Not good Vibrations! SORTED!!

[wildeian]

Car started vibrating badly a couple of days ago at 70+ mph, now its come down to 50 mph.

Its not the wheel balancing, the car is vibrating, not the steering wheel.

I'm changing the steering Quibo thingy, cos it was a bit loose, but I'm not convinced it will help.

Front tyres are worn on the inside, so tracking is obviously out.

Rear drivers wheel handbrake/disc is making a 'metallic rubbing' noise, so I'm going to investigate that.

Oh yeah, there was a bit of a thud from the transmission tunnel on the day it started, I've checked the prop and it isn't loose, but I still need to check the centre bearing.

325i Touring with Alpina reps


Any ideas guys??

[Brianmoooore]

Prop centre bearing sounds likely, or possibly guibo at the front of the prop

[wildeian]

Cheers Brian

I think I'll just change the complete front section of the prop with bearing for the one off my sport.

I take it they are the same size?

[Brianmoooore]

You can't change half a prop! They are balanced as a complete unit, and the splines must be reinserted exactly as they came out.

[JonDubber]

Car started vibrating badly a couple of days ago at 70+ mph, now its come down to 50 mph.

Its not the wheel balancing, the car is vibrating, not the steering wheel.

I'm changing the steering Quibo thingy, cos it was a bit loose, but I'm not convinced it will help.

Front tyres are worn on the inside, so tracking is obviously out.

Rear drivers wheel handbrake/disc is making a 'metallic rubbing' noise, so I'm going to investigate that.

Oh yeah, there was a bit of a thud from the transmission tunnel on the day it started, I've checked the prop and it isn't loose, but I still need to check the centre bearing.

325i Touring with Alpina reps


Any ideas guys??

I was getting this! Rear O/S disc noise and all lol

Exactly the same problems - changed the front propshaft coupling and it's stopped. Only about £14 from GSF. The disc noise is my handbrake shoes, havent got around the changing them yet.

[wildeian]

You can't change half a prop!

Ooops!! good job I didn't do it during the engine change then!! Cheers again Brian


Cheers Jon, hopefully I'll be back on the road soon. I'll get round to them handbrake shoes eventually!!

[oakey]

my car used to vibrate badly at high speeds when i had alpina repa and now i have 15s on the car she is completely smooth at any speed.

[wildeian]

Yeah Oakey, quite a few people get the 'pina shakes, but I only get very slight vibes, nothing near what I'm getting now!!

[oakey]

i would doubt that this is your problem but the crossmember on the front of my car broke near one of the mounting points which caused the car to vibrate scarilly at anything over 60mph. maybe worth checking out? ive had this issue many times with my car- 1st time it was that i needed different spigot rings, second time it was the prop bieng loose, then gearbox mounts, then the broken xmember. nightmare

[wildeian]

Well it wasn't the centre bearing!

While I was down there though , I noticed the 'Toe out' is so bad the tyres are starting to show the steel wires!!8O

I tightened one of the track rods a bit to see if it made a difference, and it did......now my steering won't self centre! Bugger!!

Ran out of light, so have to wait till tomorrow now...

[wildeian]

Well I stripped the rear drivers wheel to see why it was squealing, and I wasn't exactly filled with a warm fuzzy feeling!!

Turns out the back plate is rotten, and the locating post for the handbrake shoe has been pulled inside the drum

This in turn has caused the shoe to twist, which is what I'm thinking is causing my vibrations!

Sounds like a quick fix right?? Wrong!! The bolts holding the back plate on are completely corroded/rounded, so it's looking like I'm gonna have to swap the entire suspension arm complete with hub/drive shaft etc from my sport!!

I was gonna swap the LSD anyway, but not bloody NOW!! I ain't got the time!


Anyway, I'm ranting! Quick question, I've taken the handbrake shoes out for now and rebuilt. Anyone see any probs driving the car as it is temporarily?? The handbrake still works on the otherside!

Was planning to do Guildford meet (my first), but this has put the proverbial spanner right in it!!

[Morat]

well, its an MOT failure... but its not like you've made the car LESS safe by removing all that twisted up brake gear is it?

[wildeian]

Ahhh, a positive comment! The gloom is clearing!

[wildeian]

Bugger!!

Still got vibrations!! After I took the handbrake shoes out it was fine at a 70mph test drive up and down the road.
But when I came to drive home, they're back again!! Just changed front tyres as they were worn, not got tracking done yet.

Car seems to lurch/ kangaroo (if you know what I mean ) at slow speeds, which I beleive could cause the vibes when I get faster.

Could a warped brake disc cause this?? Or a knackered diff??

Looking for the simple fix before I rip out the entire suspension and diff/prop, and replace it with my sports!

[k]

Hi Ian, just reading your tale of woe.......have had similar problem in the past on a ford, with vibration coming from somewhere etc......jacked the back end up both sides and removed the wheels and ran it in top gear at vibe point to show up where the vibration was starting at.......you can do it with wheels on/off ,and one of you observe whats going on underneath.......take the usual precauctions.........mine tuned out to be a faulty tyre, as with wheels off, no vibration....swapped wheels about and soon sorted the culprit.
Hope it helps

[wildeian]

Cheers Malcolm, I've got a set of 15 BBS I keep saying I'm going to put on it to test if it's the 'pina's or not. I guess it's time to actually do it now!! (Damn I love them 'pinas!! )

[E30Steve]

hi.....
what are your disks like??? mine are warped at the minute as they are crap solid disks and im about to replace them with nice 20 grooves per side im getting a vibation aswell and its due to the fact that the pads are in contact with the disk even when your off the brakes they glide across the disk face. it becomes intermediate with breaking, sometimes its there for a while then after heavy breaking it might go away dependin how far your calipers lift off.ive also had diff issues which have caused vibrations due to wear in the past but ended up changing all that anyway and my vibration remains. tbh the breaks are the only thing left on my car that hasn't bin changed! lol

just a couple of thoughts.....but id make sure your tracking is right 1st.

[wildeian]

Cheers Steve, gonna do the diff and brakes together, then drive to the garage for tracking!! Heres hoping...

[wildeian]

Bloody hell, it was one of the wheels!!

Got fed up so put the 15 BBS's on it, and it's sorted now!

Could one out of balance wheel really give me such bad vibrations??

Or is it going to be FUBAR!!?

Anyway, one more job off the list............

[E30Steve]

could be out of balance m8....but at least now you know what wheels did you have on before?

[wildeian]

'pina reps, man I love those wheels!!

[666JSB]

Good to see your problem is solved.

I believed I had the dreaded shimmy on my E34 many years ago. I was thinking of front suspension issues but before I went any further a guy suggested the obvious - check your wheel balance. I had put 17" M Parallels on my E39 and had my old wheels/tyres spare so I changed the tyres onto my E34 front rims and had them balanced and the problem was solved. I think I had a combination of slight flat spots on my front tyres along with the slight unbalance which gave very bad vibes at 60MPH.

Also it's worth checking wheel rim roundness. I have put slight flat spots on my rims from hitting rocks at high speed in the past.

Cheers, Neil.

[peejay]

You said the wobbling started suddenly so something must have happened to one of the wheels or one of the tyres.

Some years ago I developed a wobble for no apparent reason. After a lot of poncin' about and this and thattin, it turned out there was a defect in the inside wall of one the tyres. It was a slight protrusion in the rubber that became more prominent as the tyes wore down until it caused the vibrating.

One more thing to check now the pinas are off is the inside of the wheels for any large tar deposits off the road that can stick like another lead balance weight. Its worth a look...



Peejay.

[wildeian]

Cheers guys. Looks like the tyre had a slow punture, so hopefully new tyre and balancing will sort it. Might keep the 15's on while I'm doing the comuting thing tho, they are more comfy aren't they!!