Wheel vibration at speed

[cccp]

Whenever I go above 55mph in my 87 eta the steering wheel starts to really vibrate, and it seems that for a few degrees of turning it is completely dead, there is no response. However if I am on a flat road and maintain speed for a while the vibration goes away completely and only ocmes back when i take turn or is there is a slight turn in the road. Any ideas?

[aaron_silva]

Worn shocks? Worn Control Arm Bushigns?

Aaron

[Sean]

Are all the weights on your rims, that has a HUGE effect on an E30 - wheels must be balaneced.

That'd be the first thing to check anyway, it sounds like something else - but it's an easy thing to have checked over

[f u z z]

i had a shimmy in my black car around 60, but i replaced the control arm bushings and it went away.

but now on my red car i had shake around 75, i got the tires balanced and now it shakes at 55...but its all of my worn parts. Worn pars =poo. good thing i got a bunch of replacement parts comin in!

[cccp]

Are all the weights on your rims, that has a HUGE effect on an E30 - wheels must be balaneced.

That'd be the first thing to check anyway, it sounds like something else - but it's an easy thing to have checked over

How do I check this?

[Sean]

Are all the weights on your rims, that has a HUGE effect on an E30 - wheels must be balaneced.

That'd be the first thing to check anyway, it sounds like something else - but it's an easy thing to have checked over

How do I check this?

Just bring it in to a simple tire shop. if you have an idea what wheel it may be, remove it and drive it over in another car. Say you got your tires at Les Schwab - you'd walk in and ask them to check - they'd probably do it for free.

You can do a visual check yourself. lots of times on the stock e30 rims, they use clip on weights on the outside and inside. Lots of times if these fall off for some reason, you can tell because the spot will stand out a bit.

The ebst way is to have a tire shop check it for you though.

[burtonownz]

Possibly stress on wheel bearings? Probably not, but I guess it's something to check out if nothing else works...

[cthulu703]

You can rotate you tire front to rear and see if the vibration moves from front to back to check for bad wheel balance. I had the same problem with my car at 55mph, had the tires balance and the vibration went up to moved to 75mph, but much milder.

[petone]

I'd take it to a tire shop and get them to balance check your your tyres. Also get them to check that your rims aren't buckled as this can have a similar effect as wheels that are out of balance. Its also possible that the tyre shop used stick on weights that go on the inside of the rim, you might not be able to see if these have fallen off.

[T.Dot E30]

First thing I'd check is balancing.

This doens't happen when you brake does it?

[nickmp0wer]

how bad is it to be driving a car with unbalenced wheels?

[Sean]

how bad is it to be driving a car with unbalenced wheels?

If we're talking ZERO weights - it would probably be pretty rough. E30's are touchy enough the way it is :shock:

[grlaneriejr]

Guys, what he's talking about is not the wheel weights. Sounds to me like tie rod problems.

Check the inner tie rods, they are probably worn. The reason is "settles" is b/c when you are going straight, there is very little pressure on them. When you say it starts again when turning, that's what it tells me.

Hope this helps.

[Jordan]

So here are your options.

Spend money, fix it yourself.

Spend money, pay someone to fix it for you.

This thread is done, I can't stand ignorance.