When I'm travelling at about 70mph+ my steering wheel wobbles. The steering also feels quite light, and if i move it side to side at lower speeds, it almost feels as if the wheels are staying in the same place, and the body is sort of floating side to side above them (difficult to explain!). It isn't when braking, so i've ruled out warped discs, and i've checked the top mounts/wishbones and suspension is nice and tight, so i have 3 ideas of what could be causing this:

1. Wheels need balancing (although no bulges in tyre or big curb marks etc)

2. Wheel alignment needs adjusting

3. Worn ball joints or tie rods?

Has anyone had a similar problem, or could anyone give me a better idea of what is causing this? Also, how can i check the ball joints and tie rods for wear?

Thanks very much :-)

ball joints and track rod ends you'd feel on bumps/steering,

alignment woul pull.

I'm going with balancing or buckling of the wheels.

Mm yeh but it only does it at high speed? Its not the steering wheel wobble i'm worried about, it's the dodgy steering. Think i will go and get my wheel alignment checked, and have my wheels balanced, cheers

I'd say wheels need balancing, my garage would do the lot for about £20 so won't cost you much. No wheels are perfectly balanced not even brand spanking new ones. Could be that a weight has fallen off, it does happen. Depending on hoe much weight has fallen off you would only really notice at high speeds.

Worth trying this first. Anyway as it's the cheapest thing to sort out. But I would defiantly say this is your problem mate :)

your wheels could be buckled and you wouldnt see a cerb mark. did you look at the inside?

if you jack it up you can check for play in the trackrod ends and inner rack ends. maybe even balljoint if you can get a lever in there. what nick are your tyres in? if you car wables like a bouat after a quick shake of the steering id be thinkin about how good you shocks are.

I have covered this before in recent days, but lets have another go.

The first rule of diagnosing any fault is never to guess, you could waste a lot of time AND money.

With a steering fault, try following this simple diagnostic process:

1) Check that the tyres are at the correct Pressure, adjust if required, ( you'd be surprised how many faults are due to wrong tyre pressure.)

2) Check that the wheel nuts/bolts are tight.

3) Make a visual inspection of ALL steering components, this includes having an assistant 'shake' the steering wheel from side to side (about 45 degrees each side of centre) whilst you look for 'lost motion' on the steering joints (lost motion=one part moving and the other not moving), during this check, also look for lost motion at the coupling between the steering column and the steering unit (rack).Check also that the steering unit itself does not move on its mountings.

4) Jack up the front end and check the wheel bearings, although, due to front wheel drive, the wheel will not spin freely, it should turn smoothly without any 'notchiness'. Grasp the tyre top and bottom and alternately, push and pull with each hand. any appreciable movement here should be investigated, as it could be within the bearing (wheel and hub moves but nothing else) or it could be the top suspension mount (or even the bottom one) in which case the complete strut will move.

Check for uneven tyre wear, run your hand across the tread, if it feels 'smooth' in one direction, but 'rough' in the other (a bit like stroking a dog head to tail then tail to head), then the tracking needs adjusting.

Out of balance wheels will give you a shaky steering at a given speed, the larger the wheel diameter, the lower the speed at which the shake will take place, you can then normally 'drive through' this out of balance phase, but it will then re-appear at twice the original out of balance speed (in your case, you might just have difficulty getting up to 140mph!)

Hope that this lot is of some help

Regards.

Aha, thank you. Car is on coilovers, which are tight at the top and bottom (no play in mounts either). Pumped tyres up the other day to correct pressure. They are new wheels and tyres, now I know you will say its them out of balance, but i'm sure the dodgy steering was happening before the new wheels went on. I would imagine they were balanced when new tyres were put on, but no marks on inside or outside of alloy. It doesn't re-appear at higher speeds (although i have lost confidence in taking it fast, it does it from 70-90ish), it is continious.

One thing that might be worth mentioning is that both wheels on one side were seized on (i.e. when bolts were undone, wheel stayed on and had to be hit off with hammer!), might be coincidence it was one side? Although i'm starting to think one side is higher than the other! Which might cause it to drift and feel funny on long straight roads?

Thanks for advice!

You may well be on to something when you say that you had to knock the wheels off.

I just wonder if the wheels are seating on the hubs, so:

Jack up the front end, use your tool box or similar as a steady, holding a piece of chalk in one hand and resting it on the steady, turn the wheel with the other hand and bring the chalk into contact with the tyre. If you get a more or less complete chalk circle on your tyre, all is well, if not, investigate why.