General A bit of a wobble

[Neddy]

My 03 Fiat Ducato 2.3 JTD gives a bit of a wobble when I get to about 35 to 40 mph, the sort of thing you would expect if the wheels needed balancing.
New tyres have been fitted with valves and balance but to no avail. The steering has been checked and new parts fitted. but still we have the wobble, it is at it's worst on a long slow climb or under load.
Any advice would be welcome.

 

[Mirage]

My 03 Fiat Ducato 2.3 JTD gives a bit of a wobble when I get to about 35 to 40 mph, the sort of thing you would expect if the wheels needed balancing.
New tyres have been fitted with valves and balance but to no avail. The steering has been checked and new parts fitted. but still we have the wobble, it is at it's worst on a long slow climb or under load.
Any advice would be welcome.

When you say wobble is it the front wheels or the steering wheel that is wobbling???

 

[sludgeguts]

Were the wheels balanced on or off the vehicle?
I've only ever seen a wheen balanced on the vehicle once, many years ago.
It cost me no more than a normal balance & the guy told me it was more reliable. It certainly helped me & I had a similar problem where the wobble couldn't be traced.

 

[Neddy]

It is difficult to tell exactly where the wobble comes from but not the steering wheel. It feels like the front wheels.

 

[Neddy]

The wheels were balanced off the van at the tyre fitting. I did not know that it could be done on the vehicle.Thanks for that.

 

[sludgeguts]

TBH, I've never seen it done before or after.
For anyone interested, the machine looked like a scooter seat on castors with a pneumatic tyre coming out horizontally. The car was jacked up & the tyre of the device placed against the car tyre. The device then spun the wheels.
It really made complete sense to me as well. Any wobble on the driveshaft or couplings would be detected & hopefully cured.

Other thing I have noticed, some garages can balance a wheel in seconds, other take a long, long time.
I wonder if the quick ones simply chuck weights at the wheel as near as dammit & figure that'll do? whereas the machine is able to pinpoint the precise spot of the wobble & determine the exact weight to be applied to one side, the other or both - but this requires the operator to stop the wheel spinning & rotate slowly to find said precise spot.

 

[cris1117]

Hi Neddy
Couple of thoughts what sort of mileage has the van got?
I once had a similar thing on I think it was a Renault van turned out to be the inner drive shaft joint most noticeable on a full lock going very slowly or uphill, if you can find a bit of space it might be worth a try, first one lock then the other.
Did the wobble come with the van or after you got it?
Have you hit a kerb hard and bent the rim?
Did you change all the tyres or just the fronts?
If you only changed the fronts might be worth having the backs checked, this sort of thing can be deceptive.
My money’s on the drive shaft.
Good luck

 

[Neddy]

A bit of a wobble
Hi Chris,
She has 86 K on the clock and came with the wobble. I’ve had her into a local garage where 4 new tyres were fitted and balanced, the steering was checked and new parts fitted, but still a wobble. I asked about the drive shafts and was told a new one had been fitted to the off side and this one had an ABS ring while the original on the near side didn’t. But they looked alright. I took the van to the MOT station where I was told there was nothing wrong with the steering and to have the wheels re-balanced this I have done, and still a wobble.

I am wondering if there is a fault in the electronics, is the engine hunting i.e. the wrong amount of fuel being delivered for the load, but there is no warning lights showing on the dashboard. This is just a gut feeling but there is a fault.
I shall start again with the drive shafts under load and on opposite locks and am hoping to get help from a friend with a digital camera and a laptop. If we sling the camera carefully we may be able to see what is going on.
Thanks for your thoughts. Neddy

 

[cris1117]

Hi Neddy
Have you tried knocking out of gear when it’s wobbling this might narrow it down a bit.
You can get this sort of thing when the final drive bearing is on the way but usually starts to whine and you normally get a scraping noise when you accelerate out of corners.
Did the garage specifically check the inner joint some will just check the outer joint, from your description sounds very much like the inner joint?
From what I can remember it felt like the front of the van was going up and down very slightly.
The other thought is one of the front wheels buckled, it would need quite a hard knock to do this but you don’t know the vans history, might be worth swapping the back and front the wheels.
Let us know what happens.
Good luck.

 

[Davren]

Were the wheels balanced on or off the vehicle?
I've only ever seen a wheen balanced on the vehicle once, many years ago.
It cost me no more than a normal balance & the guy told me it was more reliable. It certainly helped me & I had a similar problem where the wobble couldn't be traced.

That must have been a long time ago, I've not seen one of those for about 30 years.

They were better in that they balanced the wheel, brake disc and hub together but you had to ensure that whenever you took a wheel off, it went back on the same hub and in exactly the same position on the hub as it came off. If you didn't mark a stud/bolt hole on the wheel and it's corresponding stud/hole on the hub, you only had a 1 in 4/5 chance of getting it back on correctly. Possibly why you don't see them any more.

Dave.

 

[sludgeguts]

That must have been a long time ago, I've not seen one of those for about 30 years.

They were better in that they balanced the wheel, brake disc and hub together but you had to ensure that whenever you took a wheel off, it went back on the same hub and in exactly the same position on the hub as it came off. If you didn't mark a stud/bolt hole on the wheel and it's corresponding stud/hole on the hub, you only had a 1 in 4/5 chance of getting it back on correctly. Possibly why you don't see them any more.

Dave.

That would have been about 30 years ago - certainly more than 27 years.
I never really thought about the problems returning if the wheel was removed/replaced & it was never mentioned. Good point. - And you are right, probably why this device didn't catch on.

Back to the OP.
Just a thought. Has the driveshaft had new CV boots?
Some come with plastic cable ties, some with metal bands that are a bit of a pain to apply & some even come with huge jubilee type clips. The jubilee type clips could upset the balance of the driveshaft where the worm drive screw is, if these are used, might be worth replacing with strong cable ties? (cheap ones use plastic ratchets, good ones use metal inserts)