E30 Zone

My cab has always had really bad steering wobble at around 30-50mph, so I had all four wheels balanced in the hope it would improve. Although it is better, there's still a pronounced wobble around 50mph.

What else could it be?

Track control arm bushes?

as above but also add upper and lower control arm ball joints to the list, or incorrect wheel centre PCD

Thanks guys - any easy way to diagnose this further, i.e. to work out exactly what's causing it?

I'm running standard 15" BBS btw.

Do you have staggard wheels? wen i baught my e39 the bloke befor had had new tyres on it and put a front alloy on the rear, caused a steering wobble.

most likely if you have standard wheels and they were balanced then it is either bushes or ball joints. you need to jack up the car SECURELY then remove the front wheels and check for any play in the control arm (the bit the wheel is attached to) there are two ball joints (upper and lower)and one bushing, also called the lolipop bushing, also inspect the bushing for excessive wear.

if you steerring wheel is wobbling really badly then the control play should be obvious.

if all seems tight then check the mouting of the steering box, and check both track rod ends for play.

It might just be a tyre flat spot or slightly out of round alloy, that's what I had.

If the vibration is coming through the steering wheel try changing the front wheels with the back wheels and it might go away. Worked for me. Then you can narrow down which wheel/tyre is out of round and either get it replaced or use the spare.

have you had the wheels laser tracked/alighned aswell as balanced ,on one of them big hawk eye things ?

Thanks for all the responses. I'm pretty sure I had the track rod ends replaced last year - if these are the bars that stick out of the end of the rack and attach to the hubs. There's no obvious buckling of the wheels - just had them rubbed-down and re-painted, so any distortion would be easy to see. When I had it in the garage before with steering issues, they thought the rack was knackered, but it was replaced about 2 years ago with a refurb'd one from ECP. I must admit, the steering does feel quite loose compared to modern cars, but then again I thought that the rack ratio on E30's is such that this is likely, which is why so many change to the E36 rack.

I'll maybe try the laser tracking/allignment - probably worth doing anyway. Other than that, it's down the garage again to look more closely at the bushes and rack.

I had trouble with mine gving me serious wobble through the wheel at speeds over 50mph. I cured it by replacing the antiroll bar bushes and drop links.

As suggested above, swap the wheels back to front first and see if you still have the steering wheel wobble before paying monkeys to fit random new parts in the hope that it fixes things. 95% of the time it is wheels. Other things that wear tend to be more obvious and give an indication when under pressure, eg increased vibration when braking, audible clunk noise when running over cobbles or on/off brakes etc rather than a standard 50mph wobble.

When the wheels were refurbed, have they painted the mounting surface where the wheel bolts to the hub?

If this has been painted/powdercoated, it will possibly cause the wheel not to sit true on the hub and will give wobble

Just a thought

PeteE30Tourer wrote: I'll maybe try the laser tracking/allignment - probably worth doing anyway. Other than that, it's down the garage again to look more closely at the bushes and rack.

Incorrect alignment might give some weird handling and odd wear patterns on tyres, but it won't in itself cause a wheel wobble, so an alignment with a fault present is an expensive waste of time, that will need doing again after the problem is found.

Thanks for all the advice yet again. Having swapped my wheels twice in the past two weeks, I cant face moving them around again, but I do see the logic - good test to prove the cause that wont cost a penny - just another hour of jacking the car up and down! Might take it to a local tyre place and see if they'll do it for a beer token or two.

Resurecting this post as my car still has the same problem. I changed the front wheels for the back, one side at a time then took it for a test drive after each wheel swap. Strangely, on both occasions, the car seemed a lot better after I'd just changed the wheels over, but the next day it was back to square one with it all wobbling. So, I'm thinking after jacking up the car, it takes a while to settle down to it's proper ride height - could this be something to do with it?

I'm very unhappy with the handling of the car - it just all feels loose at the front.

Try renewing the lower control arm bushes and ball joints and track rod ends. Whilst there may as well do the drop links and ARB bushes.

Thanks Green. All available from GSF? How much £££ are we talking?

its your ball joint, mine is gone and shakes like a sh**ting dog over 50/60 replaced and ok could be bushes etc too, but when i jacked mine up and swapped wheels a while back it sounded like yours above where it went away for a bit, with mine i could tell which side it was coming from tho glovebox opening on its own some times lol, if its your wheels the shaking comes through the steering wheel i think, rather than the whole car.

i paid £110 fitted inc vat and parts, i found lower ball joint and arm for £70 but couldnt be botherd to fit it myself, but like green said, if they look bad change the lot, my mech said they looked like thy all been done on mine except the ball joint i havent checked mind all i know is wobblings gone

LLamaFarm wrote: if its your wheels the shaking comes through the steering wheel i think, rather than the whole car.

Depends on the state of the rubber joint in the steering linkage, has this been checked over?
What tyres do you have fitted? Are they in good condition? Has the car been sat on them for long periods of time deflated?

i could be wrong about your situation but ive had wobbles like this and its been warped brake discs