steering shake at 60mph

[stix125]

hi guys new to the forum and some great info and help given to many members as i spent reading through previous posts, i have a 530i had the wheels balanced and aligned it sits on 18" act's split rims since having the car i have never had the opertunity to drive over 60mph as it violently shakes have been to my local bmw dealer who said they were unable to help as they have no where to take the car and test this , i have read in past threads of different things that may cause this(sorry to bore any one as it seems a common fault) please if anyone can give me any info regarding this... and thanx in advance

[632 Regal]

thrust arm bushings are a common ailment. The E34 is really fussy to front end parts as in if there is ANY play anywhere you will have all sorts of vibration problems.

Does the shake get worse when you apply the brakes? If so I'd shoot for replacing the thrust arms first, post a thourough front end inspection for work parts.

Look up "nut behind the wheel" as that is a common source for play.

When I had serious problems the tires were ****ing square, they would visably move up and down as spun on the balancer, which the tire place said didnt matter, 2nd set of tires were the same. Winter coming I got some 60 buck each semperit snows made in Germany...smoothest tire ever owned....tire place sucked. Now im running the cheap falken tires and its still pretty smooth.

I never go to the same places anymore.

[SchnellE34]

hi guys new to the forum and some great info and help given to many members as i spent reading through previous posts, i have a 530i had the wheels balanced and aligned it sits on 18" act's split rims since having the car i have never had the opertunity to drive over 60mph as it violently shakes have been to my local bmw dealer who said they were unable to help as they have no where to take the car and test this , i have read in past threads of different things that may cause this(sorry to bore any one as it seems a common fault) please if anyone can give me any info regarding this... and thanx in advance

Does the whole car shake or just the front end? Did you upgrade the wheels or did the previous owner? Did the car shimmy with the stock rims? Do you have hub centric rings under those 18's? If not, that may also cause a problem (some one correct me if i'm wrong.) I would try a couple of the ideas you got from searching the archived threads and get back us...

[Speeder 553]

hi guys new to the forum and some great info and help given to many members as i spent reading through previous posts, i have a 530i had the wheels balanced and aligned it sits on 18" act's split rims since having the car i have never had the opertunity to drive over 60mph as it violently shakes have been to my local bmw dealer who said they were unable to help as they have no where to take the car and test this , i have read in past threads of different things that may cause this(sorry to bore any one as it seems a common fault) please if anyone can give me any info regarding this... and thanx in advance

Put plastic hub rings on and have it balanced on a Hunter with Roadforce. If that does not fix it then your thrust arms/bushings need to be replaced.

[stix125]

the tyres are perelli pzero's the car came with the tyres and alloys so dont have the stock items, the whole car doesnt shake just the front end, very violently as soon as i reduce speed down from 60 to 50 mph it stops, the cars it self drives like a dream but with the amount of vibration from the steering wheel at 60mph the first time this happened i didnt have a clue and went straight to the dealer who were a complete bunch of time wasters, i dont have to brake just back off on the accelerator, thankyou for the advise i have the car booked in today for its M.O.T

[stix125]

thanks will try that

[stix125]

thanx form the reply and advise, the whole car does not shake just the front end from the steering wheel it almost feels like the wheeels are gone come off, if that makes sense. I does'nt shake when braking or acclerating just when i touch 60mph and bang its like a super charged road digger and then some, i didnt get stock wheels as bought the car with the 18's already on with pirelli pzero's

[632 Regal]

definetly look into the hub centric rings and wheel balance. one of the tires could be out of round, a violent shake isnt common without something substantial being ****ed up.

[stix125]

the car has passed the M.O.T i had them check the bushes, arms had the wheels balanced tracked and aligned still the same???????????

[onewhippedpuppy]

The bigger the wheels, the worse the 55MPH shimmy. Mine got significantly more violent when I went to brand new 17" wheels and new tires, and they were Roadforced when installed. Take it to a good independent shop that knows older BMWs, have them check out your front end. Bushings and suspension components failing is pretty common, these aren't exactly new cars.