Steering wobble

[Batesy8]

Put my alpina reps on, however the steering now wobbles after about 40mph. It didn't with the stock wheels. Any ideas? Balanced the wheels too

[don-king]

does the steering go to the side? could be the tracking, wishbone bent.......

[gcs325i]

Do rep's need spigot rings to center them properly to the hub? Could be the problem there, also replica rims are notoriously soft and may have flat spots causing a vibration, hopefully something simple tho. You have double checked your wheel bolts for tightness again since driving it?

does the steering go to the side? could be the tracking, wishbone bent.......

Doubtful if it was fine before with the standard rims

[don-king]

Do rep's need spigot rings to center them properly to the hub? Could be the problem there, also replica rims are notoriously soft and may have flat spots causing a vibration, hopefully something simple tho. You have double checked your wheel bolts for tightness again since driving it?

does the steering go to the side? could be the tracking, wishbone bent.......

Doubtful if it was fine before with the standard rims

Yeah, you got a point......... could be something to do with the wheels he has put on?

[EThreezero]

Are the wheels new or were they someone elses old problem? Was it the tea boy who stuck the shitty sticky weights to your wheels during his halfassed attempt at wheel balancing?? Did one of the aforementioned sticky weights bail as soon as you left the garage???

[Batesy8]

I have Spigots on, and balanced them myself. I think the passenger front wishbone is bent but it didn't cause the sHaking on other rims

[Batesy8]

Also, the steering wheel used to sit pretty straight when driving straight, now it's rotated about 30-40 degrees clockwise

[Batesy8]

Bump...

[gcs325i]

Also, the steering wheel used to sit pretty straight when driving straight, now it's rotated about 30-40 degrees clockwise

You have done nothing else other than change the wheels?

[mattandjazze30]

a trailing arm bush could couse the steering wheel to do that any knocking from the rear?

[Batesy8]

Not that I can heAr. Steering feels lighter too...

[mattandjazze30]

does it go very light at speed?

[Batesy8]

Feels like it does. I have not been above 40 or 50 as it shakes and puts me off!

[fuzzy]

get them rebalanced for a second opinion,it wouldnt be the first time mine have been wrong but if you done them yourself im sure you did it right. failing that a flat spot on the tyres or a buckled wheel but that would have become obvious when you balanced them. i light impact with a pothole or kerb can also buckle the track rod and it wont be instantly noticeable due to the curved shape of them until you put 2 side by side to compare.a slightly bent rod end might cause it to vibrate more with the bigger lower profile tyres. check all balljoints.
i fitted mine to my van the other week after having them sitting for 18 months unused. a horrendous wobble turned out to be a flat spot created by the weight on the tyre not being rotated for so long which has slowly lessened and went away with use.

[Batesy8]

It's a lot to think about! I may try swapping fronts to rear as one front one needed nearly 80g to balance it and didn't give me the best cofidence. I should get a new wishbone too, changing them is a bastard tho right?

[oakey]

If your previous wheels were 15" the vibrations would have been dulled down considerably by the extra tyre.

[Batesy8]

Yea I suppose, but I ran 16s with 205 45,s on and it wasn't this bad...

[k13]

this is very helpfull.



ive got some crap plastic hubcentric rings and im having problems going at 40-50mph but after that the steering is ok and im guessing its the hubcentric rings. but will check my local wheel centre for a full check up on the 17" wheels.

[Batesy8]

The rings I have are plastic from spigotrings uk or something. They don't clip or push in as they seem the tiniest bit too small and I mean the tiniest.

[fuzzy]

my spigot rings are also plastic and were a really tight fit requiring light tapping on with a hammer to get them on. 80grams of balancing weights sounds very excessive. are you sure theyre not buckled or a flat spot on the tyres from heavy skid wear?
the front wishbones are an easy thing to change and are only about £40 from ECP. is it possible to borrow another set of 17's from someone to try to pinpoint if it is the wheels?

[Batesy8]

No I'm not sure At all, they may be?

[Batesy8]

Today I put the two with brand new toyos fitted by myself on the front and the older tyres on the rear, this firmed up the steering, and moved the wobble from 40-50 to 60-70mph. Feels better but there is still a slight wobble. I'm going to change the lower arm asap (anyone got one with bushes?) and see what happens. Any long journeys and ill have to put the bbs on. I'm hoping it may be a flat spot that dissappears with use as fuzzy said. If anyone has any comments or opinions then dont hesitate to reply, please!

[don2009]

The wobbling might be due the actual alloy it could be faulty, like you said you werent having this problem before with your original alloys. The alloy might be wobbled (if thats the correct term) basically it doesnt run in a straight line. Get the alloy checked out before you start spending money getting any parts changed on it. Hope that helps, good luck with it!

[Batesy8]

What places offer a check on wheels?

[jacko]

I had the same trouble a couple of years ago. New alpina reps fitted. Drove away from the garage and as soon as i got onto the main road i just knew I had to turn around and go back again because the car was undrivable due to wobbling at all speeds. After some serious debating the garage changed all four tyres. The problem was no better but i put up with it for a few weeks. Eventually I found all four tyres going randomly flat due to the amount of vibration breaking the seal between the tyre and the rim. I had the wheels indipendantly tested and they were all warped, and the garage where I bought them unfortunately burned down before I could take it further.
Moral of the story, steer clear of Alpina Reps, they just don't work!!!!

[Morat]

The quickest checl is to stick some standard fitment wheels on for a couple of miles.....if you have some