General Forum - Can anyone advise on a car problem - Page 1

I'd make sure you have all the wheel nuts on first, if you have alloy wheels and someone has tried to steal them they may have taken off some of the nuts. 

You may also have a bulge in a tyre, it's surprising how much a small bulge can make the wheel shake. Likely to be the front as you can feel it through the steering.

There are other possibilities though, driveshaft failure, CV joint failure...etc  - needs a mechanic to look at it really.


RIP Julie & Maisie

This item was edited on Friday, 23rd December 2011, 21:47

Bum...its allowed to be tyres or balancing, coz thats cheap, so will try that first

Thanks retrogeezer...I'll get the mechanic man to take a peep...just hope he's not hiding between xmas and new year

Cars know when it's Christmas, they just don't want to be left parked up and alone, it's attention seeking.

The 'all of a sudden' bit makes it seem unlikely to be balance or alignment unless you've kerbed it recently.
Could be a number of things. Get it checked ASAP but if it was me I'd drive it just for essential journeys and stay on the slower roads.



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I used to be with it, but then they changed what 'it' was.
Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's 'it' seems weird and scary

To be honest, I got basically ran off the road not so long ago, and hit the kerb rather hard (still don't know how I didn't kill myself lol) so hopefully its just that.
Quote:

they just don't want to be left parked up and alone, it's attention seeking.
It wasn't going to be left alone, was going to take it to church and shopping and to see friends boxing day...however, behaving like that will actually just mean its going to stay where it is coz apparently my mechanic has gone away for Christmas and isn't back til the 2nd...don't wanna send it to someone else coz he's a nice man and he looks after me lol

It's not worth risking your life for so best leave it until it can be checked. Do have a look at the wheel that hit the kerb though as it sounds likely you have damaged that tyre or the wheel itself.  If it is obviously damaged, get the spare put on that side and then take it for a drive to see if it has cured the problem.



RIP Julie & Maisie

Hopefully as others say it's just a wheel you've either knocked out of "true" (meaning it's not running perfect circle) or a weight off causing the balance issue or possibly a damaged tyre at worst case.
The fact it doesn't happen til it hits 50+ suggests balancing but dependant on how hard you hit that kerb it could be worse.

A friend's Son hit a kerb in his Corsa recently during the bad weather here and it damaged his balljoint and snapped a wishbone, was a sore repair but thankfully much less than it could be.

Fingers crossed yours is minor, isn't there a kwik-fit etc local you coould go to to ask for a balance check and then if it's worse the guy will say "Oh, you have (x) wrong" and you can say "OMG.. I'll have to take it to my mechanic then" and go park it up again?

Jimbo : oÞ

"There's that word again... is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in the future?"

Nearest garage of any sort is just over 9 miles away, and I know he's a scumbag  

It'll just have to sit there for a couple of days and that will teach it for misbehaving

My money is on your tyres needing rebalancing. Perhaps being ridden into a heavy whack on the curb has jolted a weight loose or something. Shrug.

Usually if it is just the wheel balance then there will be a range of speeds above (in addition to below) which the problem will go away. So if yours is doing it at 50mph it might go away by the time you reach 60mph.

I suspect you are completely safe (and it's just annoying and makes things uncomfortable) as you haven't mentioned any other effects like the car pulling to one side, etc.

There are usually places that specialise in just tyres rather than a general garage which would be better to visit. I could recommend a great place if you were near me but I'm pretty sure you aren't even close to NE London.


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Just had a thought, do you have a normal, full size spare or one of those space saver things?
If it's a normal spare wheel, and it's got a decent tyre that's balanced then you could remove the wheel you hit the kerb with and replace with the spare, that way you have now eliminated the wheel nut issue and checked it's secure.
(also check the other side too btw).

Now if the shuddering is much less or disappears totally iin the same speed range it's a 90% chance it's just balancing or a damaged tyre (in which case you could just keep using it as a n emergency spare )

If the shuddering persists and is just the same then it's time to get it checked right (by the way, do you have AA or RAC? Another method would be drive a mile or so from home then ring them to get a patrol to check it, they will be able to spot any serious issue and advise too)

Jimbo : oÞ

"There's that word again... is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in the future?"