The Lotus Grand Tourers

A bit of a shot in the dark as I'm not really familiar with the front suspension. On my old Land Rover I had a nasty shudder at 50-60mph through the steering. It turned out that the swivel pins needed a certain amount of pretension on them to stop them turning too easily, otherwise a harmonic vibration was set up through the suspension at certain speeds. The symptoms on the Lotus sound similar - I wonder if there is a similar pretension needed anywhere?

ATB Richard

Shakey wobble sorted. A buckled front wheel. Although balance carried out at tyre fit a second check showed a need for 350 gram 350 gram weight to balance. Spare fitted all others balanced - nice. Thanks Igg-Hiss for the help.



How many loti in here?

2 x white, 1 x green but I thought one was red?

fueltheburn wrote:2 x white, 1 x green but I thought one was red?

Correct, that one is in the finishiñg shed and there is also aa blue Elite waiting in the same hedge the red one came out of

Glad you got it sorted. I guess every situation's different but in my case I spent ages trying to trace a shimmy, it eventually turned out to be the brake discs needed a skim. It's a reasonably cheap thing to tick off the list. I've had other cars where replacing the tyres has made a miraculous difference to the feel of the front end. My excel still has a harmonic vibration that kicks in at around 100kph. It probably vanishes again at a faster speed but I've never reached that speed. I've owned the car for over 10 years now, still haven't got around to tracing it.....might be prop shaft, might be those weights on the diff bracket.....one day I might find it.

robertverhey wrote:....... My excel still has a harmonic vibration that kicks in at around 100kph. It probably vanishes again at a faster speed but I've never reached that speed. I've owned the car for over 10 years now, still haven't got around to tracing it.....might be prop shaft, might be those weights on the diff bracket.....one day I might find it.

100kph/60mph is about where my shake was evident. Have you checked your wheels ?

Just seen this post. I had a similar problem a few years ago which also turned out to be a buckled wheel. It was discovered when I tried to get the wheels balanced. A bloke local to me with a wheel repair shop was able to straighten it for a reasonable fee.

Hawaiis0 wrote:

robertverhey wrote:....... My excel still has a harmonic vibration that kicks in at around 100kph. It probably vanishes again at a faster speed but I've never reached that speed. I've owned the car for over 10 years now, still haven't got around to tracing it.....might be prop shaft, might be those weights on the diff bracket.....one day I might find it.

100kph/60mph is about where my shake was evident. Have you checked your wheels ?

Yes I'm onto my second set of (original) wheels and have had them finely balanced by people who knew their stuff. No discernible damage or runout was reported. Not so much a steering shake as a harmonic vibration that affects the whole car. Makes fast freeway driving a bit unpleasant but has probably saved me a few speeding fines! I always thought that maybe lotus' lack of development budget might have been the reason but that's probably unfair, this was a well refined design (via elite and éclat) by the time my car was built. Probably should whip out the propshaft (!) and get it balanced at least. Ah well one day...

I think I've discovered the cause of the steering wheel shake on my car. After replacing the front discs and callipers with a big brake kit the problem remained. So I stripped the rear callipers and found one side partially seized with the rubbers past their best and the piston looking very rusty. I was fitting new pads at the same time and although I managed to persuade the piston to retreat enough to accomodate the new pads, I'm not convinced its working 100% smoothly, it looks very corroded.

Took the car for a drive and the wheel wobble has improved by about 90%. Now I get occasional vibration through the body of the car when braking hard and a bit of mild steering wheel wobble occasionally. So, messing with the back brakes has improved things dramatically but because the seized calliper still has issues, the problem hasn't totally gone. New rear callipers required and hopefully problem solved. If it is I can move on to page 273 of this years to do list

PS Thanks to Marky for encouraging me to check the rear callipers, I was convinced the problem must be at the front of the car.

Shaun

Hi, are you on the original wheels? Is the inner wheel face clean/true.good wheel studs?

shaunw wrote:I think I've discovered the cause of the steering wheel shake on my car. After replacing the front discs and callipers with a big brake kit the problem remained. So I stripped the rear callipers and found one side partially seized with the rubbers past their best and the piston looking very rusty. I was fitting new pads at the same time and although I managed to persuade the piston to retreat enough to accomodate the new pads, I'm not convinced its working 100% smoothly, it looks very corroded.

Took the car for a drive and the wheel wobble has improved by about 90%. Now I get occasional vibration through the body of the car when braking hard and a bit of mild steering wheel wobble occasionally. So, messing with the back brakes has improved things dramatically but because the seized calliper still has issues, the problem hasn't totally gone. New rear callipers required and hopefully problem solved. If it is I can move on to page 273 of this years to do list

PS Thanks to Marky for encouraging me to check the rear callipers, I was convinced the problem must be at the front of the car.

Shaun

I had roughly the same cause as you on the red Excel, but it left a residual metallic structure change to that disc, it gets heated on the high point, hardens then as the disc wears that sections wears less, so you get a bit of disc thickness distortion.

shaunw wrote:I think I've discovered the cause of the steering wheel shake on my car. After replacing the front discs and callipers with a big brake kit the problem remained. So I stripped the rear callipers and found one side partially seized with the rubbers past their best and the piston looking very rusty. I was fitting new pads at the same time and although I managed to persuade the piston to retreat enough to accomodate the new pads, I'm not convinced its working 100% smoothly, it looks very corroded.

Took the car for a drive and the wheel wobble has improved by about 90%. Now I get occasional vibration through the body of the car when braking hard and a bit of mild steering wheel wobble occasionally. So, messing with the back brakes has improved things dramatically but because the seized calliper still has issues, the problem hasn't totally gone. New rear callipers required and hopefully problem solved. If it is I can move on to page 273 of this years to do list

PS Thanks to Marky for encouraging me to check the rear callipers, I was convinced the problem must be at the front of the car.

Shaun

Having now replaced the rear discs and callipers, I can confirm that the steering wheel wobble has been cured. Strange but true

Shaun