Wheel wobble

sseddon

Member
Hi, I bought a 51 plate 1.4 SE last week. All good apart from a serious wheel shudder at 60mph+. The wheels were balanced before I bought it, so I can only assume that i have a buckle.

The wheels are 17 inch 205/40 ZR17 84W on both front and back.

Wheel shudder aside I'm pretty unimpressed with the fuel economy and hard ride. So, I'm thinking It might be a better idea to replace all four with a smaller set.

I live in Kingston (Surrey) and would appreciate any suggestions for an honest garage who can help me out, for a fair price.
 
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I live in Kingston (Surrey) and would appreciate any suggestions for an honest garage who can help me out, for a fair price.

I quite like JP's Garage next to Hampton Court Palace. They specialise in german makes of cars. However I'm not sure how familiar with the A2 specifically they are, which is why I want to take mine up to Manchester instead :).

Regarding the fuel economy, there are a lot of different factors involved...
* Fuel ... was it a TDi or a Petrol vehicle?
* Length of typical journey
* Maximum speed during a typical journey
* External temperature
* Use of heater / CC
* Type of driving (urban, extra-urban)
* Number of times you have to come to a complete halt during your journey
* Driving style
... etc etc ...


for example, if it usually only goes on short journeys (<3m), in the city, with a lot of stopping at traffic lights & heavy traffic, then the MPG will be terrible.
 
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Thanks, I'll call JP's and see what they can do.

I understand what you're saying about mpg (1.4 petrol btw). The fact is I've done that same journey many times (London > Lymington) and only ever trundle along at 70. It's ended up using almost a quarter of a tank more than my 1.3 KA used to. I was expecting it to be at least the same, if not better.

I'm putting it down to huge tyres and the buckled wheel. I stupidly didn't check the tyre pressures, so could even be that.

Either way, I'm not happy with the hard ride, so would be keen to get some smaller wheels with higher profiles.
 
Good luck on solving the wheel wobble problem. It's very likely to be the wheels, although if you are sure they were balanced before you bought it then there shouldn't be any wobble...

The best wheel size for economy and comfort is going to be one using the 15" wheel size - they're quite a lot narrower and taller, so will help ride and rolling resistance. They come up on ebay from time to time, and members on here do sell theirs on occasion.

With fuel economy - just to note also that your 2001 car will have the rather small 34 Litre tank (later models had a larger 42 litre tank) so it may seem like it's going down quite quickly when actually your economy may not be all that bad?
 
If you can tell where the wobble is coming from, front/back/left/right. Then simply swap another wheel which doesn't have the wobble and drive again to see. It wobble is gone or moved to another corner, then it is that wheel!
 
No, I've not checked for a bleb. I'll have a good look when i get home tonight.

As for trying to work out which wheel it is, i really wouldn't know where to start! How do you go about this? Seems like an impossible task to me – the steering wheel wobbles between 60-70mph – there's no way of knowing which wheel(s) is the one causing the problem. A rolling road, perhaps?

I'm really stuck with this now. I've read that even if the buckle is fixed it may only be a temporary solution. I'm seriously tempted to get a set of new 15" wheels and tyres and be done with it.
 
and even that might not cure it.

If it's over 50mph, it's the rear wheels. You could also have a dogbone issue.... there's an extensive thread on that here already.

Bret
 
From personal experience,

check all the bolts are on tight. If the steering wheel shakes, then its the front wheels, if the whole car shakes, then its the back wheels.

chances are that its one or both of the back wheels as many tyre fitters still believe that the rear wheels dont need to be balanced!

Kaz
 
If you can feel it through the steering wheel, more than likely it is either of the fronts. I'd do a simple front/back swap and see. I had a wobble before, it was the front, at 70mph. It was oval tyre. Swapped the rears to the front and it was much better. But I don't drive motorways that often so I stuck with it until it was to be replaced. Not a wobble since new tyres.
 
Anyone recommend a good wheel retailer? I don't suppose anyone sells original A2 alloys anymore?

I think I'm just going to replace all four wheels with a 15" set. It'll resolve the wheel wobble issue and provide a much smoother ride.

Two birds, one stone.
 
Yes, they're both 5x100 16s and the width is fine too. If you get them, recommend 195/50/16 tyres which will give you a bit more grip and also a bit more ride comfort over the standard 185/50 fitment, plus the speedo will be bang-on accurate too, and to top it off, because it's a more common size, you'll have more choice in tyre brands, at a lower price... I'd be bidding on that link I found as a priority if I were you!
 
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