vibration... g old vibration

[pepe m42]

hi

okay i have changed:
tires are new and balanced factory 15"wheels
new rotors pads on front
new control A bushes
new tie rods
shock good condition
have a bad shock on the left rear.( is that make the front vibrate too, and the steering wheel?


i have a vibration and it grows with the speed, under 50 is not really noticable but remains. most of the time when i brake i feel the pedal vibrates too, but the whole front is vibrate and its different from bad rotors(had experienced), so think it has nothing to do with breakes. I inspected all the wheels and the right front one is feels loose i tightened the lug bolts so its something else, it feels like the hub nut is loose a bit so it might be bad bearing but its quiet while im traveling, no shimmy no woowoowoo noise. I heard from others that its possible to have a bad control arm baljoint.
so wheel bearing vs CAbaljoint, i can afford one of them, pleas tell me some ways to inspect these two things.
i cant decide which side ists coming from. i get confused always when i try to find it out.
-possible to have a bad bearing without noise?
-does bearing vibrates like this?

tomorrow i should go to order the things, because i have these new tires and they dont like vibration, but as i said i have the moey for one of them.

THANKS!

[D. Clay]

A wheel bearing will show up as a wobble. Grab the wheel (car jacked up) at 3 and 9 o'clock and rock it. Look to see if the rotor moves in relation to the caliper.That's a wheel bearing. If everything moves, it's one of the ball joints, a tie rod end, or control arm bushing. Sometimes takes two people - move wheel and look.

[mikesjo]

You can visually inspect the control arm ball joint to see if there are any cracks as well. I believe mine are going cause the front bumps a lot when I go over bumps.

[pepe m42]

A wheel bearing will show up as a wobble. Grab the wheel (car jacked up) at 3 and 9 o'clock and rock it. Look to see if the rotor moves in relation to the caliper.That's a wheel bearing. If everything moves, it's one of the ball joints, a tie rod end, or control arm bushing. Sometimes takes two people - move wheel and look.

Sorry i have a digital watch

Thanks, you got the answer what i needed! I appreciate it!!!

[pepe m42]

A wheel bearing will show up as a wobble. Grab the wheel (car jacked up) at 3 and 9 o'clock and rock it. Look to see if the rotor moves in relation to the caliper.That's a wheel bearing. If everything moves, it's one of the ball joints, a tie rod end, or control arm bushing. Sometimes takes two people - move wheel and look.

Hmmm, i changed the bearing and nothing changed.
tie rod new new, CAbushes new newbrand new.

You can visually inspect the control arm ball joint to see if there are any cracks as well. I believe mine are going cause the front bumps a lot when I go over bumps.

i did looked at the balljoints and they looks fine because the rubber around them is not even cacked, and i don't feel the steering loose or "traveling on a ship" problem...

the vibration come up around 80km/h 50 miles / h then goes away
and came back around 110km/h 70miles/h and goes away at 130-40km/h 80-85miles/h
Also sometimes just sometimes the brake is in relation with the vibration.
(its might be the begining of the CA baljoints?)
how to test thoes balljoint? remove it and see ho it moves or....

what is the differences between the aluminium and the normal control arm? only the weight?

i was reading a lot about this and everything points on the control arm, but it just looks fine. any other sugestion...

Thanks

[Nick_318is]

Are your wheels Balanced?  An out of balance wheel can show up at strange speeds and give you a wobble, take it someplace and get them rebalanced.

[pepe m42]

Are your wheels Balanced?  An out of balance wheel can show up at strange speeds and give you a wobble, take it someplace and get them rebalanced.

The tires has about 100miles so they are brand new and i was thinking the same so i went back and got all rebalanced, the vibration is the same.
so balancing is forgetable...

[RED IS 91]

I didn't see where you had an alignment done after all that work .
Did it get aligned ??

[pepe m42]

I didn't see where you had an alignment done after all that work .
Did it get aligned ??

okay yes all this work was done in the last 1000km
the new tires was the last after all what i changed in a tire shop and there i got them balanced and aligned as well. once again tires been changed about last week a drove about 200km with them. 2days ago i changed the weel bearing, but NOTHING changed.

the tire shop said they need to balance and aligne because they gave me warranty for the tires... so yes its been done.

im very want to find out what it is and change it, because i dont want to mess up all those new parts..... i think im going to remove the CA and see if the balljoints ar crappy. everythig eles is new, well 1000km is new enough.

hope to have some advice...
thanks for every body!

[mikesjo]

Let us know when you figure it out . How do you know if the front strut mounts are going? Visually checking or is there a "feel" you get from the car when these are going?

[pepe m42]

Let us know when you figure it out . How do you know if the front strut mounts are going? Visually checking or is there a "feel" you get from the car when these are going?

ok i will let you know when i fix it some how.

i changed strut mounts about a year ago,  when they gone usualy you feel that the car pull to one side and then the other side. Example: you take a sharp right turn, then it pulls to the right, if you make a left one then it will pulls tu the left,  sometimes you feel that the steering wheel just wont stay in the midle even affter an alignment. hard to see it visually i think. and i hated to change them.Grrrr any way if your car cant get aligned well and pulling right then left...than affter some manual reading you might find a good write up to check it out.......
let us know whats up...

[pepe m42]

where should i start......

today i decided to have an other look at this vibration....

i used "D.Clay"'s theory to detect where is the problem.

I changed the wheel bearing so its out of the game....
...others say its the control arm. well, it possible.

i removed the wheel and tried to see if the control arm baljoitr are bad or not. i just think that baljoints ar OK.
kept looking while i was moving the whole thing and every thing was moving together, CA,STRUT,ROTOR.
There is one more thing, i realised. i grabbed the tie rod to see how is it. I changed the tie rod end not a long ago...
so i could move it kind of "in and out" from the steering rack, and turn it easily. (should i be able to turn it easily, or should it have some in and out play?)i looked under the dust cover , where the tie rod is going into the rack. and its just loose. so i think my vibration is because of the inner part of the tie rod
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do? inner of part number 4

model=AF91&mospid=47256&btnr=32_0323&hg=32&fg=25

on this pic you will see what is my point...
http://www.r3vlimited.com/Media/e30theproject/Pictures/October2004/101204-001.jpg

I will change them on the weekend, so i will let you guys know if its ok.
I hope it will stop the problem, and wont turn out i have a bad CA as well:)

tell me if you had experienced this....
THANKS!

[b318isp]

You should be able to detect freeplay in this inner track rod end by having someone rock the steering wheel as you put your had over the joint. They are known to wear (mine did) but not as often as the outer ones.

[pepe m42]

You should be able to detect freeplay in this inner track rod end by having someone rock the steering wheel as you put your had over the joint. They are known to wear (mine did) but not as often as the outer ones.

Anyway they are in bad shape, the BS in this whole thing i changed the outer tierod and now the inner part is gone and the only sell the inner part together with the outer ones. so i will have two nearly new outer tie rod....

I didnt have time, possibly on this weekend....
THANKS

[bmwman91]

It MIGHT be a bad center support bushing on the driveshaft, or even an out of balance driveshaft.  Have you had the 2 halves apart for any reason recently?  Check the center support bushing, and the flex-disc on the back of the transmission!