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Steering wheel vibration: symptoms

Serhii Maslov Section: Steering wheel vibration Updated: First published:

What can the specific symptoms tell you?

Car forums are full of motorists picking over the specific symptoms, trying to work something out from whether the steering wheel vibration only appears at one particular speed or turns up unpredictably. In fact, any steering wheel vibration tells you only one thing: the wheels or the car’s front suspension urgently need treatment! Driving with these symptoms is extremely dangerous, especially at high speed (speeds above 60 km/h, by the way, and the higher the speed, the more dangerous the consequences).

If one side is “sick” in one particular spot, the vibration will always appear at the same speed: the one that resonates with that unbalanced mass (provided no dirt, which instantly becomes an unbalanced mass of its own, builds up on the wheel while driving).

But if imbalance is present on both sides, every turn of the steering wheel (even a very slight one) will make the front wheels travel different distances; as a result, the unbalanced masses will shift relative to each other, so the resonant frequencies will change dynamically, and accordingly the speed at which the steering wheel vibration starts and stops will be a variable quantity.

More on this topic:

More on this topic

What affects the quality of wheel balancingWhat has more effect on the outcome of wheel balancing, the balancing machine or the fitter’s skill? On the whole, both matter in roughly equal measure. What kinds of wheel imbalance are there?Imbalance can be static or dynamic. In both cases the issue is a mismatch between the axis of rotation and the axis of inertia (the latter running through the wheel’s centre of gravity). What level of imbalance is considered normal?What is the maximum permitted mass of balance weights, and what criteria tell good wheels or tyres apart from bad ones? How accurate does wheel balancing need to be?Every unbalanced mass on a wheel creates its own centrifugal force as the wheel turns, with its own point of application. Let’s recall school physics: the formula for centrifugal force. Why are wheels balanced?If a wheel is not balanced across all its axes of symmetry, unbalanced centrifugal forces arise with different directions of action, which creates vibration in the wheel and loads on the hub pulling… A cut in the sidewall: repair or scrap?Sadly, any damage to the sidewall of a radial tyre is, in all likelihood, already the end of its service life. Even so, many tyre fitters take on the repair of sidewall cuts in car tyres.

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How to choose a tyre fitter?Oh, there’s a shed 300 metres away, what’s there to choose, plenty of motorists will say. And they’ll be wrong: a tyre fitter, and for that matter the fitter you trust with your wheels, needs to be… Beware the impact wrench!It seems such a routine procedure: doing up bolts with an air gun. Most motorists are used to this step and pay it no attention at all. Alloy wheel repairAt first glance the question is simple, since the answer to it is right there on the signs outside most tyre-fitting workshops. If alloy wheels are repaired, that must mean it’s allowed? How often should you balance your wheels?Wheel balancing also checks the geometry of the wheels, so this procedure always has a positive effect on road safety.