Vibration in the steering wheel

[slo325i]

Hey guys,

Ever since I bought the car, the steering wheels always wobbled side to side any speed over 40mph. It didn't bother me that much until I swapped out my wheels to a 17". Now the wobble gets so bad that it shakes the car now.

I went to investigate and jacked the front of the car up to see what's up. With the front wheels up in the air and still attached to the car, I went to see if any of the front wheels had any play side to side. The driver side wheel is fine but it seems as though the passenger wheel has a pretty bad play in it.

Now I didn't get a very good look at it but do you guys think it's the tie rod? I need to save up money for school so I won't have the funds to cover the entire: control arm,tie-rod, and bushing kit. What would cause the wheel to have a sidewards play like that?? Please help out this noobie. Thanks in advance guys.

Justin

[E30_fiend]

side to side could definitely be your tie rods. but a shake at any speed over 40 I would suspect control arm bushing or wheel balance. check the cheaper stuff first. A wheel balance isnt expensive really as compared to labor time for bad control arm bushingfs. I wouls say just inspect the control arm bushings on either side and see what they look like.





Taylor