shudder through steering wheel

[vanossa 0]

Hi. I have an 93' e36 325i Coupe. The tyres are in good condition and I had them balanced recently. I thought this would solve the problem. I commute to Queenstown everyday from Kingston. The shuddering is on some corners at speeds mostly above (but not limited to) 70kph. I drive around this problem at present, as best I can by regulating my speeds and my lines, but even on straights starting at 100kph it will shudder. I have driven through to 120kph where it seems to lesson. It is not an extremely aggressive shudder but very annoying. Thanks in advance for any opinions on this....

Edited November 14, 2010 by vanossa

[international 0]

Hi. I have an 93' e36 325i Coupe. The tyres are in good condition and I had them balanced recently. I thought this would solve the problem. I commute to Queenstown everyday from Kingston. The shuddering is on some corners at speeds above 70kph. I drive around this problem at present by regulating my speeds and my lines, but even on straights starting at 100kph it will shudder. I have driven through to 120kph till it stopped. It is not an extremely aggressive shudder, but very annoying. Could it be a wheel alignment or something else? I have also checked the tyre pressures are correct. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I had similar issues prior to the balancing of individual wheel...check to see if there may be marks where the balancing weights may have fallen off?

Check to see if your wheel nuts are on correctly.

[Docile 64]

it maybe a control arm bushing or ball joint problem. have had somewhat a similar experience.

[Jacko 2156]

^ This or -

If you have directional tyres, make sure they are turning the right direction Ask me how I know, they do some weird sh*t going backwards.

[vanossa 0]

I had similar issues prior to the balancing of individual wheel...check to see if there may be marks where the balancing weights may have fallen off?

Check to see if your wheel nuts are on correctly.

Thanks for your input. Everything suggested is correct.....cheers.

[vanossa 0]

^ This or -

If you have directional tyres, make sure they are turning the right direction Ask me how I know, they do some weird sh*t going backwards.

Non directional, but that's a good point....cheers.

[vanossa 0]

it maybe a control arm bushing or ball joint problem. have had somewhat a similar experience.

Well this could be worth checking.... I have owned it now for over a month and it has been my daily. The problem has not gotten worse. I am on a trip with it to dunedin in a couple of days and will be analysing on different roads. Will post anything new, if found. Meantime I am very interested in peoples opinions, e.g similar experiences or solutions. Cheers.

[39KiwiTouring 2]

Have your steering rack looked at by a BMW specialist could be the rack these can cause the symptons you state.

[Docile 64]

just replaced control arms and bushing. wheel shudder at motorway speeds cornering are gone. the ball joints where like joysticks in an arcade machine. so loose lol

[hybrid 1043]

Shudder causes.

Un balanaced wheels

warped / buckled wheel

control arm bushes or control arm pivot joints worn

Now for the less common ones

Hub centric wheel bore is slightly too big for hub. You will need hub rings to solve this. I had this problem once on one of my cars.

faulty un balanced tire (very rare manufacturing fault)

unbalanced drive shaft

drive shaft hanger bearing

[vanossa 0]

Shudder causes.

Un balanaced wheels

warped / buckled wheel

control arm bushes or control arm pivot joints worn

Now for the less common ones

Hub centric wheel bore is slightly too big for hub. You will need hub rings to solve this. I had this problem once on one of my cars.

faulty un balanced tire (very rare manufacturing fault)

unbalanced drive shaft

drive shaft hanger bearing

Thanks mate. Will take these options (so I can talk the talk) to my mate (mechanic) in Dunedin. I am going to get to the bottom of this. As said, I am on a roadie to Dunedin from Kingston tomorrow for 2 days. I will be back online with any interesting developments.

[vanossa 0]

Thanks mate. Will take these options (so I can talk the talk) to my mate (mechanic) in Dunedin. I am going to get to the bottom of this. As said, I am on a roadie to Dunedin from Kingston tomorrow for 2 days. I will be back online with any interesting developments.

Have found the r/h front wheel to have some play and will be putting into shop for closer inspection when I get a chance......till next time..these things are a bit harder to deal with when in remote places in NZ..but life is good!

[b mike w 0]

hey mate also check your brake rotors. pretty sure it may be because they are warped if the shuddering increases when braking at high speeds (100kmh etc.) aswell as when u are driving.

[No name user 379]

For what they are worth get some new lower arms new ball joints on the rack, m3 caster bushes and as has been meantioned regarding the wheels plus new disc and get them machined on the car to doublely make sure they run true.

I run "0" toe and it handles well with no vibration at all including under brakes, i also have bilstien all round and braided lines etc runs great.

[vanossa 0]

Thanks guys. I am due to replace the wheel bearings on that side of the car. This will be before Xmas, so will report back again after that. Still waiting on some other replacement parts I have ordered and then once all the tractors are going again in town, my mechanic can get it. If new bearings don't solve it, I will explore the other possibilities put forward on this thread. The process can be painfully slow in this rural (one mechanic town) setting, what with all those tractors getting priority.. but.....it will happen.............IT WILL !! Cheers.