Help to diagnose handling problem?

[Cunney]

Had a slight bump on my near side wheel few weeks ago and car is now handling strange.

The steering wheel seems to almost jump when I hit a bump in the road as if there is some play some where and at motorway speeds feels unweighted & at around 80mph+ I get vibrations.

The wheels are all balanced, the condition of tyres is fine, the suspension struts themselves are all fine, tracking has just been done, front left camber is at -0.5 at front right is 0 which is due to be sorted but wouldn't expect these sort of issues from that.

Track rod ends at a glance seemed fine.

Any idea's what a likely cause would be? I know these sort of things are like a needle in a haystack!

It feels like it's the bushes but could they go from fine to instantly not after a bump?

 

[welshname]

does it only vibrate when turning ever so slightly to 1 side? mine does this (all be it a 1.2) and i dont have a clue whats wrong. front end feels loose and speed humps feel like the wheels are going to fall off. my mechanic (who is an ex renault tech) has said its safe to drive. gonna get him to have a proper look at it and see what could do with replacing and get him to do it in bits and bobs as i dont have the money at the moment

 

[Cunney]

No I wouldn't say so mate, although some road surfaces seem to amplify it!

This is the problem I've got, I want somebody hawk eyed to look for a problem, not just scan it and say it looks fine as I know full well there is a problem!

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Broken spring !? Something's broken if it's doing what you suggest...

Get it up on some ramps or take it to a decent MOT centre which has a 'shaker plate' which I would hope will show up your issue.

 

[Cunney]

Well it was at NWP on saturday, had wheels off while in was in for a tyre change plus had the tracking done so reckon it would have been noticed, the side that took the knock has had a new coilover assembley fitted just to be safe so it can't be that, well I wouldn't think so anyway

 

[Cunney]

Also.. under braking the steering wheel doesn't feel solid, which leads me to think when something is being weighted it's exposing the problem?

 

[Wobba]

Something is damaged. Wishbone, subframe, track rod/end, strut, wheel.

Does it have a diff? Did the steering wheel go off centre after the knock?

 

[Gt rob]

does it only vibrate when braking? poss warped discs if so. any knocking or pulling at any speeds? poss bottom ball joint. have you wheels been "fine balanced"? where you from?

 

[Cunney]

Something is damaged. Wishbone, subframe, track rod/end, strut, wheel.

Does it have a diff? Did the steering wheel go off centre after the knock?

Yup it seems so, I'm hoping it's one of the cheaper ones, wheel def isn't damaged and wasn't really hard enough to damage the subframe.

No I don't have a dif mate and the steering wheel wasn't perfectly centre to begin with as I had needed tracking doing

does it only vibrate when braking? poss warped discs if so. any knocking or pulling at any speeds? poss bottom ball joint. have you wheels been "fine balanced"? where you from?

No mate, only at motorway speeds, no knocking, no pulling, just feels quite floaty, I only had 2 of the wheels balanced as they were getting tyres, but i've put the wheels that were on the back on the front and these haven't been balanced, so come to think of it... maybe putting an unbalanced wheel from the back to the front has exagerated the problem, which would explain the vibrations... but not the lack of feel through the steering wheel.

I'm from Wigan mate.

 

[Cunney]

I can hear a slight knocking now when going over some bumps, my cars that loud its hard to hear things at times...

So possible knocking, floaty steering at speed and very skitish steering wheel.. That spelling anything out?

 

[BurnyC]

Shock absorber(s)? When one of mine went it didn't feel connected to the ground at all, and that was a rear one! Did you replace the front shocks or for some weird reason only replace one? Also check the rears for signs of leaking. Probably a long shot but made a real difference to my handling and caused all sorts of weird things to happen!

(Sorry if its been mention that you've checked these, skim read!)

EDIT: now realised this was probably a silly thing to suggest after reading the thread!

 

[Cunney]

Nah it's not that sort of feeling mate, I suppose at high speed it's similiar but can tell it's something up front.

I had the other 2 wheels balanced yesterday which needed doing although it seems to have made no difference to the vibrations & handling, I asked the guy to check my lower ball joints (it was only jacked up) and he said they looked like they had no play in them and the track rod ends appear fine.

When I turn to the right even at 20/30mph it does feel weighted and like it should, when I turn left it feels lighter so something must be bent but what does that sound like it could be?