New Tyres, Now Steering Wheel Judder At 60mph +

[Rav4 rocks]

Hello,

I have recently replaced the tyres on my 2004 5 door d4d with 33k on the clock. The tyres I have had fitted are Conti Crosscontact UHP from Etyres.

At speed (60+ but more noticable around 80) I am now often getting judder in the steering wheel, however it is not consistent and sometimes is slight and other times more obvious.

I have had the front tyres rebalanced an additional 2 times with little improvement.

What should I do next? Is it something to do with the tyres/wheels or could it be something else failing like suspension?

I have spoken to the Toyota dealer who have suggested a wheel alignment and tyre rebalance at £120 plus vat.

Incidently the car was serviced and MOT'd by the main dealer after the tyres were fitted.

[Mereside]

Hi and welcome to the club,

Technical people will be along shortley but if this helps here goes.

Is the fault sided ie does it do it more on left or right hand bends.

Are the wheels as before and on the same hub or did they get swapped around ie front to back.

My advice would be to try to isolate the problem by swapping the wheels front to rear and see if the wobble is the same.

If you have a spare wheel try that on the front corners one at a time to see if that makes any difference.

If nothing changes then its not your wheels so may be hubs or even a spring/shock that has been disturbed in which case I will bow out and leave this to the clever chaps.

Regards and good luck

[anchorman]

All good stuff from Mereside and you should consider those things first.

If you've already had the wheels balanced twice then I doubt there is anything to be gained by doing it again and a good local tyre stockist (probably the one that supplied your tyres) will check the tracking for much less than £120 (I think mine does it for around £25ish but some you can haggle with).

If all that fails go to a good local garage and let them look at the drive shafts while it is suspended. You can still have an imbalance at the wheels (installed imbalance) due to for example a build up of rust on the discs or even brake disc run out. The garage will check all that for you. Kingo will kill me for saying so but dealer rates for this kind of exploritary work is expensive so just phone a few of those indy's or take a recommendation from a friend.

[Rav4 rocks]

All good stuff from Mereside and you should consider those things first.

If you've already had the wheels balanced twice then I doubt there is anything to be gained by doing it again and a good local tyre stockist (probably the one that supplied your tyres) will check the tracking for much less than £120 (I think mine does it for around £25ish but some you can haggle with).

If all that fails go to a good local garage and let them look at the drive shafts while it is suspended. You can still have an imbalance at the wheels (installed imbalance) due to for example a build up of rust on the discs or even brake disc run out. The garage will check all that for you. Kingo will kill me for saying so but dealer rates for this kind of exploritary work is expensive so just phone a few of those indy's or take a recommendation from a friend.

There is certainly rust on the disks as still have the originals and will get the wheel alignment checked as it is pulling to the left ever so slightly.

How do you check if there is an issue with the drive shafts or suspension?

Thanks for all your help guys!

[anchorman]

All good stuff from Mereside and you should consider those things first.

If you've already had the wheels balanced twice then I doubt there is anything to be gained by doing it again and a good local tyre stockist (probably the one that supplied your tyres) will check the tracking for much less than £120 (I think mine does it for around £25ish but some you can haggle with).

If all that fails go to a good local garage and let them look at the drive shafts while it is suspended. You can still have an imbalance at the wheels (installed imbalance) due to for example a build up of rust on the discs or even brake disc run out. The garage will check all that for you. Kingo will kill me for saying so but dealer rates for this kind of exploritary work is expensive so just phone a few of those indy's or take a recommendation from a friend.

There is certainly rust on the disks as still have the originals and will get the wheel alignment checked as it is pulling to the left ever so slightly.

How do you check if there is an issue with the drive shafts or suspension?

Thanks for all your help guys!

On a wheel free lift they can start it up in gear and watch all the shafts turning to see if one is out of true. While it is hanging free it might also show the offending wheel oscillating. Checking the suspension is partly visual and partly a matter of using various levers to check for play. You can do these things on a conventional front wheel drive with a good trolley jack and axle stands but it could prove dangerous with a rav as it will try to climb off any supports if a wheel is still on the ground. Don't take any chances

[mike xt-r]

Hi, I would be looking towards a faulty tyre/tyres if this only started after you had new tyres fitted. The tyre WILL balance perfectly and can look fine, but it will not be the first time I've heard of this and it is not only the lesser make of tyres that can suffer from this, the only way to rule this out is to borrow as many spares as you need to swap the replaced tyres with and give it a run. hope this helps and let us know, Mike