110,000 service in the next few weeks... i would get them to look at it but im worried they would charge like a wounded bull where are you heading with the over compressed springs area54?

You see i had the caster bushes put in ages ago, like around may/june. I dont think it could possibly be the castor as it has been driving fine for months. My old man was towing the boat and came back and told me about this steering wobble at 80k's. Before this i think i had experienced it once... But didnt sort of take any notice of it. I thought it would just be mud again. Then i got the tyres rotated and balanced. And its still there. And its not mud. And its since then that i have started to worry about it. It sorta came up out of nowhere.
The only thing different is when i had them balanced they put a sway bar disconnect on the back for me (only 1 as they are waiting on more stock and my sway bar was falling foward and hitting the driveshaft without it.)

But i cant remember if the wobble felt was before or after this rotation.

oh, and a procomp damper tangles will yours be finished by dec. 11th? you should come out for a run to glasshouse then! getting a forum trip happening either here or on 4wheeldrivemonthly's forum at the moment. Be great to go for a run!

PS THANKS FOR ALL THIS HELP EVERYONE!

[Slug]

May or may not be relevant to your problem but I had the same issue with a GQ and to a lesser extent my current GU.... After trying at least 4847638 fixes I was told of a bloke in Townsville that could fix the problem and he did!!! His opinion is that swivel hub bearings wear and "loosen" up over time and allow the wheel and tyre to trolley wheel (seen in shopping trolleys when you push em too fast) and cause the shake.

In my case he jacked her up and removed the tie rod ends and showed me how the hubs were able to flop back and forth on the swivel bearings with no effort at all. He removed a couple of shims and set preload to the high side of factory specs, put it back together and told me to take it for a burn.

Problem solved

[Dee]

hmm...

what are new wheel bearings worth these days?

i think i remember when getting the castor put in/wheels aligned, the guy telling me that the wheel bearings were on there way out... I cant remember if he said that or if he said they just needed repacking. What are new wheel bearings worth? when i took it in last week they said they had to re-tighten one of the wheel bearings...

[Dee]

could a rear swaybar disconnect have anything to do with it. I got under there yesterday to check out a constant squeak in the suspension. The sway bar disconnect seems to mounted to the wrong side of the swaybar. (hard to explain) and as such is not directly vertical, its on a bit of a tweak/lean and may be "pulling" the sway bar a bit to one side. Because the disconnect is not straight up and down it is rubbing on the inside of the sway bar metal on metal and making a squeak everytime the swaybar/suspension moves.

Could this swaybar pulling to the side be adding/causing the steering shake?

Im going to get under there this arvo and put it back on correctly.

PS this is a rear disconnect, not front. I only have one disconnect connected as the shop did not have any stock and cannot get hold of the supplier. I am also unhappy with the quality of it so I am going to order some snake racing or 3rd's or something like those of good quality.

Also, on the rear, is one disconnect supposed to be longer than the other, as the passenger side doesnt seem to have a mounting point anywhere near similar to where it is on the driver side...