Hi there,

 

 I bought new skoda superb mk3 facelift few month ago.. When started to drive longer distances, noticed that there is visible steering wheel vibration between ~110-120kph (68-74mph).  Alloy wheels CANOPUS 19 with Pirelli P7 tires. SKODA service found no problems and told me that this is  kind of car normal behavior with R19 wheels.

Maybe someone is facing similar problems?

Have you had the balances checked?

 

+1

20 minutes ago, Berisford said:

Have you had the balances checked?

 

Balances and wheel alignment all good

11 minutes ago, Aru said:

Balances and wheel alignment all good

Hmmm……very curious.

36 minutes ago, Aru said:

Balances and wheel alignment all good

On car or off? On-car would also test the driveshaft balance weights, which have been known to come loose...

13 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

On car or off? On-car would also test the driveshaft balance weights, which have been known to come loose...

Guy from SKODA service just told me that there are no problem with the wheels or suspension.. My skoda superb is FWD not 4x4, so I think it hasn't driveshaft, correct me if I'm wrong.

20 minutes ago, Aru said:

correct me if I'm wrong

OK, you're wrong.  No, really you are, because front wheel drive is effected by drive shafts from the final drive to the front wheels, and these shafts have balance weights on them.

20 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

OK, you're wrong.  No, really you are, because front wheel drive is effected by drive shafts from the final drive to the front wheels, and these shafts have balance weights on them.

Maybe you talking about axle shafts?  Sorry if it is only my poor knowledge about car parts. 

But as i understand there should be no steering wheel vibration in this situation.

1 hour ago, Aru said:

Maybe you talking about axle shafts?  Sorry if it is only my poor knowledge about car parts. 

They are called "drive shafts", because they transfer the drive from the gear box to the wheels. They have balance weights attached to them. Sometimes these weights come loose, and when that happens the shafts get out of balance. See balancing a shaft for further information.

Get the balance checked at another tyre shop first with weights still on. If they find an issue get them rebalanced. 

steering wheel vibration at any speed is NOT normal.

any Skoda Service Centre that tells u that is normal is incompetent n must have their license revoked!!!!

 

i have 19s on my Superb (220 FWD), and i've driven plenty of times at speeds higher than 110km/h, for hours, with no issues/vibrations.

 

something is not right with ur car.  either the tyres r not balanced, or alignment, or something else worse.

Edited 8 June, 20214 yr by JR RS

Mine did this when I got it and the alignment was way out, they had to make quite a lot of changes to get it right. 

 

I would get it to a tyre specialist and see what they say as I would not trust Skoda to do it. After they had done it mine was still a bit off at higher speed so they had another go and its perfect now, dead straight and zero vibration. 

Swap the front and rear wheels over. If the steering wheel vibration goes away, the problem is one or both of the front wheels (which are now on the back).

I think in this situation the 1st thing I would swap front to back as suggested.

 

If it goes away then I would then get the wheels on a roadforce balancing machine. If one of your wheels has been distorted slightly by a pothole hit then with all likely hood it will still balance normally on a standard balancing machine. I bought a superb on 19" wheels and three of the rims were slightly out of true, the main dealer new nothing of the procedure in their own workshop manual to measure the max allowed runouts and I don't think they had the kit either....

 

This doesnt mean that the "wobble" in the wheel wont introduce a vibration when it is spun against the road.

 

The road force machine spins the wheel against a roller under pressure to see what forces the wheel imparts rather than just spinning it in air. It can also scan the wheel with a laser and measure the runout...I believe off the top of my head the skoda specs only allow  0.5/0.8mm of runout Axial/radial. It may be a case that a small distortion can be sorted by rotating the tyre which will also be slightly imperfect to balance out the generated roadforce.

 

This is actually how the tyres are balanced on brand new cars to contribute to that new car feel.

 

https://danthetireman.com/blog/article/what-is-road-force-balance

 

https://www.balancemycar.co.uk/wheel-balancing-all-you-need-to-know/

 

 

Just got my 68 reg SEL Exec 4x4 190 tdi dsg estate with very nice looking 19” wheels & brand new Falcon tyres, Skoda dealer fitted   … and yes, a discernible vibration through the steering wheel @ 70mph’ish up & down a motorway … hmmmn!

How to locate one of these roadforce balancing machines in or near Exeter?

16 hours ago, MikeM46 said:

Just got my 68 reg SEL Exec 4x4 190 tdi dsg estate with very nice looking 19” wheels & brand new Falcon tyres, Skoda dealer fitted   … and yes, a discernible vibration through the steering wheel @ 70mph’ish up & down a motorway … hmmmn!

How to locate one of these roadforce balancing machines in or near Exeter?

 

If the rim is buckled, then no amount of wheel balancing weights will stop the vibration.

 

Try a tyre fitter that can measure the rim runout (both vertical and horizontal/lateral) with the tyre off the rim (or maybe they can measure the rim runout with the tyre still fitted to the rim). I would guess that if the rim is buckled by more than about 0.5mm to 0.8mm, then no amount of balancing will stop the vibration felt at speed.

 

235/40R19 tyres have quite low sidewalls, so the rims will be far more prone to buckling when hitting potholes than rims fitted with 215/60R16 and 215/55R17 tyres.

 

Edited 23 July, 20214 yr by Carlston

19 hours ago, MikeM46 said:

Just got my 68 reg SEL Exec 4x4 190 tdi dsg estate with very nice looking 19” wheels & brand new Falcon tyres, Skoda dealer fitted   … and yes, a discernible vibration through the steering wheel @ 70mph’ish up & down a motorway … hmmmn!

How to locate one of these roadforce balancing machines in or near Exeter?

 

Looks like AMS tyres are the only place within 50 miles of Exeter with a road force machine. They aren't that common due to the price compared to a standard machine. 

 

http://www.balancemycar.co.uk/location-2/?postal_code=Exeter&ml___postal_code=Exeter&ml___bbox=-11.403809,49.169734,1.735840,59.435766&radius=50&x=0&y=0

 

They should be able to tell you if a wheel is imparting a vibration, measure the runouts and if the distortion is only very small the machine rotates the tyre on the wheel to minimise the road force. It obviously can't do much about a flat on the rim or larger distortion. 

 

If you are ever further SW then there is A1 tyres in Bodmin:

 

https://www.a1tyres.org.uk/services/tyre-changing-and-wheel-balancing/

 

Edited 23 July, 20214 yr by MarkyTDI