Wheel Wobble!

[masterb]

I have got a bit of a wheel wobble which starts about 65 and gets worse as you accelerate further.

i have just had the front wheels balanced, but its made no difference and they were hardly out.
What do you think is the next likely candidate?

[almcl]

Tyre out of round springs to mind. How old are they and what brand?

[BigCatXJS]

I had a similar problem until I ditched the Pirelli P600's - apart from the two rear ones, they were old, cracked, and deformed. The two decent ones (they were much newer) I salvaged and sold-on. Finding new/decent P600's is very hard these days. From personal experience, I can recommend the Falken ZE912 for XJ-S with 15" alloys. Camskill tyres have a price guarentee on them.

Hope this helps,
Rich.

[masterb]

thanks for the posts guys,
I'm going to have to go and have a look at them, but not today as its pouring down and the old girl is outside for a change.
Think one of them is a pirelli p 6000 not sure about the other might be a cheapy like challenger.

I might change the fronts with the rears, and maybe pop my other set of alloys on.
I was wondering if (might be using wrong term here but hopefully you will know what i mean)
That it might be the wheel hub adjustment? by that i mean the adjustment were you remove a split pin and nip up the wheel hub nut, if there is any play in the wheel.
Or possibly the track rod ends/ ball joints?
will try some other tyres/ alloys.
Thats not good if it is the tyres as they have a good amount of tread on them, and replacing them is an expensive job.
some people in other cars could probably get there engine rebuilt, for the cost of a couple of jag tyres.

[poprivet]

Your idea of changing fronts to rear is a good first elimination although as they balanced ok I would take a close look at the wheel bearings and stub axles. If it is those, sometimes light braking will stop the wobble as the brake pads stabilise movement.

In fact all the suspension and steering joints are suspect unless they have been renewed recently. Its not easy to spot movement without releasing the road spring pressure though.

Are the tyres wearing evenly? excessive wear on the inside is often down to failing lower ball joints rather then tracking being out.

Either way, any wobble is being caused by mechanical movement or out of balance rotating components, a good set-up is unbelievably smooth.

[masterb]

Thanks for the reply Pop,
I was thinking also like you, that if the wheels balanced surely the tyres must be ok? i thought that was the idea of the balancing, to match/balance the tyre to the wheel.
I guess i am going to have to wade through all these things one at a time, i am just trying to decide in what order.
Think i will swap wheels first, then wheel bearings and then?? we will see.

I think the new gas shocks and neo bushes have made it a bit more noticeable than before.
Would be a real shame to have to bin tyres with all that rubber left.
Cheers
PaulB

[BigCatXJS]

IF you need to replace the tyres, the Falken tyre can be had for sensible money. My tyre costs £59.40 currently; http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php? ... s415p12899 and I am extremely pleased with them (I had them all replaced, inc the spare).

Though I'd follow-up on the other suggestions first before parting with your hard-earned!

Rich.

[steveww]

My XJS also has a bit of wheel wobble around 70mph. I have check the balance and all is OK. Looking closer it turns out that the front suspension is worn out and there is a little bit of play in the bushes/joints. This winter I will rebuild it all with new bushes and joints.

[masterb]

By the way just wanted to add that I was not discrediting what Almcl, and Big cat said about tyres.
But It was my understanding or lack of? that if your wheels and tres balanced that was it.
Will find out soon enough.
Lucky i have bought a load of bushes, although when i will get a chance to fit them, with a new baby and a new college course 2 nights a week I dont know!

[BigCatXJS]

mrb39
We don't worry about stuff like that

When I first got my XJ-S, I had a similar experience with wheel wobble at speed. The bushes etc, in my case, were just fine and I had plenty of tread left on all of the Pirelli P600 tyres (apart from the spare). I had a four wheel allignment check (inc tracking) and wheel balancing performed - a little improvement, but still shacky at 70mph+. Closer inspection of the tyres revealed a distortion with the profile on the rear two tyres. These were much older than the front two tyres and it took a trained eye to spot the subtle distortion. A bit of digging around in the car's service history revealed that the two rear tyres were over ten years old! Not a big deal normally (apart from the ageing cracks!), but the vehicle had been laid-up in storage for ten years, so I suspect that this caused the tyre shape to distort! Obviously, the front tyres must have failed an mot, since these had been replaced fairly recently.

The P6000 is arguably a better tyre than the P600 - so my experience might not be relevent here. It's just soemthing to bare in mind if you still have issues post-remediation of the bushes etc.

Good Luck! (esp with studying and a new baby! - my boy is 2.5 years now so things are a little easier!)

Rich.

[BigCatXJS]

Opps - for clarity and to avoid confusion - it was deffo the two rear tyres that were distorted on my XJ-S (rather than the two front tyres, as intimated in my original post). Sorry about that, Rich.

[masterb]

Now thats interesting!
The rear tyres were distorted and caused a wheel wobble?
always thought that it was the front tyres only, that would cause a wheel wobble.
As they are the only two linked to the steering, thats why in the past i have always just swapped fronts with rears.
I had no idea rear tyres could have this effect.

[BigCatXJS]

The vibration transmitted through the body of the car whereas I though it was the front wheel allignment (nieve on my part obviously!).

[steveww]

Generally speaking you should not use tyres older than 3 years. The date of manufacture is stamped on the side wall.

When laying the car up for winter etc it is a god idea to pump the tyres up to their max pressure (also stamped on the side wall) or remote the wheels and stack them on their sides, leaving the car on axle stands of course. These measures should prevent tyre distortion.

[ChrisDixon]

Generally speaking you should not use tyres older than 3 years. The date of manufacture is stamped on the side wall./quote]

... but you have to decode it http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=11

There are lots of old tyres on cars like ours and it is worth checking them very carefully.