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GU Steering wobble @ 80kph

Tech Talk for Nissan owners.

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Post by ozy1 »

GU passenger side disconnect is twice as long as a rough guess, it mounts high up on the chassis
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Post by muttley »

Might not be connected but I have found that since I got my 285/75R16 MTR's on, I get this wobble a lot. Having them at 40psi like the tyre place said seems to increase them. When the pressure is a bit lower such as 36-38psi the wobble seems to disappear. Just wondering if there is anything in that :?:
"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do" - Benjamin Franklin
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Dee
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Post by Dee »

i will try putting a bit more pressure in them if this disconnect thing doesnt seem to fix the problem. Since new I've had the claws at around 30 - 32psi. I might try a little more pressure though as they bulge a bit sitting under the weight of the gu at that pressure.

Im really hoping its just this stupid disconnect though.
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Post by ats4x4dotcom »

with the 3" backspaced rims, and 40 x 16.5 tyres on 10" rims on mine last week, we had to adjust the toe, and fit a 2nd steering damper, of the ones we have made, around 80% heavier than standard, to fix the shake issue, while we re assess the 5' caster plates with 6" lift, but our wheel alignment machine wont laser past the 40" tyres currently.

Truck has 15000km, with panhard bushes, and king pin brearings, and wheel bearings all good.

One out of every 10 nissans seems to get the "nissan wobble"
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Post by Dee »

with the 3" backspaced rims, and 40 x 16.5 tyres on 10" rims on mine last
stop braggin about your 40's... :finger:


so did you fix the shake or not? did you manage to get a wheel alignment done?
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Post by ats4x4dotcom »

Like I said, no fix to do a castor sweep for alignment right now, and the shake has improved greatly with 2 of our super duty dampers on, but not 100% fixed as yet.
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Post by 4X4XFAR »

Area54 wrote: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?

I dunno mate, my GQ developed a wobble around 90kph after I fitted my 2" lift and a wheel alignment and a new "return to centre" damper fixed the problem, I guess it just depends on your own truck and whats causing the problem.
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Post by fnqcairns »

As stated earlier it's your swivel hub bearings and their preload, they will last around 100k + LHS to 200k + RHS.
Either rebuild and preset or just preset if you can get away without repacing any other swivel hub component for another 100k or so like the wiper seals.

I am this weekend doing mine I have just bought the car and it has had an easy life (no off road, mums taxi) with almost 200k on the clock and the left hand side has a slightly percievable wobble at 80-90km, the right hand side which sees less bumps will always last longer. I will have no more problems after the rebuild/reset.

If your steering components will pass a basic roadworthy and the tyre has had one of the cheap balances and it persists it will be the swivel hubs - guaranteed!

PS if you do it yourself increase the standard spec preload by around 1/4 to save doing it again in 120k or so.

cheers fnq
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Post by Dee »

i cant do it myself. I have no idea what swivel hubs are...

Unless you are reffering to the huge round things the hub mounts over when you turn the wheel and look from behind. In that case I have no idea what the preload/shims are so i cant and wouldnt try to do it myselft. I dont suppose i should ask nissan to do it on my next service considering how much the charge?
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Post by fnqcairns »

Deev8, Yep inside that. I didn't either the first time I pulled one but I had gotten myself dirty on cars for years before hand and it is all just lego with a few rules thrown in everynow and again.
If you are still under warrenty and have some face tell them the LHS Kingpin/swivelhub preload is low or even below spec and is causing some wheel shimmy. Then tell them you need the turning effort measured (this is done without tie rod ends atatched) It's a very simple and fast test for a mechanic - 15min max per side.

If it is out of warrenty stop throwing your money away with a dealer they do not know or do better and find yourself a small shop mehanic that will take the time to talk to you, most jobs are easily within their range of abilities and they are not hamstrung by Nissan procedure. For example Nissan still specify a low grade of oil for their diesels under warrenty (with a lame excuse) when there are oils out there that actually work.

Anyway did you see that seinfel episode with George at Jerry's dealer :lol:

If you can make it to Cairns on Sunday morning you can copy my job :P

Good luck with it

cheer fnq
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Post by Beefcake »

I bought mine new in March this year. I had a 2" OME lift fitted before I picked it up from the dealer and a set of 16X8's and 285/75 16's on order. From the time I drove it home it had a noticeable wobble between 80-90km/h. I told Nissan at the 1000k service. They drove it and reckon nothing wrong (probably so used to driving the heaps of shite like that). One thing the service manager said was "probably the standard tyres, they're crap". Nice to know after forking out over 60 grand. I thought I'd wait until I got the new wheels and tyres, which were from the same ARB dealer who installed suspension. It did make it better, but after I took it back for them to flip the tyres and put the white lettering on the inside like I originally asked, I drove it home and I lost a few kg's I reckon it was wobbling that much. Took it back and they had it three days, scratching their heads (and denting my door..TWICE!!!), but eventually fixed. What it came down to was the heavy spot in the rim and the heavy spot in one tyre were lined up, throwing it way out of balance. After that it drove like it should've off the showroom floor. About a week later I took it back to the Nissan dealer for 10,000k service and they did a wheel balance and rotate...arrrrrgh the wobble is back, but I just give up and drive it....I never had this much trouble with a 2nd handy.
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Post by fnqcairns »

Beefcake did they fix the door? :roll: Almost every time a mechanic touches on of my cars they either break something or degrade something like broken plastic clips or overbent aliminium aircon line etc. Gotta watch them like a hawk ;)

Just to update I did my swivel hubs on the weekend, took longer than I hoped but it's done. The car now drives like new very nice. Now if I can only solve my tierod problem I will be able to forget all those bits for 5 years or more years - with a bit of luck.

cheers
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Post by Dee »

its really starting to fcuk me off guys...

gonna check tyre pressures etc. asap. i havent had ANY time lately with work... its well due for its 110 thou service, which i think i will take back to nissan to do. i know the charge shitloads but after this joint i dont know who to trust. ill see if i can get them to fix it.

how do you do the swivel hubs fnqcairns? big job? should i ask nissan to have a look into it?

EDIT: shit... took me a whole week to catch that post fnq! ^^^
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Post by Dee »

question bout steering dampers. im thinking of throwing one of these on should all else fail. is it worth/needed to go return to centre or is a normal pro comp damper enough. (keeping in mind should i ever go 35's)
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Post by Beefcake »

[quote="fnqcairns"]Beefcake did they fix the door? :roll: Almost every time a mechanic touches on of my cars they either break something or degrade something like broken plastic clips or overbent aliminium aircon line etc. Gotta watch them like a hawk ;)

Nah they didn't fix the door. I didn't notice until I got it home. I was too pissed off when I left there with the scratch in the front guard and loose washer bottle, after they fitted the snorkel while it was in there, that they weren't too concerned about. Tiny dents, but in a brand new black car, I see it every time I get in. :bad-words: It's a real shame cos I won't go back now and have lots more to spend and they are one of the biggest ARB dealers on the "Southside" of Brizzy. Guess I'll go across the road to TJM and pray for better service.
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Post by fnqcairns »

Beefcake sounds like they were blowing wind up your proverbial! "the heavy spot on the tire and rim were lined up" :shock:

Bet they fitted the tyre out of round, any out of balance issue as bad as that must show up when the tyre is balanced - how can it not!!

Worth giving them a wide berth I think.

Deev8 Keep in mind all this is just my experience/opinion so if you need an excuse to fit your dampener don't use the shimmy as that is a cause all in it's self and adding new parts around the problem will mask or improve the problem but it will be back worse than before sooner or later.

Probably not an area you should have a go at yourself without some past experience in these areas, there are ball joints which can be problematic to remove without a couple of different methods up your sleeve and they are part that we rely on to keep us alive at 100km/h.

Might I suggest a mobile mechanic? one that preferably works for himself, 90% of the job is sitting on his bum so it would make for a nice change for him.

If you do decide to get the shimmy fixed by increasing the preload without new parts etc ask the mechanic to place the turning effort at the higher end of the spec.

It's amazing the difference it makes no more tracking or bump steer, it almost eliminated all those slow wandering corrections I was making at 100km/h also much more point and shoot.

You just need to be sure that all your steering components are in a condition that would pass a roadworthy, that your tyres are balanced to eliminate any wild cards. If all is Ok re-preloading the swivel hubs will fix your problem straight up and make the car a joy to drive in comparison -in my experience anyway.

cheers
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Post by Dee »

ok. youve sold me. Ill get those swivel hubs looked at - preloaded and the turning effort tested and measured.

Cheers!

-Brodie
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Post by fnqcairns »

Hope it comes off for you Deev8 people spend so much money buying new upgraded/aftermarket stuff in an attempt to get rid of the problem, when 2 hours labour and sometimes no new parts needed is all that it takes!
Good luck with it and stay on their case with respect to what preload is actually acceptable - they will happily fob you off with bullshit if the work needed is under warrenty and not about to explode tommorrow, thus costing them later.

cheers
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Post by Dee »

not under warranty. But im guessing if i go to the normal place i go to they will just go ahh ummm hmmm naah dont think it could be thaaat... ummm ahh... :bad-words:

Ill get it sorted out... ;)
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Post by fnqcairns »

Yeah..... I have heard that also when I was first looking for the fix from mechanics along with all the extra upgrade $ needed from suspension places, dont go to them! they didn't know what they were talking about...or they did!!.

Then as luck would have it I came across a real but crusty 4wd mechanic at lemon tree who set me straight with advice on the fix straight up! This was around 7 years ago now.

To save dollars just get them to preload the LHS back to the high end of the spec.
The RHS will usually go longer before becoming sloppy. Make sure if they test one side to account for both it is the LHS, because like most all the other greased parts underbody it will show the most wear on that side.

Will stop harrasing you now, :P good luck with it.

cheers
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Post by udm »

ats4x4dotcom wrote:One out of every 10 nissans seems to get the "nissan wobble"
It´s not a "nissan wobble", even toyotas have it.

I´m going to be checking swivel bearings preload this weekend on my cruiser, i´ll let you know what´s going on. This is the last thing on the list to check.
Ulises

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Post by Dee »

Ah ok well at least now I know its just not my car! Seriously though I have heard a few people saying that the patrols have been notoriously hard to get a good alignment out of. Bigger wheels cause troubles etc... But i wouldnt swap it for the world... (well i would for a 4.2!)
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Post by Dee »

dropped it in this morning.

fingers crossed its gone, i think it is, just have to go for a proper drive down the highway to double check.

I wont be going back to that old place ever again. Took it to a proper tyre & mech place and they rotated the tires on the rims to counter the heavy spot on the tyres to the heavy spot on the rims.

One of the front tyres (which i just had done at the other place) was 70 grams out.

I also had a nail in one of the rear tyres = slow leak....

So saaaal good...

Bust out some decent disconnects and panhards now :armsup:
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