E36 Steering wobble/vibration

[ChrisRS]

Hi

My E36 Coupe has developed a serious steering wobble which comes and goes intermitently, the tyres are all balanced and the wheels all run true, once the wobble appears the only way to get rid of it is to continue driving until it stops. (Feels as thought the car is going to shake itself to bits!)

I only bought the car about 2500 miles ago (private sale), has any one ever experienced this before on a E36?

My thouhts are power steering pump or steering rack?

ChrisRS

[Talkwrench]

Hi Chris
It soulds more like a suspension bush to me - or perhaps steering linkage.
Whereabouts in West Yorks are you?

[doodlebug]

My guess is a worn (ie disintegrated) rubber bush in the ball joint. Happened on mine at several leptons, a real brown-trouser moment.

Edited by doodlebug on Saturday 7th July 19:27

[ChrisRS]

Thanks for the replies, i've checked for worn bushes and i've also checked the rack for wear, the thing is it's a intermitent fault. It first appeared about 2k miles ago, went away for about 500 miles, appeared again then all was ok. The wobble begins very faintly then gets so severe it feels like the wheels are about to fall off! after about a mile the fault stops and all is ok. This happened yesterday yet i did 200 miles last night without a problem. It's like driving Fred Flintstones car!

[doodlebug]

ChrisRS said:

Thanks for the replies, i've checked for worn bushes and i've also checked the rack for wear, the thing is it's a intermitent fault. It first appeared about 2k miles ago, went away for about 500 miles, appeared again then all was ok. The wobble begins very faintly then gets so severe it feels like the wheels are about to fall off! after about a mile the fault stops and all is ok. This happened yesterday yet i did 200 miles last night without a problem. It's like driving Fred Flintstones car!

Ed Zachary the same as mine!

[ChrisRS]

doodlebug said:

ChrisRS said:

Thanks for the replies, i've checked for worn bushes and i've also checked the rack for wear, the thing is it's a intermitent fault. It first appeared about 2k miles ago, went away for about 500 miles, appeared again then all was ok. The wobble begins very faintly then gets so severe it feels like the wheels are about to fall off! after about a mile the fault stops and all is ok. This happened yesterday yet i did 200 miles last night without a problem. It's like driving Fred Flintstones car!

Ed Zachary the same as mine!

Thanks for the info, i'll take a look in the morning, have to admit it was a bit of a brown trouser moment the first time it happened (i.e. lane 3 of the motorway at a "reasonable" speed!)

[MitchT]

Check that the lower steering linkage has been replaced. It was done as a recall on all E36s (I think) after an early car showed 'slight corrosion'. It should be done FOC by a main dealer. Give BMW customer services a ring to see if yours has been done, if not, have them do it. I believe the problem on the car that sparked the recall was minor and there was no suggestion of an immediate threat to safety, but it's quite a few years on now so maybe those that haven't been done could have deteriorated to the point of it having a bearing on the car's steering feel. If nothing else it's something you can cross off the list of possible causes once you know yours has been replaced.

Infor here...

http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/searches/...