Pretty severe steering and brake judder!?

[Jamjon101]

Alright,

I'm a newbie to the forum and also to e30's. I recently bought a a 320i and i've got a bit of an issue with the steering.

I get a severe judder throught the steering wheel under medium to heavy braking and also when the front wheels hit a large bump e.g speedbumps and road repairs. It seems to be worse on the drivers side because i get a similar judder when corning right hard, when the drivers side wheel is unloaded, mainly on roundabouts

I have had the front wheels in the air and have given them a good wiggle and i get clunk/click when pulling the wheel left and right, not up and down.

Before i start taking it to pieces again does this sound like a problem that any of you lot have had in the past and what did it take to remedy it?

Btw the cars an e reg 320i with manual steering and standard steel wheels on. It has had new discs recently and new droplinks.

Any help greatly apprieciated.

Laters.

Jam.

[Chris-W]

First thing to check would be the control arm bushes.

[Jamjon101]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm gonna get the car on a 4 post tommorow and have a look proper. I did check those before and they looked alright.

I'll get the pry bars out and have a good poke around.

Anything else i should be checking?

J.

[Chris-W]

All the suspension mounting points whilst it's up on the lift:

Control arm bushes
Control arm ball joints
Strut top mount

[beem]

since youve got a pry bar! check the anti roll bar drop links,balljoints and shocks.oh by the way change the control arm bushes to powerflex ones makes a hell of a difference.

[Adammcf]

Had something similar on mine and it was the outer ball joint on the control arm.

[Jamjon101]

Cool,

I will have a good look. Payday on monday so i'll probably add the polybushes to the list

Thanks again.

J.

[Jamjon101]

alright,

I've been under the car all evening and have had a good poke around.

Firstly i have discovered one of the wheel bearings was loose and have torqued it up to the correct level, it has made a difference but only a minor one.

I checked all the balljoints and the bushes. The car has recently had new droplinks and arb bushes by the look of things and they are both tight as expected. The strut mounts also seem to be fine, no excessive play.

This would leave only two culrpits, the steering rack/ or the steering linkage/tre's i guess. Does this sound right?

Laters. J.

[beem]

The steering linkage is easy to check just get someone to sit in the car and slightly move the wheel left and right,check the linkage as the wheel is being turned.they usually give no trouble though..When i first bought my car i thought i had the same problem,brought the car down to my local motorsport prep garage,and he checked everything said it was fine,i just wasnt used to the car he said but that he recommended polybushing the control arms.I said fine as the man had an italian M3 (320is) id take his word for it.Ive never looked back since what a difference they made.Now the steering is perfect no play no wobble! So my advise is polybush it!!!!

[beem]

[quote="Jamjon101"]
Firstly i have discovered one of the wheel bearings was loose and have torqued it up to the correct level, it has made a difference but only a minor one.quote] Make sure and push in the pin to lock the wheel bearing in place..