[sebdog]

in the last couple of months ive been getting bad steering shakes from about 70 to 85kmph. Its a 2006 GU patrol ute with 6" lift and 35"s and the vehicle has been running with this setup for 4 years now. I just got all the tyres rebalanced which some were over 100 grams out i thought sweet thats should have solved the problem but no!!! it still does it everytime. I'm not a mechanic but as far as i can see all my suspension bushes seem in tact and no suspension components are loose. Wheel bearings feel good and ive checked for missing weights on the tail shafts and all seem to be in place. Maybe got a dodgy wheel balance?? any other things to check?? look forward to your replies. thanks fellas. sebdog.

 

[tubz]

Mate I've got the exact same problem with my stock setup ATM, I've been told a heap of different things as well, had it balanced twice, aligned twice and the problem is still there.
a mate of mine has suggested I go and get one of those 68 point checks from pedders and tell them it shakes because they try to find anything that's out even a little Bit to try to get your business, at least this will give you a bit of an idea of anything that is/ could be out

 

[Grumpybum]

get em balanced on car ... or maybe as I had .... a tyre out of round or buckled rim ... do the search for wheel wobbles or shakes or steering

 

[roddo]

radius arm bushes flog out reasonably quick with lots of flexing

 

[blackmav]

I am on my 5th Patrol.
Check your Tyres are balanced.
Your bushes may look ok but 4 years will see them have a bit of extra movement.
Panard bushes would be my first stop.

 

[bigsim1]

check to make sure a tyre isnt bubbled or something, pull em off and actually look, my camry had a bubbled tyre took ages to figure it out till i pulled it off to do something

 

[maverick01]

Hey Guys,
I have a lifted patrol wagon on 35s and mine used to do the same thing but it was that severe that i had to stop the vehicle as you literally couldnt hang onto the wheel. After balancing tyres twice, then replacing with new tyres,then new drag link,new radius arms bushes it actually turned out to be the panhard bushes and once i pulled these bushes out,yea they looked perfect but in actuall fact they were flogged out completly and since changing these the car is now back to being apleasure to drive and now more shakes.

At the end of the day guys if the panhard bushes dont end up fixing it which i could almost bet it will atleast you will have gained some new bushes. By the way my bushes had been in there for 4-5years too.

 

[sudso]

I had wobbles once after hitting a bump about 85kmh it was the wheel bearings a bit too loose.
It still had a slight wobble around 40 kmh no matter what, it was the drivers front wheel out of balance. Had to have another 65 grams added!
Check the inside of the rims for mud too. That'll do it every time.
With lift and bigger rubber everything is accentuated so all the bushes, castor, alignment, and wheel balance etc etc has to be spot on.
It doesn't hurt to have the castor at the high end or even a bit more for big lift rubber and lifts too.
Cheers.

 

[tubz]

Mate check your wheel nuts, I just discovered one of mine was tight but kept spinning because the bolt was threaded, stupid tyre shops

 

[zoom0001]

Seems to be a common problem with Patrols. Yes Toyota's do it, but it takes quite a lot to make a wheel wobble, they have bigger bearings and are spaced out further apart from one another supporting the wheel better, inturn makes the front end far less suseptible to front end wobbles. Wheel bearings, king pins/swivel hubs or panard rods and bushes are usually the culprit.

If everything looks good, don't be scard of tightening up the wheel bearings up. Mine did it at 35,000Km's when I put new 33inch boots on. Wheels were balanced 3 times. Ended up getting them on a finger balancer which helped a little. Ended up tightening the swivel hubs, by shimming them down and putting more tension on the wheel bearings, now only a very slight vibration at around 80km/h, nice and smoother 95km/h+.

 

[Grahame]

Have you been 4WDing with low tyre pressures? Sometimes dirt gets forced into the bead and unseats the tyre allowing it to move on the rim. I had the same problem at the same speeds. I had a shop clean up the bead and rim and reseat the tyre. Best $15 I ever spent. Never had a wobble since.

 

[Jethro]

Gday mate, the wheel wobble is a common problem on Patrols.
Most average tyre shops dont have the gear to do a 'proper' job when it comes to doing a wheel balance on em. I have an 06 ute as well which had a good wobble from @85-100, had them balanced twice a different shops before finally being put on the right track.

If you have checked the frontend for any worn components and all looks good, the best place to go unless anyone has a better suggestion is Bob Jane Tyre Shops as they are one of the few workshops that have the right gear to do an on car wheel balance that will address the shim trouble. Most tyre shops only have the wheel balancer with the cone set up, Bob Jane also has the '5 finger type balancers'

You will find that most Nissan workshops will send these trucks to Bob Jane also and if the tyre shop you goto is honest and knows anything about them they will also recommend you go there rather than have you come back time again. I notice u r in Wickham, did u just have the local garage do em? May be a trip to ya nearest Bob Jane or a trip to the big smoke?

 

[Jethro]

Yeah great.... further to the bob jane thing, seems the one at cannington can no longer balance the wheels 'on car' (machines broke) apparantly! dont know if anyone has any ideas as to who still does 'on car balancing' by the way, seems its important to tighten front wheels up with torque wrench to specs. not just 'as tight as they go' with a rattle gun, as u normally do....??

 

[sebdog]

Hey Jethro,
Yeah the wheel balancing was actually done by Bob Janes in Karratha, and Beaurepairs prior to that, my panhard bushes are fairly new and ive checked them again so i have no idea what to do now.

 

[gf0012-aust]

I had mine done today at a truck alignment specialist in Queanbeyan. The owner said its a common problem with GU's especially, as well as GQ's (less of a problem)

He blamed it on preset issues and stated that they refuse to do any work on patrol front ends unless they're fixed first etc...

I went through everything today with him thats been listed on these forums and he said that most people are burning their money as they're paying to fix things where the shops don't understand the cause of the problem in the first place etc.....

either way, I don't have a problem anymore, and they did a wheel on balance, alignment and quick check over

they've got a front end mounted in the service area where they point out why the wobbles occur.

this mob were recommended to me by a few 4wd'ers at work.

its the first time soneones gone through the entire logic re how and why it happens, so I was pretty happy with their effort...