Wheel Balance Issue?

[plasmid2]

G'day to all,

I have read many topics in regards to the problem I am experiencing and I would hate to bring it up, however, I find my self falling somewhere in the middle.

I have been experiencing an intermittent vibration through the steering wheel of my 03 XR6T. I put it down to the fact that I had very old tyres and needed a balance, alignment etc.... About six months ago after I got the money together I got a set of new tyres, lowered on king springs, wheel alignment and balance. The problem disappeared and car drove beautifully. The car still drives very well, however on the highway at 100kph I get an intermittent vibration through the steering wheel. Anything below this speed there is no vibration and nothing above 100kph!!! If I never drove on a highway I wouldn't even know the problem existed!! I had it re-balanced about two weeks ago. It seems to be better but still there and very intermittent!! Apart from this the car is awesome!!

After I had it balanced I noticed that the weights they put on were at a different spot than previously!! How can this be? Surely once a tyre is balanced it's balanced?!

Could it be a tyre pressure issue? Not that I have ever experienced this before.

I want to sort it out. My wife thinks it's happening because it's a Ford!!

Thanks for your thoughts.

[plasmid2]

Ok. After spending the afternoon reading past topics on here, I thought I might try some of the simple things that could be causing it.

First thing I tried was to tighten the nuts on the wheels. How tight are the nuts meant to be? Because, I was able to tighten the nuts with only a little effort. Infact I was able to tighten the nuts another couple of revolutions each! So how tight are they meant to be?

Anyway took it for a drive. There did not seem to be any vibrations!! However, it was a quick drive as we don't have any 100kph zones around. Will try again tomorrow. Surely my problem was not loose wheel nuts!! How can two different wheel shops not have them tight enough after a balance?

I have also noticed that, the front and rear left brake calipers have a tiny bit of movement in them. Maybe, 1mm left to right. Nothing to make me think oh s**t!! Is this normal? I checked our other car (vx commodore) I noticed it has a tiny movement in its' brake calipers as well.

Once again thanks for your thoughts.

Cheers.

[Superoo]

If it's still there after tightening the wheel nuts, take it back to a tyre and wheel specialist and ask them to check for a slight kink or buckle in one of the rims. Had a couple of places miss this on one of my rims during a balance.

[JVK]

The slight bit of caliper movement is normal ,The wheel tension is usually around 70 foot pounds of torqe measured with a tension wrench not an air gun or some big gorilla hanging off a big bar and socket. The concern about your post is either your wheels were slightley undertorqed or loose or possibly overtight now. Either way being able to tighten them up a couple of turns after just having them balanced isnt a good thing IMO.

[Lumpy2]

Hi, plasmid2

A lot to say about three years of mechanical work to resolve a front end steering vibration in my 1997 Ford Fairlane. If you look at my posts and history at Ford Australia Forums, you will see my discussion regarding our 1997 Ford Fairlane. In short, my last comment copied here is worth reading.

Ford Australia Forums

Hi All,

Read this and weep.

Did a Google search for "wheel nut tension", Australian only, and came up with this.

http://www.minerals.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/21694/safetyalert18.pdf

Although not my vehicle please have a read and a look at points, 4 and 5 on page 3, quoted here.

4. Do always use a torque wrench to set the final torque.

5. Do not use air tools to reliably torque wheel nuts to the specified tension.

I will send a copy of this to each garage that has worked on the vehicle since Biloela in 2007. They ALL used air guns to secure the wheel nuts and NO ONE and I mean NO ONE EVER used a torque wrench on the wheel nuts on our 1997 Ford Fairlane except to dopes who did so one afternoon in Darra.

Following our work on the vehicle the front-end vibrations have gone. There is still an issue with he steering rack but that will be replaced [third time] under warranty.

Brief history:

a. 2007 Vehicle accident in Biloela - vibration in steering wheel

b. Local garage uses air gun to replace tyres after balancing - vibrations in steering wheel at 60-80-100km/hr

c. 2008 Front and rear suspension replaced - vibrations still there

d. Steering rack and pump replaced - vibrations still there

e. Various wheel alignments, balancing, and rotations - vibrations still there but vary in intensity

f. New tyres all round, front hubs, bearings replaced - vibrations still there

g. 2009 Front upper lower ball joints, tie rod ends, link rubbers, watts link replaced - vibrations still there but vary with wheel rotation

h. New tyres fitted, various balancing, rotation and alignment - vibrations still there but vary in intensity and speed

I. Steering rack replaced, new hubs, bearings - vibrations still there

j. Front brakes replaced, new hubs and bearings, rotation and balance and alignment - vibrations still there but different

k. Drive to Gatton to try out second hand set of mag wheels. Wheels do not fit so front driver’s side-wheel replace using Ford supplied wheel brace [important] - vibrations [visually] evident on drive to Gatton

l. Return drive vibration greatly reduced.

m. Arrive back in Ipswich check wheel nut tension on replace wheel. [Remembered reading in Ford Manual that tension should be 60f/lb for my model]

n. Discovered that replaced wheel somewhere between 55 - 65f/lb tension.

o. Check other three wheels discover varying tension of 55 - 125f/bl with different tensions on adjacent wheel nuts.

p. Set all wheel nuts to 60f/lb with wheels remaining where they are on the vehicle.

q. Vibrations at 60 - 80 - 100kh/hr almost non-existent.

r. Drive to DePulu Wheel Restorers [Gold Coast] to have rims checked - vibrations just noticeable at 110km/hr but otherwise non-existent. DePulu state that rims are OK. Return to Riverview - vibrations non-existent

s. Search Google for 'wheel nut tension' [Australian search] and find Safety bulletin issue for Qld Give listed above.

So, what have I learnt?

1. Costs to date, 2007 - 2009, approx $8,000 on vibration issue

2. I will go the Auto shop and buy a tension wrench and wheel nut socket for my vehicle.

2. I will always check wheel nut tension, 60f/lb, after work has been done on the vehicle at Tyre service place or garage.

Hope this helps you.

PS: I think that this issue should be listed at this site as a general info topic.

Thanks again for the opportunity to post this experience and I hope that it helps others not spend al that we have on an issue that was so simple to resolve.

Regards, Keith.

[Lumpy2]

Hi All,

One small additional note to the above post:

It seems absurd that a problem like this could come down to factory spec wheel nut tension and garrages using crude air guns to tighten wheel retaining nuts. When I was talking to DePulu they said that it is not the wheel nuts that locate a rim on a hub but the taper or centre of the hub mating with the taper or centre of the rim. With different wheel nut tension across the face of each wheel on the Fairlane, as measured upon our return to Ipswich from the trip to Gatton, it is possible to pull one side of the rim on the taper/cone/centre mating surfaces and distort the allignment of the wheel rim on the hub. This can result in vibrations in the front, and also to some extend rear, suspension of the vehicle as we have experianced in the Fairlane over the past three years.

Regards,

KH

[tab]

Yeah it does sound absurd, but makes perfect sense when you think about it.

[Lumpy2]

Dear Moderator,

Thanks for your comment. Over the past three years I though that I was going mad. Sometimes the car would vibrate and at other times not. Since my last post we have marked one wheel nut recess on each rim position as A-B-C-D, clockwise from drivers side front RH wheel, and placed a mark on each wheel stud next to that. Then we moved the wheels at random either clockwise or anticlockwise one or two locating studs leaving the wheel on the same hub. The wheels were then re-tensioned to 60ft/lb and the car taken for a run. The result was astounding. No front steering vibration was felt as previously experienced following the many wheel rotations, balances and alignments on the car as reported above.

I do not know how to get this message out as there might be many other drivers on our roads experiencing the same frustrating issue. If you could find away of making a general comment on this issue on your web site, like 10 top tips etc, I think that many would benefit.

Regards,

Keith

[XRPete]

I got the same issue. Will be checking my wheel not tensions over the weekend. Thanks

[Lumpy2]

Hi, XR6Pete.

Hope the that info helps.

I have established a site that might be helpful to other.

An Alien Encounter (Wobbly Wheels)

Regards, KH