Wheel Wobble

Rob-Halifax · September 14, 2013

Yet more issues.

Hi guys, just had my car MOT'd, it failed on the bottom ball joints and the guy wanted to charge me £350 to supply and fit some new one's he passed it on everything else.

Well, I thought he was dodgy (Ball joints? £350? lol) so I bought some off a guy on eBay for £70 + shipping and started to fit em, all the nuts were not coming off no matter what I tried so I booked it into another garage to get them fitted, they rang me up an hour later and said that they didn't need replacing at all, nothing wrong with them so he didn't want to rip me off (nice man).

He did however tell me that as they are an MOT garage too, his MOT fuy had had a quick look and decided that if he MOT'd it, it would just fail on one top wishbone and the handbrake was slightly out of balance, no biggie.

Since it was out of MOT now, I asked him to fail it so I would have 10 days and be legal again, at the weekend I took the part off my donor car and fitted it, sorted. Took it back to the garage, he balanced the handbrake and passed it, yaay!

Meanwhile, a couple of days before I had the MOT, the car developed a wobble somewhere, but it's a funny one, I can get in it and drive it for at least 15 mins and all is well, then, all of a sudden, I start getting wheel wobble at 40 getting worse the faster I go. If I leave the car for an hour and get back in it, no wabble etc etc for about 15 mins, then the same.

Well, I didn't know how but thought that the top wishbone was the fault when it failed the MOT on it, not it, so I went to a third garage to have the BJ's examined, not play and in perfect order.

Everything else with the exeption of one front tyre is just as it was, I figure that if it was the tyre, brake disks wheels or suspention, it would do it all the time?

Not got a clue what it can be but when it starts, if I get to around 60 I can almost not hold the wheel, it is that violent.

So, anyone got any idea why this should be fine one min and buggered the next?

Lat thing to mention, can't see it effecting things but the power steering pump is heating away at it's barrings too, i'll be changing that this weekend.

Anyone? any idea?

Cheers

Rob

PS, anyone need ball joints for a MK1 GS, let me know, I seem to have some spare!.

aviator888 · September 14, 2013

If the brake discs are bent You should be able to feel it when you brake. My MK1 had the same problem. Difficult to trace, never got it 100% sorted. 2 garages diagnosed my car is absolutely fine :outforcount:

Start with wheel balance and brakes.

Rob-Halifax · September 14, 2013

Know what it is now.

The caliper, when it gets hot it's sticking on, jack the car up when the breaks are cold and all is well, the wheels turn freely, jack it up after the breaks are warmed up and the drivers side wheel cannot be turned by hand, the passenger side wheel can.

Net result, the caliper either needs replacing or reconditioning.

Least I know what it is now.

ChrisIS200SportTTE · September 14, 2013

Lexus sticky calliper strikes again! :(

Did you ever challenge the first garage as to why they failed your car on ball joints when they were perfectly fine? I know I would have. Get your money back for the MOT!

And I'd probably report them to VOSA. It's not acceptable that garages are using their MOT status to get more business by failing perfectly good cars on bogus faults and missing actual faults that would have failed it anyway.

Rob-Halifax · September 14, 2013

Chris, you mention sticky caliper strikes again?

Is it a common fault, is there any chance it could be the slide pins and not the callipers at all? any chance that they could stick when warm?

And!

Yep, got a full refund on the MOT, he claimed that there were tolerance notices issued by the ministry that he had not had access to, the ball joints being within those tolerances, should not have failed.

I reported him to the ministry anyway, I feel that he was trying to rip me on the price of the repair and failed the car just to aid in his scam.

What a git.

ChrisIS200SportTTE · September 14, 2013

Glad you reported them :)

Just do a search on siezed callipers on this forum. Yes it's very very common. Mostly on the IS tho but other models too.

I had both mine sieze up on the from of my IS200. It is the slide pins, they corrode. I tried to recondition mine. Lasted about 1000 miles. In the end I had 2 new callipers put on as I was fed up with it.