Wobble

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#1
i drive an 87' 325is

this last week my car developed a kind of wobble.

at low speeds (5mph) I can feel the car kind of rock from side to side.

at high speeds (55-70mph) the is a suttle but definite vibration.

and a higher speeds (85-95mph) the vibration get to be pretty strong.

my friends are telling me it is my shocks or a problem with my drivelines (CVs)
but I want to know what you guys think.
I appreciate any advice you can give.
 

epj3

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#2
if the body itself is rocking I find it incredibly hard to believe it's the CV joints. That would be a clicking noise with an unsmooth power delivery

Sounds like an out of round wheel, and unbalanced wheel, or bad suspension parts up front (ball joints and control arm bushings.)

I'm voting for an unbalance wheel. My e30 had this exact same problem (the steering wheel went back and fourth though, not the entire car). I'd say try the cheapest things first... wheel balance, than an alignment, etc.
 
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#5
Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. I like the idea of starting with the cheap parts
I'll have my wheels rebalanced right away. My tires seem fine as far as I can tell, all at 32psi.
I'll let you know how it goes.
 

Ben

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#6
the reason i said to check your tires is i had a problem like that and it got progressively worse over a 300 mile drive. and when i would drive slow, the back end would move from side to side. I looked at my back tires and one of them had a big bulge coming out of the tread.
 
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#8
Good Call Ben

Of course the most obvious answer is the one I neglect to check.

I checked my tires right after work and sure enough, big ass lump coming out the tread on my passenger side rear tire.
I put on the spare and headed for home, but wobble was still there. I've got another big lump coming out my other rear tire.

What causes this, is it just because they are cheap tires, (Toyo 800 Ultra Touring)
I'm not familiar with the quality of Toyos, they were new when I bought the car, now they have about 12000 miles on them, with lots of tread to spare.

I'll probably go by new tires after work today, maybe I'll upgrade or should I be looking for another cause?
Thanks again for the help, man I should have thought of that [8]
 
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canada
#10
You don't say how old the tires are. Apparently there is a theory out there that the physical age of tires has a real impact on the tire integrity. This could be a factor for people that perhaps store their cars, and only put a few miles (relatively) on them in a year..
 
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#11
newguy, that makes sense for all tires, doesn´t it? even a new tire will get unbalanced when you have it sit in the garage for 3 months or 4 w/o moving the car. the load and weight of the car make the tire get "edgy". age of tires usualy effect the grip only. of course, if too old they loose air and stuff but we don´t dicuss that far do we [hihi]

i don´t think that it is an unbalabnced tire though. this kind of problem creates a wobble at certain speeds only. you normally don´t recognize it through all speeds. except the tire is really really bad...control arm, some bushing etc. that would be my guess. but you might wanna start with the wheels anyway. it´s just the natural point from where to start the investigation.
 
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#12
the Cause

Well, according to Bill at Les Schwab:

Both the tires had excessive wear on the inside of the tread. At the point of the bulge it was so much that the steel weaving was exposed and broken. This greatly degrades the structural integraty of the tire at this point, causing the rubber to expand more at this point under the tire pressure thus forming the bulge.

So basically I need to have my wheels aligned in order to correct my tire wear pattern.

But, a thought, could my misalignment be caused by a bad bushing or control arm?
If so I'll probably need to realign after I replace either of these, right?

So before I realign I want to make sure all mechanical causes are checked, what would you say are the principle causes, where should I start to look.
Thanks agian for your input.

BTW, I have new tires on now and it's smooth sailing again, at any speed.
 

epj3

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#13
Beemur said:
Well, according to Bill at Les Schwab:

Both the tires had excessive wear on the inside of the tread. At the point of the bulge it was so much that the steel weaving was exposed and broken. This greatly degrades the structural integraty of the tire at this point, causing the rubber to expand more at this point under the tire pressure thus forming the bulge.

So basically I need to have my wheels aligned in order to correct my tire wear pattern.

But, a thought, could my misalignment be caused by a bad bushing or control arm?
If so I'll probably need to realign after I replace either of these, right?

So before I realign I want to make sure all mechanical causes are checked, what would you say are the principle causes, where should I start to look.
Thanks agian for your input.

BTW, I have new tires on now and it's smooth sailing again, at any speed.
I assume you had the bad tires replaced right? Good thing it was caught when it was.

Wheel alignment could be it, but more than likely what cuased the suspension to be that far out of alignment is/was worn suspension parts, usually bushings, sometimes balljoints. I would suggest replacing the control arm and the control arm bushings. Most control arms come with a balljoint already pressed in. Also replace the tie rod ends...your car won't drive right until you get an alignment after replacing the tie rods.
 


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