Steering wobble

[coolhandluke]

Driving to the airport on Sunday morning I felt a vibration / wobble thru the steering wheel , it felt like it was coming from the near side front wheel.
Felt quite bad and then disappeared .
Had a quick look at it when I left the car at the airport but nothing noticeable.
Any suggestions as to what it could be ?
Car is 2006 with 100,000 on it.
Def don't think it's balance weights or wheel buckle issues .
Will see how it drives home when I'm back on Thursday.

[pudding]

Wheel weight fallen off, warped discs, worn dampers, worn bushes etc.  The usual suspects.

If it's happened all of a sudden, probably brake or wheel balance related.  Sometimes tyre shops don't wipe the wheel properly before sticking the weights on, and they can then part company with the wheel when temperatures drop.

[teo_parvu]

The first thing you should establish if this is under braking or just normal driving. Normal driving means wheel/tyre related, wheel weight missing, tyre damaged, etc. If it is under braking, I must add to what has already been said, that you can have pad material deposits on the brake disc, it happens a lot lately with the new pad materials.
Check if u have uneven pad deposit on the discs.

[coolhandluke]

Thanks for all the input , discs and pads not that old and balance weights all intact.
You would almost think the wheel was loose which it isn't and it only lasts less than a minute before it disappears again and under normal driving .
Will get it lacked up and wheel of when I get back for a better look.

[pudding]

Rotational vibration is usually always wheel/tyre/brake related in spite of how these components look visually. And in some extreme cases, knackered outer CV joints......but you haven't said if it occurs at a specific road speed, or if it's rpm based, or if it's only felt on the steering wheel, and/or in the chassis as well.

I would confirm/deny warped discs with a dial gauge.  People assume it's not the brakes if they were recently changed, but if the hub face wasn't spotless, or if the wheels over torqued and not tightened in a load reducing sequence (opposite pairs) then it could very easily be a warped disc.  Or pad deposits as mentioned above.  If the disc looks nicely polished on both sides with no visible 'high spots' or localized discolouration, it's probably not that.

[Dan_FR]

Did you have snow at the time? Snow build up on the inside of the rim can cause this - had it many many years ago and thought the car had a serious issues until it melted and returned to normal

The only thing I can think of that would be so intermittent anyway. Loss of wheel weights etc. wouldn't usually go away and come back as once they've fallen off, they're gone

[coolhandluke]

Update......got it up on the ramp today and noticed that the outer clip holding the CV Boot in place had rusted thru and CV Boot was hanging loose and the CV joint was dry.
Have packed with grease again and fixed CV Boot in place , fingers crossed that's it sorted .

[pudding]

I wouldn't have thought a loose CV boot would be heavy enough to cause an imbalance but yeah, hopefully it is that simple!  Hope the CV joint isn't buggered either from running dry!

[coolhandluke]

I wouldn't have thought a loose CV boot would be heavy enough to cause an imbalance but yeah, hopefully it is that simple!  Hope the CV joint isn't buggered either from running dry!

Yip me to , time will tell .