E30 Zone

Need a bit of help if anyone can

Put my car in to have a shuddering fixed that I was getting when driving was like driving over painted lines in the road up until 4 k revs or so the it would seem to go but seemed to start at around 2k revs, if I drove it really gentle you wouldn't feel it.

Had a centre bearing go late last year which started this all off as the garage owner test drove it after I'd crawled the car to his garage, he didn't drive it gently like I had to get the car to him but he said it was the centre bearing, they changed the centre bearing then fobbed me off when I returned telling them about the shuddering telling me he didn't know what it was.

So I've got a new guy to change the centre bearing again incase that was at fault and the dougnut as well and he said the centre bearing was put in the wrong way, I have the car back now and the shuddering has gone while accelerating but now I get vibrating and droning from 40-60 that is a lot worse than before.

He's having it back on Saturday and suggested balancing the wheels but I don't think it should drone and vibrate that bad, going from 60-40 letting it slow down in gear still gets the same drone and as soon as it's under 40 it goes.

Any suggestions please so I can get this sorted

Cheers

I've also had an oil leak fixed at the rear of the engine and he had the gearbox off and said that it seems fine and the clutch was all OK

To me it feels like it's coming from the rear of the car just not.sure what to do next

Theres not a great deal that can go wrong at the back.Wheel bearings could be wearing out,diff could be whining but that tends to be through out the rev/speed range.
I wouldnt discount the wheels though as i have a wheel thats threw its weight off on my e46 touring and when i hit 100mph you can feel/hear it shaking like mad but dissapears at 110,all this can cause damage to the wheel bearing.

Having the wheels balanced right now so fingers crossed

Check the drive shaft CVs, if they are worn enough they can throw out at certain speeds and cause imbalance.

BUT if they have changed the centre bearing, make sure the prop is in correct alignment, there is no master spline!

This is the problem, the first garage said they marked the prop before they split it but seeing as the other mechanic said it was the wrong way round I'm not sure they did

Would the prop being out of balance cause vibration In between 40-60 only?

So wheel balancing made no difference, bit stumped really will get the mechanic to check the things mentioned above see what he thinks

It's weird though starts vibrating quite bad at 40 then goes at 60 speeding up and does it coming down in speed

stu328is wrote:This is the problem, the first garage said they marked the prop before they split it but seeing as the other mechanic said it was the wrong way round I'm not sure they did

Would the prop being out of balance cause vibration In between 40-60 only?

quite possibly, they are balanced.

See what the mechanic says on Saturday, may be my next step

Was perfect before the centre bearing went no vibrating droning or any noise like this,my diff has always been whiny but could the centre bearing going and then the first mechanic driving it like it at 30mph have damaged my diff further?

Any other ideas chaps the mechanic has had the prop balanced and it's still doing the 40-60mph thing not sure what to do next

Cheers

Could something have been disturbed while the gearbox was taken off?

This is a totally different noise and feeling than what it went in for originally?

Maybe check engine and gearbox mounts

Prop shaft assembly - make sure the two parts have been put together as they came off.

Prop donut - alignment and orientation sensitive. Have the nuts/bolts been torqued correctly to avoid twisting the rubber donut?

I can only go by what the first garage said in that they did that, they said they marked it before splitting it.

I'm now using a new mechanic who is trying to fix it, so far new doughnut, new centre bearing and now had the prop balanced incase it wasn't marked properly in the first place and put back wrong.

I couldn't tell you if he's over torqued anything, could that affect the car between 40-60 only?

The prop is marked when new at the factory with 2 white dots of paint, so long as these are lined up it will not need balancing and shouldn't vibrate unless its had a slap during removal.

I'd be checking the centre bearing is an E30 item and has been preloaded when fitted...

I don't know what pre loading means but I'll suggest it to him

This is the 2nd centre bearing now I hope it is the right one I think he got it from ecp

There are two types of center bearings available as I'm aware and one is more offset than the other one by the look of it, you need to have original one on hand so you can compare them cause usually part shops list only one for your car as it was in my case and it was wrong one. Maybe the difference is in chromie and a facelift bearing I'm not sure

I didn't know that there were two different types I wonder if he does, mine is a facelift

if the first garage swapped it for the wrong one causing the first shuddering the new mechanic wouldn't know if it was any different when he swapped it again



I'll give him a call see what he says

Can anyone post up exactly what my centre bearing should look like as my car is still at the garage

He has a 320 of his own and has swapped.out my diff and shafts for his as he was trying to eliminate what it could be and it's still the same bad vibrating and droning between 40-60

Clutching at straws now so wondering if the wrong centre bearing has got onto my car somehow as someone has mentioned there are 2 types one for facelift and another for prefacelift

Mine is a 1990 facelift.

Any help much appreciated

Can anyone post up exactly what my centre bearing should look like as my car is still at the garage

He has a 320 of his own and has swapped.out my diff and shafts for his as he was trying to eliminate what it could be and it's still the same bad vibrating and droning between 40-60

Clutching at straws now so wondering if the wrong centre bearing has got onto my car somehow as someone has mentioned there are 2 types one for facelift and another for prefacelift

Mine is a 1990 facelift.

Any help much appreciated

Mine (1990 facelift car) looks like this:

http://ebayapi.loc8apartltd.netdna-cdn. ... bN/$_1.JPG

As you can see, the offset is quite noticeable.

In terms of preload, it needs to be torqued up with the centre bearing already pulled about 3 mm towards the prop UJ (iirc - someone will correct me if I'm wrong!) so the rubber housing for the centre bearing is already taught when static.

Thanks for your help, have you got the listing for that mount so I can order it if I have to


Also do you know much difference is there between the two couplings? Is it just the offset?

I'll ask him if he know about pre loading the prop and if he has

There's only 1 type of E30 centre bearing, the year makes no difference and as far as I know if it's been bought from ECP/GSF it will be wrong. I believe they stopped selling the E30 item a while ago and is now main dealer only...
E36 items do fit and work but are not correct, I think these are what ECP/GSF sell now?
To pre load it you need to bolt the prop up loosely and push the centre bearing towards the gearbox roughly 5-10mm to get it right. The 'shadow' marks on the tunnel from the old bearing will give you a reasonable idea. You also need to be sure it's on the right way round.

So I've got the car back and all seems OK I think I can feel a very slight wobble but it could just be me, definitely nothing like before and the shuddering seems to have gone when accelerating which was the initial problem.

There does seem to be 2 types of bearing looking at pics and eBay adverts, managed to get the correct one off of amazon in the end using the part number motorhole gave me

If you look on this site it shows the two different bearings select car and look at the two types http://shop.trucktec.name/

I also took a snapshot of how the pre loading should be done from the Bentley manual and took it to show him yesterday, he said the the bearing from ecp fell to bits when he changed it today for the febi/bilstein one I got hold of so something wasn't right.

See how we go with it

Thanks for all the help chaps

The spacing of the fixing holes is wider on pre facelift cars than on later cars.

Hi stu328is,

Did you ever get an answer how this was fixed? - I had my center bearing, and coupling done by Fritz six months ago and have a nasty vibration at 40-60. I did take it back, they fiddled and that had little effect, I had to take the car away as I moved to Germany - so its still crap.

I had a new clutch and rear drive seal done at the same time - maybe this is the key - same as you - they told me that the engine had to be loosed and the rear dropped to fit the clutch and seal.

Checking Bentley, there is a specific section which describes this kinda wobble, related to incorrect lateral position of the engine/transmission. Bentley states that the prop must be dead center in the tunnel, and to measure and correct if its not.

Mine is off to one side by 5 cm - so I'm about to hoist the car and align this correctly - maybe it will fix this problem, as the car was really vibration free when pulling hard, originally (apart from awful squeaking and twitter at tick over!)

will let ya know if this works,

Paul