Is it a ball joint, or maybe wheel bearing?

[swolfe]

When applying a moderate counterclockwise torque (like lane changing to the left), I can hear and feel a strong vibration from the front right wheel.

No noise or other symptom when going straight or when turning more aggressively.

I stopped the car, jacked up the right side, and I could wiggle the wheel in yaw (i.e. steering) but not in roll (i.e. camber). I first suspected tie rod ends, so I cranked the wheel to the right. The tie rod end looks fine, but I can see the ball joint boots are torn wide open.

I plan on replacing the ball joints and tie rod ends, but I was just a bit worried that it could be a wheel bearing. Thoughts?

ETA: '88 325iS

[ForcedFirebird]

When you wiggle the wheel, look at the ball joints, you will see the control arm or strut knuckle moving if bad. If you can see the brake rotor changing position in relation to the dust shield, it's a bearing.

[jlevie]

That sounds most like a wheel bearing. The noise and/or vibration will come from the loaded side. Replace both sides. But before ordering parts get the front of the car up in the air and check for worn parts.

To check ball joints, squeeze the joint with a large (as in 24") pair of
channel locks and pry on the joint. Any motion whatsoever in a ball joint is
cause for replacement. Check rubber bushings by prying on them with a 24" pry
bar. More motion than there should be (this is where experience comes in play)
or any cracks are cause for replacement. You can figure on bushings being good
for about 6 years or 80k.

The rear suspension of an E30 isn't adjustable. Worn Rear Trailing Arm
Bushings or bad subframe bushings will result in improper alignment of the
rear wheels. In addition to degraded handling, problems there will accelerate
wear of the rear tires.

With the car up in the air, grab each front wheel at 9 & 3 o'clock and try to
wiggle the wheel. Motion along that line will be worn tie rods. Motion when
wiggling the wheel at 6 & 12 o'clock will be bearings or control arm ball
joints. Spin each wheel and listen for roughness in the bearings. If the
brakes drag, remove the caliper (and on the rear wheels the parking brake
shoes) to eliminate sounds from dragging brakes. Any roughness when spinning
the wheel is cause for bearing replacement.

Shocks have a more limited life than will be apparent from the way the car
feels. Figure on about 60k for OE type shocks and perhaps 80k from
Bilsteins. Koni SA shocks will go a lot further as rebound can be adjusted to
compensate for wear. Upper strut/shock mounts can only be assessed for wear
out of the car, but they will normally outlast the shocks. When replacing
shocks, just replace the upper mounts and you won't have to worry about them.

The rear shock mounts on an E30 or E36 are a weak item. I always replace them
with uprated mounts from Rouge engineering.

[swolfe]

FF, now that it's in the garage I put it up on jackstands and got under there on the creeper. The pass. side outer ball joint is definitely FUBAR'd, >1/8" of play. Glad I turned home when I did. On the driver side, I get a slight wiggle and some noise when I rock it at 3 & 9 o'clock (noise comes from center or other side, hard to pinpoint).

Jim, thanks a lot for jumping in and posting good info as usual. Maybe I should just swap wheel bearings now while I'm at it. What's a typical E30 wheel bearing life span? Bushings are getting done anyhow with Delrin/poly. I'm prepping this car for SE30 so anything like that is getting R&R with race stuff as I go.

Rear will get Rogue RSM, IE serrated camber/caster plates, poly RTABs, and poly subframe bushings when I get to it. I have Bilstein sports on there which seem just kind of OK now. When I start tracking it I will get new ones and have those rebuilt as spares.

Jim, also wanted to ask you a Spec E30 question. My steering guibo looks pretty questionable (rubber cracked significantly), and I am converting to manual steering (which will increase loads on the guibo). I am going to replace it, but I'd like to replace it with something like urethane or aluminum. I am 99% sure it's illegal for SE30, but would anyone likely protest it, or a tech disqualify it?

[swolfe]

PO says he never replaced wheel bearings, and he had the car for a decade (~125k).

I'm getting new ones regardless.

[ForcedFirebird]

Read the rules. You can replace the rubber wear parts with any material you like as long as you don't change the geometry...

http://www.nasaproracing.com/rules/spec30_rules.pdf

[swolfe]

FF, appreciate the link but I am reading the rules. My conclusion re:steering guibo comes from two points:

9.3.7.1. Steering components may be substituted, and the interior steering shaft angle may be altered and must be secure.

3.4. "Substituted" means that original OEM equivalent items may be used.

3.5. "Replaced" means that the item may be replaced with items meeting or exceeding OEM specifications.

Seems that substituted would be same material, and that a stiffer material would be "replaced." But, I'm new to this.

[jlevie]

A wheel bearing can go as a result of wear as early as 100k, or it may last 200k. I replace all wheel bearings (front and back) if the car has about 150k on it regardless.

You have to use a rubber steering guibo since the applicable rule says substituted. Suspension bushing fall under:

9.3.8.8. Suspension bushing material replacement is permitted.

and not that it states replacement, meaning any material meeting or exceeding OWM specifications.

You may way to think twice about manual steering. I've run my Spec E30's w/o power steering for going on six years, but after consultation with some pros I'm in the process or re-installing the PS system. The power draw of the pump in the noise level on the dyno, but the reduction in effort and thus driver fatigue seems to be a good compromise.

[swolfe]

Thanks for the info, the SE30 guy at UUC confirmed the same thing re:steering guibo.

I also tracked down my coolant leak (thanks to it getting worse), so I ordered a bunch of parts today to take care of that and front suspension stuff in general. So between Blunt and UUC, I've got this en route:

Oil filter
Timing belt/water pump/tstat
Coolant hoses/clamps/etc
Tie rods
Ball joints
H&R springs (car has Billy sports on M3 springs currently)
UUC sways
4x wheel bearings
Delrin FCABs
Steering guibo
ATE fronts, rebuild kit for rears
Shifter/DSSR (was going to build my own but got a decent deal)
S/S clutch line
PFC pads x4

I have GC camber plates, S/S brake lines, and brass guide bushings ready to go from a previous order.

[jlevie]

What I see missing from that list, given that this is a 24 year old car, is:

All hoses associated with the intake
Radiator, expansion tank, cap, thermostat, and fan clutch
Brake master cylinder

The service life of the cooling system is 10yr/100k

If you drive this car on the street, use the OE guide bolt bushings. If you drive it on track, plan on removing the guide bolts, cleaning the bushings & bolts and re-lubing them after every race weekend. There can be a slight difference in pad wear with the brass bushings, but in a race car you will go through a set of pads (and rotors) at the same rate as with the OE rubber bushings. They make no difference to brake performance. I've used both and have had the OE bushings on the car for the last 4 years. I do change the bushings and rebuilt the calipers every other year.

The Bimmerworld sways are a better design and outperform the IE ST and UUC sways.