DEFENDER 110 SHUDDER AT SPEED

My 300tdi 110 wagon had developed a shudder in the steering that occurs at around 105km/h. At lower speeds there is no hint of the problem.

The shudder starts when I hit a smallish (well smallish for Australian highways) bump in the road and it rattles the steering wheel very uncomfortably until I reduce speed. I have replaced all the dampers, including the steering damper, and it has made no difference.

All wheels have been balanced and the alignment has been checked.

It has been suggested that it may be the radius arm bushes, or the pitman arm. The steering tie-rod ends are slightly worn, but not flogged out.

Has anyone had a similar problem, and if so do you have any suggestions regarding the cause?

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Regards

Reply to
Scott Forbes
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Best to get the swivel pre-load checked, until mine was sorted I had similar troubles.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Swivel preload is the usual suspect for this symptom, but there should not be ANY play in the tie rod ends, and play here or any of the suspension bushes will encourage the oscillation once it starts. JD

Reply to
JD

so we're talking a crater roughly the size of Norfolk then?

Reply to
SimonJ

To ease the problem temporarily, and I stress temporarily until the exact cause is known, try lowering the front tyre pressures. On my Disco it disappeared at 28 psi. I never got to the bottom of my wobble. I had springs, shocks tracking and balancing done, changed the discs, wheel bearings and pads too. Had the preloads checked and the steering joints - all said to be normal. Tyres are wearing normally. Found a little play in the steering column and changed that too. Having done all that and reduced tyre pressures the wobble all but disappeared. I have just put the pressures back up again and the wobble has re-appeared on big holes only which I can just about live with.

TonyB

Reply to
TonyB

well Coochiemudlo at least!

Reply to
Scott Forbes

Try this.......

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Reply to
SimonJ

Or even this........

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Reply to
SimonJ

Thanks to all who replied. I now have a short-list of things to look for. Interestingly, nobody mentioned the radius arm bushes, yet this was presented to me as the most likely cause by my LR specialist! I guess that it is now a process of elimination.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards Scott Forbes

Reply to
Scott Forbes

Radius arm bushes are very unlikely to cause it, but will exacerbate it. These were covered by my "any of the suspension bushes", but they are not particularly a problem. In fact the panhard rod bushes are more likely to increase the vibration than the radius arm bushes, and inboth cases the primary effect will be wandering steering rather than shudder. JD

Reply to
JD

Hi Scott,

Had a similar problem with a 1996, 110 Defender. We tried all of the above fixes with no luck. As fate would have it there was a problem with the front diff and out she came for a rebuild, problem solved, no more shudder when hitting bumps.

Hope this helps.

Marcus Hiam snipped-for-privacy@dcsi.net.au

Reply to
Hymie

Hymie uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Also swivel pins IMO the most likely cause as they all do that sir , do a google, we've done this to death many times here :-)

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

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