shimmy up front! please help

[m30power]

1990 325i
-bilstein sport/h&r race combo
-16" millie miglias with h&r hubcentric spacers

It occurs at random i think. Ill be driving and the car will be fine, then around 40-55 the steering wheel will begin to shimmy and i can feel through the floor board something out of balance in the left front. It can become kind of violent. Almost seems to shimmy with the rotation of the tires but i can definitely feel something loose or out of balance. It does not stop/start or change by hitting or letting off the gas. It occurs while cruising in neutral also. Then after a few minutes it stops and everything is smooth again.

This started out of nowhere a week ago. I feel like it could be the spacers just need re-aligning, but i have no clue. Any ideas would be awesome!

[morningsmiler]

I would swap the wheels back to stock to eliminate that variable. If its not the spacers, I would look at control arm bushings and brake rotors. Badly warped rotors can sometimes even cause a shimmy without touching the brake.

[gearheadE30]

alignment, control arms, control arm bushings. Those are usually the main culprits. An unbalanced wheel will not simply go away after a period of time.

[m30power]

my alignment is off about two inches now. ill definitely give that a look. wheel sits 2 inches to the left when im going straight and it never did that before

[deutschman]

nope. i would say this is a wheel bearing. wheel bearing fore sure. this happened to me but on the other side.
have you replaced them or know if they were ever replaced before you bought the car?
the front wheel bearings are easy to do.
if it were a part of the suspension it would be a constant sound, and would not correspond as much with the turning of the wheel.
my friend's mr2 also just had this problem in the back left. same thing. off and on noise and shimmy.

[m30power]

can anyone direct me to a link that sells them for a decent price? I cant find any info at all, also a nice DIY would be great

[n2bimmer]

it can be anything, control arms/bushings, tie rods, steerinrack, tires, wheels, allignment, brakes, sticky caliber, bearings.