Steering Wheel

[fruitsalad]

My steering wheel has started to shake a bit and if I let go of it, while driving (I know not ideal but I wanted to see what it would do) the car veers to the left, any ideas please

[SparklyKid]

Tyre pressures ?

[CrapAtCryptics]

Check tyre pressures, tracking, shock absorbers if that doesnt do it you may have a serious mechanical fault - dont leave it.

[douglas9401]

It could be any number of things including those already mentioned.

One thing for sure though is not to wait and monitor the situation, get thee to a garage.

[fruitsalad]

Just noticed near side front tyre is shredded, not sure if this is another symptom of the problem.

[bhg481]

It sounds like your tracking is out and that has caused your tyre to wear, although a faulty shock-absorber could also be the cause. You need to get it checked out ASAP.

[fruitsalad]

Im not even going to attempt to drive it, at the moment

[Gizmonster]

Just out of curiosity, does the vibrating only start when you reach a certain speed?? If so, then it could be wheel(s) need(s) balancing. The pulling to the left could be down to a tracking fault.
However, the fact that one of the tyres is shredded, could point to other problems.
Is it shredded on the side wall, or on the tread itself??

[SparklyKid]

The tyre is shredded, get new tyres, job sorted. Obviously get tracking checked.

[bhg481]

I find it interesting that only one tyre is shredded - to me that points more to one shock-absorber that's failed rather than tracking, which usually affects pairs of tyres. Another possibility is loose wheel nuts on the shredded wheel.

[fruitsalad]

Shredding might be a bit of a drastic description, but lots of lose flaps of rubber, and its only started happening in last week, the vehicle had an MOT just over 3 weeks ago and tyres werent like it then, I'm not going to spend any more money on it, it has to high a mileage, may be time to scrap

[douglas9401]

With a new MOT it's worth at least getting an estimate.

[bhg481]

I've just had a further thought - how old are your tyres? It's recommended that tyres are monitored carefully when they are 5 years old or more as the casing ages and can start breaking up; there is a date code stamped on the tyre wall - Google "tyre date code" if you're not sure how to interpret it. If your tyre tread looked OK your car could have passed the MoT and the tread started breaking up afterwards.

[Purist]

Unless its heading for the scrapyard I would think about getting tyres and maybe tracking done, with a new MOT you could sell it, It might not have value to you but the second hand market is pretty big right now.

[fruitsalad]

As you were all good enough to give me advice I thought I would, let you know the outcome, Yes it was tyre pressures that had caused the tyre damage, and they were worn on the inner edge, and that was a advisory on the mot, the tracking was slightly out.