Team-BHP - "My Car / Steering / Brake Vibrates While Driving"

Quote:

Originally Posted by dailydriver (Post 4549495)

Went to the MASS and came back cursing them.
The mechanic agreed that there was indeed steering play. He wanted to open the steering assembly to check for faults and if necessary, replace it. The SA, on the other hand, felt the steering was smooth and there was no need to worry. His contention was that the torn bushes of the lower arm would have accumulated dust and therefore the steering could have tightened earlier. With the new arms, the movement has smoothened. Obviously, I am not convinced at all.

Depending on your car's mileage and the kind of roads the vehicle was driven on the steering rack may have developed play. But the SA saying this was compensated for by dust in the bushes is well, stretching the imagination at bit too far. Get a second opinion.

Car: '04 Hyundai Santro Xing (Manual Steering)
Mileage: ~94100 kms

Issue: A couple of months back, I went over a speed breaker at a little higher speed than usual, and immediately, the car started making squeaking noises. I had to turn into a lane, and hence went over around 4-5 more speed breakers in the next couple of minutes. Due to these successive speed breakers, the squeaking noises increased substantially, so much that my mother insisted I show the car to any nearby mechanic immediately. I pulled over, got down and inspected the car for anything unusual (flat tires, underbody hits etc) and all seemed to be fine. The squeaking noises continued (at a very high level, I must add) until we turned onto a big road. Then, they disappeared and didn't crop up again till date.

However, now I sometimes hear a slight squeak when I turn the steering. It's not the same sound that a faulty steering rack makes (kat-kat noises at full lock), it's just some minor squeaks occasionally when I operate the steering (for minor lane changes in the city). I'm not too concerned about it since due to the car being 15+ year old, I'm accustomed to listening to the minor squeaks that sometimes come from the right B-pillar, the left C-pillar etc. As of now, I can live with the slightly squeaky steering but if it increases, I'll have to look for a solution.

The suspension was inspected when the car went for it's annual service 2 months ago. The front left wheel bearing was the only faulty part, however I got both the front bearings changed as a preventive measure and since they looked equally worn out. My car is running on Yokohama Earth 1s that are about 5k kms old. Annual running is approximately 3-4k kms.

Apart from this the car is in mint condition. I got the testing for the PUC certificate done yesterday, and the car is so silent at idle that the testing guy wasn't convinced that car was running, even after me insisting that it was (maybe the ambient noises helped mask the idling noise). :D

Any idea what the squeaky steering can be attributed to? Like I said, it's not an urgent issue, however if it's a small/cheap fix I don't mind getting it done right way.

Thanks in advance!

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnInternetUser (Post 4307574)

I have a 2009 Honda City (ANHC) that I bought used recently. It's got 57k kilometers on the clock. I can almost 'feel' the bumps and the steering wheel moves when I go over a bump. The steering itself is not as light as I expected (had a Brio earlier) and feels heavier than even a 2012 Skoda Superb at low speeds. Also, when the car goes over a speed breaker or any bumps at even 10-20km/hr the front suspension makes a pretty loud squeaking noise. I talked to the dealer that I bought it from and he said the bushings need replacement and the tires need to be aligned and balanced.

My question - will replacing bushings and getting alignment & balancing done solve the issue or could something else be wrong with the car?

Thanks in advance :)

PS - I have checked the tires (they still have a couple of years left in them) and got the brake linkages replaced already.

I was going through my posts and found this - felt like I should post an update since it might be helpful for those facing similar issues.

The following parts were replaced:

Shock absorber x1 (front right)

Suspension mount x1 (front left)

Bushings

Tyres

Steering rack servicing was done (though I suspect it is not at a 100%)

All these repairs have almost completely solved the issues and it costed me under Rs. 25,000 (excluding tyres but including other repairs and maintenance).

Quote:

Originally Posted by adimicra (Post 4676772)

Already did it as I replaced the tyres 2 weeks back

If the tyres were replaced and balanced properly you need to start looking at the next possible cause, which is the brakes. Does you car have disc brakes all around?

I suggest getting the rotors checked for warping. If you have drum brakes on the rear they need opening up and check for wear and tear as well.

Warped rotors at the front usually show up as vibration on the steering wheel whilst braking. Your vibration appears to show up as vibration through the chassis whilst braking. So checking the brakes , rotor or otherwise seems to be the logical next step. Next would be to check suspension, bearing, tie rod etc.

As you need to take of the wheel of to inspect the brakes, which means jacking up the car, check for any play in the wheel bearing and suspension components as well. With the car on a jack or lift, all these checks can be done in one go.

Good luck
Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 4676813)

Quote:

Originally Posted by vrprabhu (Post 4676867)

Jeroen has all the areas covered.

I would specifically suggest to have a look at the lower arm and the ball joints.

But a simpler question first - is the brake behaviour same as it was earlier, or you feel any change?

Since you mentioned the vibration seems to be from the rear, it is similar to an earlier experience of mine, where the rear brake master cylinder seized and resulted in juddering.

Thanks for the replies. Will get those checked.
This is happening for the last 1-2 months. Earlier, there was vibration whenever I was crossing 80-100 kmph. That is fixed after tyre change. But the vibration under braking is still there. Looks like 2 separate issues. Will keep it posted. Since my car is almost 90K Kms old, it might need some suspension overhaul etc. anyways. I will first get it checked by the Honda A.S.S as they promised free pickup and drop. Let's see what their diagnosis is. Will keep the thread posted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 4679225)

It depends on the thickness of the old rotors and what Honda allows as a minimum.

Not sure what rotors cost in India, but mostly not a hugely expensive part. And your car will be ready to do another 90k, rotorwise that is. So it also comes down on how much longer you are likely to keep it.
Good luck

Jeroen

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply. I plan to keep the car for another 3-4 years as the engine/gearbox feels as good as new and even the interiors are in a great condition as well. It will probably need some suspension work (posted in another thread), but I am expecting no other major work will be required. So, decided to go ahead with the disc rotor replacement, costs 4.5K for the pair.

Hello fellow Bhpians!

I've been encountering a very strange phenomenon on my car for over 6months now and I've tried to troubleshoot it since then but no efforts were fruitful. I would love your inputs on this if you have any.

I bought my bmw 530d m sport in Jan 2019, I love my car and I've been using it extensively for road trips ever since I bought it. Clocked about 15000 kms until now.

Since then, I've had a rim bend once in the first few months when I had gone over a very normal pothole at city speeds. After that my car would wobble a lot while going at speeds over 60 and more so when I applied the brakes. So I quickly went to the tyre shop and got the bends removed. All good again.

A couple of months later, I was stupid enough to think that I could drive her with DSC completely off. I slipped on a straight cement road while making an overtake because there was a lot of construction dust on the road and the car spun, went over a 4-6inch divider and the plants scraped the underbody and the rims were bent as well. Right then I knew I messed up because the car would wobble quiet a bit.
Claimed insurance on it and got my 4 rims replaced and a small dent on the front bumper was fixed as well.
Thought that was it but that was only the start of many more troubles to come.
Since then I'd notice a mild vibration when I applied the brake. So I took it to the workshop a couple of times to get it fixed.
Once they had replaced a bent tie rod.

Another time they noticed a run off in the front brake discs, so they had replaced them.

Another time they replaced the link rod

and the last time I went, they removed the brakes, cleaned and lubricated them, checked to make sure all the suspension components were tightly fixed.

Result: there is still a mild vibration seeping through when I apply the brakes. THE MOST STRANGE PART ABOUT THIS VIBRATION IS THAT IT DOESNT ALWAYS HAPPEN, IT HAPPENS VERY RANDOMLY. that's making it even harder for the technicians to troubleshoot it I guess.

In between my 3rd and 4th visit, I had made a road trip to Pune and Vizag and I believe I picked up a couple of small bends in the wheels. Again I had got these bends removed from a man who did a great job on the wheel, no sign of repair as well, worked very professionally and gently on them and they faired fine even when I had got the balancing done.

After all this, one of the BHPians(d3mon I guess, thanks :)) suggested that I get roadforce balancing done on my car and that should fix things and I decided to give that a shot as well. Got it done and one of the wheels was off, and after they fixed it with road force balancing, THE PROBLEM STILL PERSISTS.
I even got the test vehicle from the showroom to make sure that I was wasn't hallucinating :P the service people really tried hard to tell me it was normal but it wasn't.
Another important observation is that it is more pronounced the longer I drive. I really don't understand what this is. I read multiple forums online as well, and I've tried all their suggested troubleshooting but sadly none helped so far.

It's honestly not too bad but it's there. There is a vibration of some sort occasionally and I want to find out why. I know that I'm going to replace my tires once they wear out to regular tubeless because I'm tired of paying for removing rim bends and moreover I already had a RFT tire burst. So I'm really not fond of them to be honest.

This has been my problem so far, I'd be grateful if you guys can share your opinions on this.

Also, hope you all stay safe and stay indoors, cheers :thumbs up

Hello KingCheeese,

If everything in the suspensions & steering components is right then i believe, you are facing this problem due to hotspots being formed on the discs of brake.

As you know, brakes work on the principle of converting the mechanical energy into thermal energy. If disc is not even or brake pads are worn out asymmetrically then hotspots are created while braking.

When these hotspots are created, brake pads & discs get considerably hotter and conversion of mechanical energy into thermal energy becomes erratic. thus sometime brake pads lose grip on the brake discs & again get the grip, causing the vibrations during braking.

As i have read at many places, brake pad's life in the automatic vehicles is less as compared to the vehicles having manual transmissions.

So you need to get the discs & brake pads checked thoroughly.

Note: As you stated, problem occurring frequently after prolonged driving may also be indicating to the above problem.

Thanks!