Steering shake at 65-70mph?

[JMAN718]

Drove my 83 SC today, has new BFG all around with 1000 mi. on them. I don't drive my car as a daily driver. This year maybe 600 mi. It was shaking in the steering around 65 to 70 mph. It maybe Balancing or could there be something else that causes it to shake? Anyone experience this? Thanks Guys.

[gtrp]

Check if your wheel weights are still attached.


81' Widebody SC

[Trackrash]

Shake or vibration? Most likely balance. I have had new front tires on my 911 that had to be rebalanced on more than one occasion.

I would jack up the front wheels and spin them to make SURE the tires are true. I have seen new tires where the treads were not true.

[Sicklyscott]

I have the same issue. I've used different sets on front tires and had the same exact problem.

[cabmandone]

Seems like a wheel weight had to come off. I've had tires on other cars that have a lot of "wobble" to them and my tire guy has always been able to balance them.

[JMAN718]

Thanks guys for responses, the vibration, could it be wheel bearings or tie rods?

[gamin]

New tires. Only vibrates at 65-70. The brain trust has it right. Wheel balance. Losing a weight could contribute to this. Also, are your tires good and warm when this is happening? My tires get kind of out of round from sitting on the cold concrete. When they warm up all is well.

[sm70911]

Sounds like uneven tire wear. Check your tires

[McLaren-TAG]

after checking for balancing and wear, the wheel bearings are the most likely candidate and it's easy to check.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by JMAN718

Thanks guys for responses, the vibration, could it be wheel bearings or tie rods?

I think a wheel bearing would have to be excessively worn to cause a bounce at higher speed. You'd most likely hear it grinding or squealing if it was that worn. The other possibility is that you broke a belt in the tire but normally that shows up with visual inspection of the tire. I'd still question the loss of a weight.

Easy way to check wheel bearings is jack the car up, grab the top and bottom of the tire and try to push the top in then pull the bottom out. It should stay firmly in place. I did have a tire wiggle once on my truck that ended up being ball joints. One other possibility could be a worn front shock but even badly worn shocks can be masked by by the front torsion bars on these cars as I understand it.

I'd take the car to a good tire store and have them balance the tire. If they balanced the tire on the inside of the rim rather than the clip on weights on the outside you could have lost a weight and not necessarily all of them but rather just one small weight. I have my wheels balanced with weights on the inside because I don't want my polishing job being scuffed by a weight. I can see how it would be very easy to lose one of the stick on weights.

[clem911]

Your tires are flat spotted from sitting.Your are going to need tire (cradles) because of the low use of your car

[JMAN718]

Thanks guys for the comments, I thought about the flat spots because of not driving as much, But I will run it by Discount Tires to get them balance again. Happy Holidays to u All!

[gshase]

Flat spots or wheel bearings not tight enough. Jack car and check for end play

[Reiver]

If it just started with the new tires (had the same issue) I'd start there. You can get a shop balance and still have a harmonic at certain speeds....I have a slight one at 72 mph (very slight shimmy more felt than seen).
Had the wheels rebalanced but still there. 'I'd have to have them rotate the tire on the wheel, or try swapping/remounting side to side to reduce it and find the proper balance point.
I'm sure you know about the dots on the tires if they have them.
The old tires were perfect from day one...this new set....they don't all get made exactly right.

[Jay Laifman]

Been through this before. Tires tires tires. These cars are very sensitive to this. I had my wheels balanced, and rebalanced. They came out just fine on the machines. Still had the problem. Then I went to a place that spins the wheels on the car to balance them. Had them fine that way too. Still had the problem. Checked all bearings and tie rods, etc. Then finally needed new tires. Immediately went away.

So even if your shop rebalances them and says they are fine. Don't go running around changing suspension parts. You might try rotating tires to see if you get improvement.

[MichaelN]

No one has mentioned it, but if everything else checks out and you don't know the complete history of your car, you might check for a bent rim. I know, I know, Fuchs are tough and they don't bend, but one of mine did (apparently long ago when it was owned by another). It was an irritating problem for years and I only discovered it when I had all the wheels refurbished. Shouldn't be hard to find someone experienced in your area.

And while you're at it, get the alignment checked. I had a car with the same problem off and on for years over three sets of tires and multiple balances. It only went away when I had it aligned and they found that the toe was way off. What's the correlation between toe and wheel shake? Can't explain it, but it was gone forever after the alignment.

[Trackrash]

I've come to the conclusion that those spin balancers at the tire shops don't work right with Fuchs. I have had to rebalance my front tires every time I have had them done on those spin balancers. I have an old fashion bubble wheel balancer and when I use it the problem goes away.

That said, I have had tires that would vibrate no matter what I did. Only solution was new tires. Jack up the front end and spin the wheel. Look at the tread, it should spin true.

[GH85Carrera]

My 911 is very sensitive to tire balance. I finally found a place that will "road force" balance them. They spin the wheel with no tire and note the balance. Then they mount the tire and spin it and determine where the tire can rote on the rim to need the least weight. Then they get VERY precise with the amount of weight. Many cars can be off by a 1/4 oz and never notice. On a 911 it needs to be dead on. I get no vibration at any speed.

[Autoban]

I had vibration around 60-80 MPH for a long time. I tried balancing the tires, installed new ball joints, adjusted the wheel bearings, alignment, installed turbo tie rods and checked everything else I could. Every time it got a little better. Then finally one day I had excessive play in the steering mechanism and found this (there are videos in my thread showing the play at the steering wheel as well as the movement of the tie rods after the retaining ring failed):
Play in Steering Mechanism

I still think this is a more isolated case, but it is worth checking if the retainer rings on the steering rack are all the way in or not. If they are on their way out the bushings in the steering rack could start moving a little. It is easy to check the bushings and the retaining rings by moving the rubber boot cover out of the way where the tie rods connect to the steering rack (see pictures in my thread). Since I fixed this issue my steering is rock solid.

Juergen