Wheel wobble under braking!?

[Paul]

As above really Im just wanting to know any possible problems, I should make the point that it is only under medium-heavy braking (playing with an ST at the time!). I have had new fronts fitted and balanced last month also had the tracking checked at the same time and all was OK. Its never been curbed and im not a chav so there are no flatspots from handbrake lol! :-p

Iv not checked the tyre pressures since they were done which I will be doing when I finish work. Its quite ironic that this first happened when I was driving past the dealer

Can anyone think of any possible causes or is it going to be added to the list for the dealer to sort out!?

 

[harleybarley]

could it be to do with warped disks?

 

[slime]

....check that your wheels are on tight!! Warped disks are unlikely unless you've been cooking the breaks??

 

[Foxspeed]

wheel wobble only shows itself at certain speeds when the wheels are out of balance at the point and most times it either gets worse as you go faster or you can drive through the wobble and it reduces

what you have described sounds like a slightly warped disc(s) going out of true when worked hard

 

[harleybarley]

not a bad call checking the wheel nuts. the only reason i though of warped disks is that you mentioned heavy braking and playing with an ST.

other than that, the only other thing i can think of would be tyres delaminating, but if theyre new tyres then this shouldnt be happening.

 

[Paul]

Brakes wont have been cooked the most spirited drive ive been on recently was the Swissvax day. Not really enjoyed it much since. The ST was just along a straight dual carriageway and some plonker pulled out in front of us! Really werent working very hard which is why I found it odd! I had warranty work done about 2 months ago and Renault should have check the barkes then which is quite confusing! Should a dealer be able to spot this when doing these normal checks?

 

[Foxspeed]

Brakes wont have been cooked the most spirited drive ive been on recently was the Swissvax day. Not really enjoyed it much since. The ST was just along a straight dual carriageway and some plonker pulled out in front of us! Really werent working very hard which is why I found it odd! I had warranty work done about 2 months ago and Renault should have check the barkes then which is quite confusing! Should a dealer be able to spot this when doing these normal checks?

cannot see "warped" discs normally unless there is a hard spot on the disc surface which usually stands out because it looks blueish in colour

you usually have to use a dti guage on the disc surface to check its "run-out" - you are allowed a small amount - but is only done if requested - or at kwik-fit as its easy for them to condem discs that are slightly out

check wheel nuts
check tyre pressures
check to make sure no balance weights are missing from the wheels

take it for a drive and warm up the brakes - then give them some stick and see if it gets worse the more they are used

 

[197]

Warped disks! had the same, and bad! with my Focus ST170.

 

[ben_r1]

Swap the front and rear wheels over, if you still have the same problem you can rule out and tyre/wheel related problem.

Good reason to torque your wheel nuts up too whilst your there.

 

[Paul]

Cheers for the advice lads! I will get this done tonight and check it out when I have some time tomorrow! Will report back with the results! If the discs are warped then would it not be noticeable whenever I brake? I imagine they are floating pads so it wouldn't be bad but I would have thought I would feel something. Ill do pressures and nuts before swapping them around as our jack is broken...

Funnily enough I have been thinking of getting some new discs so I might be asking Rich to get me some knocked up, if he doesn't mind of course!

 

[Ed...]

does it pull to 1 side and does your pedal kick back at you? if so its warped discs and a trip to somewhere to get ure disks skimmed. I cant see it being loose nuts cus that makes a clunking at low speed. and weights thatl give u a wobbly steering wheel at high speed. Get it checked out alignment etc or another op is they can tell if ure disks are warped on a RR

 

[Paul]

Nope not pulling to 1 side and no vibration or anything through the pedal. Well I will give everthing a go and see what it turns out to be! I honestly cant understand it at all!

 

[Paul]

Right to add further confusion I had a blast on the way home and did some heavy braking on empty street, not a vibration or wobble to be found. Did a few in-gear and a few in neutral so that the brakes had all of the effort and there was absolutely nothing wrong! Is it going to have been the road surface?

PS I cant believe how quickly the 197 can stop!

 

[ben_r1]

Maybe you just had rusty discs or abit of pad deposit cooked on when you experienced wheel wobble?

And now they're swept clean your smooth sailing lol.

 

[Paul]

Yeah quite possibly. I still have some pad marks which I have noticed on the rears but Im guessing that is from the handbrake and shouldn't affect the steering wheel! Ill give it another going over today to see if there is anything else I have missed.

I absolutely hate intermittent problems because they are a nightmare to put right.

Thanks for all your help! :thumbup1:

 

[Liambo-201]

Im having the exact same problem and its causing me not to drive my car with a bit of stick. Kind of scares me tbh.

 

[Foxspeed]

Right to add further confusion I had a blast on the way home and did some heavy braking on empty street, not a vibration or wobble to be found. Did a few in-gear and a few in neutral so that the brakes had all of the effort and there was absolutely nothing wrong! Is it going to have been the road surface?

PS I cant believe how quickly the 197 can stop!

should save some money if its stopped

just see what they are like really hot

 

[Jason]

I was going to mention the road, I've had it before on different surfaces, sometimes its fine, othertimes its not.

If its fine when you tested it i wouldnt worry about it, probably just the messed up roads we have at the mo'

 

[Paul]

should save some money if its stopped

just see what they are like really hot

Lol I got them very hot on the way home - when it was in the garage last night they smelt very very warm! It was good fun and TBH Im quite relieved that there is nothing wrong! I will give it a go on the same stretch of road next time im at the gym just to double check though!

 

[ben_r1]

Get those discs black and burnt, thats when you really know they are hot