93 325I ; Front end Question

[wz2wj1]

Still Have front end Shake. It shakes between 38mph and 42mph. Within the last 20,000 miles i have replaces the brakes & rotors, front wheel bearings and new tires on bmw steel rims. The front end was aligned also . I have 120,000 miles on the car. I've searched and read the threads on this subject. I just today did the following.

1. jacked up both wheels and checked for play top to bottom & side to side. Both were tight.
2. I did notice wear on the inside tire on the passenger side. So i rotated front to back and took it for a ride. |Still shaked but did not pull to that side. All other tires were like new.
3. Rotated the other side front to back & went for a ride. still shakes.

Questions.

1. Can only one side need aligned?
2. Can only one lower control arm , bushing be bad?
3. It did seem that when i went around a corner shake went away??? Bearings??
i'll try this again to verify.

any help would be appreciated.

All other speed car runs perfect, no shake or pull .

thanks
george

 

[frolf]

this sounds kind of out there to me. something as to be bent somewhere. do you have the service history of your car or have you carfaxed it to see if anything really got effed up?



one important thing about alignment, is that BMW's need to be aligned with full load. that means someone in the drivers seat and someone in the passengers seat, and the third person actually doing the aligning. if your shop didn't do this, your tires will wear like crap.

 

[wz2wj1]

Searched History

I am the 2nd owner of the car and the 1st owner kepr good records. the ball joints were replaced at around 45,000 miles by a BMW garage. I am goling to get back under the front end today and check again if anything is loose. I was checking online for lower control arm and BJ's ,but maybe i only need bushings?? Bushings are alot less expensive, than the control arm w/ ball joints inplace. If i replaCE bushings should i just go ahead and replace the whole arm with bj's? ]
The problem seems to be on the passenger side since this is the tire that is wearing???

 

[wz2wj1]

found problem

Well just got finished checking the car again. Jacked up front end and crawled under with a light and some tools. Both front lower ball joints were bad. Lots of slop in both of them. Maybe missed it the first time cause i only jacked up one wheel at a time. When both are up front end really sloppy. I will take it to the shop this week and have both replaced. I'll probably have to get a new tire also, this one is worn from all the shaking. Hope this is it!

 

[frolf]

it really isn't smart to drive with slop ball joints

 

[wz2wj1]

Just got the car back from having ball joints fixed. Much better , but still has a slight shake. Back under the car and check again looks like drivers side lower control arm bushing bad. Ordered it today. this looks like something i can replace. Looks like i know what i'm doing sat morning. So far both lower BJ's and labor 190.00, bushing 18.00.

 

[wz2wj1]

Found IT

Was not the bushing! It was the front rotors had them both turned, just got back from the test drive. NO SHAKE OR VIBRATION. Rotors were less than a year old.

Rides like a BMW again.


george

 

[frolf]

there ya go, but beware, if your rotors were warped, the pads will have to be changed as well or they will warp the new rotors

 

[wz2wj1]

Thanks for all the help. one more thing i found. tires needed balanced. Found one that when i moved it to the front caused front end shake. And when i put it in the back front end stopped, but could feel slight vibration from the rear. Looks like there were alot of things wrong. This is what made it so hard to find the problem. Glad this is over. on to the next problem. My sons explorer has door lock problems.
thanks

 

[B M W]

A 22 calibur should stop anyone from opening his doors.