Steering wheel shimmy

Agricola

Did a good stint on the motorway over Easter and noticed a fairly bad shimmy in the steering over 60mph, worsens with speed.
Braking really shows it up. No pedal judder, just vibration through the wheel.

The car is an e46 that came with a set of steelies which I swapped for alloys off an e90. Front wheels were balanced after I bought them.

Will get the balance checked again but would it be worth removing the calipers and disks, cleaning & greasing the slides and pads etc? Do I need to check for a warp in the disks?

Any tips very welcome!

CJhaughey

Agricola wrote: »

Did a good stint on the motorway over Easter and noticed a fairly bad shimmy in the steering over 60mph, worsens with speed.
Braking really shows it up. No pedal judder, just vibration through the wheel.

The car is an e46 that came with a set of steelies which I swapped for alloys off an e90. Front wheels were balanced after I bought them.

Will get the balance checked again but would it be worth removing the calipers and disks, cleaning & greasing the slides and pads etc? Do I need to check for a warp in the disks?

Any tips very welcome!

Have you still got the steelies? worth trying them again if you have.
Alloys can get buckled in odd ways compared to steel wheels IME.

Wheelnut

You seem to be saying that only the front wheels were balanced and not the rear. Get the rears balanced first and check all wheels for buckling or being out-of-round. When you are sure there is no problem with the wheels you can move on to other things like brakes, ball joints or bushes.

Agricola

CJhaughey wrote: »

Have you still got the steelies? worth trying them again if you have.
Alloys can get buckled in odd ways compared to steel wheels IME.

I have got the steel wheels still but I don't think any of them were balanced. I suppose if If fit them and the problem is resolved, it will point to the new wheels alright.

Wheelnut wrote: »

You seem to be saying that only the front wheels were balanced and not the rear. Get the rears balanced first and check all wheels for buckling or being out-of-round. When you are sure there is no problem with the wheels you can move on to other things like brakes, ball joints or bushes.

Yeah Ive generally never balanced rear wheels and have never had this problem. Balancing the front has always been sufficient. Ill get them all checked at this stage.

sundodger5

Balance the rears it might not be your problem but is important to prevent wear on bearings etc.

porsche boy

Sounds like a warped brake disc to me

kerten

I had a e46 with similar behaviour and it was ball joint.

Agricola

Got four wheels tracked and all tyres balanced. The shimmey is now gone from the wheel at 60mph+ but I still get it when braking from that speed. Not so noticeable when braking at slow speeds. I'm thinking that has to be a problem with the disks.

sundodger5

Agricola wrote: »

Got four wheels tracked and all tyres balanced. The shimmey is now gone from the wheel at 60mph+ but I still get it when braking from that speed. Not so noticeable when braking at slow speeds. I'm thinking that has to be a problem with the disks.

Traditionally a disc will give a pulsating brake pedal longer travel.
If it isnt pushing back through the pedal i would look elsewhere

Agricola

Since the problem stopped with the steel wheels and different tyres, and the guy in the tyre place didnt mention anything about a buckle in the alloys, Im thinking it's the tyres.
When I jack it up and spin the front wheels by hand, there is a slight ovality to the shape of the tyre as your looking along the thread area.

sundodger5

A twisted tyre is not unheard of but no amount of balancing will fix it. If balancing did improve it i would be skeptical.
Wishbone bushes maybe? Just trying to think what would be put under pressure when braking.

kirving

I had a buckled alloy which a certain place in Tallaght attempted to fix. Sounds like the local shopping centre if you want a clue.

Anyway, it didn't solved the problem really, and when I took it to a proper place, the guy must have had to break off about 10 weights, and then show me the buckled alloy. Had it repaired, and good as new since.

Only under braking seems like a ball joint or bearing or something like that as opposed to the wheel or tyre.