Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: Ian_Fearn on 12 March 2014, 19:10:05
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I had 4 new tyres fitted the other week and had the wheel alignment done on one of those Hunter machines. Initially the steering wheel was 45 degrees out so they sorted that but worse still, a pretty nasty vibration starts at about 70mph. Lets just say it gets worse as the speed increases AND THEN over a certain speed it pretty much goes to normal again.
I got them to recheck the wheels were well balanced and it came back with the same vibration. It does feel like the vibrations come through the 'car' rather than through the steering wheel.
They told me the rear wheel alignment was out but they couldn't release the track rods so they left it as is. On closer inspection, they're well seized so I've bought a couple and will fit them this week.
The question is.... Do I go back to said garage and chuck another £50 at a 4 wheel alignment OR do I need to be investigating a place to do a full review of the geometry. Does anybody have any recommendations in the Derby (ish) area?
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Wheels in Motion Chesham
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http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/tyre-fitting-centres.php Try this for your local centre, they should do geometry in accordance with WIM, Chesham, but check with them. :y
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Theres one near an outlet store in Mansfield so i'll drop the mrs off first....
I'll keep the credit card on me though.....
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Rear wheel balance, or buckled wheels.
45 degrees? They are talking booolax!
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Where did you get the replacement rear arms Ian?
I have virtually the same problem, though the vibration starts at around 55-60. I know I need new droplinks in the front, so I'm gathering all the bits together to do all the maintenance work prior to further alignment. I hadn't thought of the rears though.
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Where did you get the replacement rear arms Ian?
I have virtually the same problem, though the vibration starts at around 55-60. I know I need new droplinks in the front, so I'm gathering all the bits together to do all the maintenance work prior to further alignment. I hadn't thought of the rears though.
Allgerman do them :y about £75 each iirc...
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Cheers Al. Worth considering if the front end work doesn't cure the problem.
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A proper set up starts with the back end, then sets the front to match... important in that the adjuster at the rear does both toe and camber and determines the thrust angle (critical on RWD), whereas the front angles are all independently adjusted :y
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Rear wheel balance, or buckled wheels.
45 degrees? They are talking booolax!
Sorry, I meant the steering wheel was at 45 degrees when going in a straight line!
I got the arms from Eurocarparts. They're Lemforder jobbies so the better quality ones and they were only £52 each.
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The vibration is a wheel balance problem, the steering position is geometric.
Regarding the wheel balance the wheels need to be mounted on the machine by the stud holes, not the wheels centre hole. Reason for this is the centre hole is cosmetically central....... Sad to say this is why French cars have solid centre wheels meaning there's no option other than balance them via the stud holes.
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Interesting about the centre hole being 'cosmetically' central. How many places out there have the facility to balance by the bolts?
I've had a couple of Citroen XM's and Xantia V6's without centre holes and I was told they couldn't balance the wheels but I never had a problem with them.
I'm convinced this is something more than just wheel balance though and its coming from the back of the car not really through the steering wheel as I've experienced before. I always struggled to get the wheels balanced well on my old Puma but I've never experienced such a harsh shudder through the car, proper teeth chattering.
I do wish I was closer to the main WIM place in Chesham. Bit far from Derby though....
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It's only fiftyish miles down the M1 :y
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I had a similar problem a few years ago with a pair of faulty tyres which I'd had fitted to the rear end. I can't remember the brand but they were cheap budgets (£40-50) and after a lot of toing and froing to the tyre shop and much balancing and rebalancing, they reluctantly agreed that the tyres were out of shape and replaced them. ::) Problem solved. :)
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There are distinctive clues when it comes to vibration, the clues are not the law but offer direction.....
Vibration under 20mph suggests a distorted tyre or wheel
Vibration at say 60mph that disperses at a higher speed suggests a wheel balance frequency
Vibration at the seat suggests the rear is the focus and at the steering wheel the front is the focus
Vibration under torque suggests a drive-train problem
Vibration under braking suggests brake pad matter contamination or drive flange problem. Don't be fooled it's near impossible to warp a brake disc.
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I fitted a set of Linglong ditch finders :y. In all fairness the grip is seemingly good, very surprising in fact even in the wet. At £60 a corner they were all I wanted to spend on it at the moment. Assuming the vibration isn't tyre related I would recommend these Linglongs.
Thanks for that WIM. I dont think theres much doubt, its coming through the seats. I checked the prop bearing was ok last night.
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I fitted a set of Linglong ditch finders :y. In all fairness the grip is seemingly good, very surprising in fact even in the wet. At £60 a corner they were all I wanted to spend on it at the moment. Assuming the vibration isn't tyre related I would recommend these Linglongs.
Thanks for that WIM. I dont think theres much doubt, its coming through the seats. I checked the prop bearing was ok last night.
No. It's not really. Is it!
They are shocking in the wet. Especially given the reasonable dry grip.
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Well, I changed the rear track rods tonight. Obviously they've not been set up at all, just fitted. A quick drive shows exactly the same symptoms which is leading me down the route of tyres and wheel balancing as i'd have expected some change if this was the cause.
I'll get it tracked over the weekend and get wheel balance checked again. If that doesn't solve it, i'll swap the wheels front the back and see what happens then.
I suppose if I could find another set of wheels to try that could be the decider.
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The vibration started after Linglongs fitted, going by what you said, so its simply a case of wheel balance IMO. You need to take it back and get them to correct the fault they introduced.
Never, has geometric set up fixed a vibration.
Tyres or wheel related.
But as you say it makes sense to fit the rear track rods and get them to do both on return. Maybe the tyre isn't seated correctly on the bead.
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Sorry to drag this back up but I guess it could guide people for the future.
I've put up with the awful vibration for weeks and then I saw a set of nearly new Michelin Alpin winter tyres on a set of 15 inch steels. SO, I swapped the full set over and guess what.... Vibration completely gone.
Tonight, I've substituted all the tyres back one by one and found a single offending wheel. I can't see anything obviously wrong. Does anybody know if its common for one of these wheels to get buckled?
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Does anybody know if its common for one of these wheels to get buckled?
Which rims? The only rims that seem to easily buckle are the two colour prefacelift MV6 rims
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The sort in this for sale ad.
http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/index.php?threads/facelift-omega-3-0-v6-elite-2001.189183/
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The sort in this for sale ad.
http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/index.php?threads/facelift-omega-3-0-v6-elite-2001.189183/
I had a set of those on my MFL with no problems at all ..... I think you've just been unlucky :(
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Best way to spot a wheel fault is to mount it on the front and spin the wheel by hand while watching the rim for a buckle, dings, bends or anything that's not perfectly round.