Steering shimmy at 70+ mph

[m3ticulous]

I will keep you posted tho

[ethhaynes7]

Originally Posted by m3ticulous

Yes I replaced the thrust arms and added vac solid bushings. And it seems to be 99% solved. I think the rest of the vibration is a combination of road surface and just the nature of how much road feel you pick up. Something missed by newer BMW’s

Gotcha, yeah I just drove my 2013 6200 miles on a road trip. I think I may be feeling road surface, sometimes I'd feel it and others not. My car got replacement thrust arms with oem about 25k miles ago, I've been thinking of upgrading those for the upgrade and that may help the natural feel across certain road types.

[ethhaynes7]

Originally Posted by m3ticulous

I will keep you posted tho

Still good? I may order these and give them a go if that's the case

[jhu321]

Thrust arm refresh is crucial for cars this age. I’m in this forum cuz I just bought a e93 m3. But my experience comes from the f83 m4 that I just did the control arm refresh on. I had similar shimy but it was at 90+. On visual inspection the bushings on the thrust arms look fine but the pivot arm that connects to the knuckle looked a little worn, I was gonna get to them eventually but the tariff threat of parts getting more expensive made me decide to deal with it sooner.

The m4 shares the same bushing as the e9x m3 and similar design, so I think it applies. I did the full update front and rear control arms for the front axel. 4 pieces and new bolt hardware from ECS and now I’ve tested well into the triple digits and it’s steady and confident at high speeds. Visually, inspection of the old parts you couldn’t tell that the arms are bad but I guess under load things are different.

Anycase my .02. The 900 bucks in parts and 4 hrs in the garage was worth it in my book.

[crazydrummer]

FWIW I’ve chased a similar “shimmy”/vibration that only occurs 77ish + mph and seems to get worse with speed. Went through all the normal stuff, 2 different wheel tire combo’s, already have mono bushings so no rubber left at the front end. New paragon brake kit, new bump stops, had the whole front suspension apart and checked/replaced everything while I was there, everything properly torqued/assembled correctly bolts marked, etc. Motor mounts done 20k mi ago by mporium. I gave up for winter…

Had it on the lift at the dealership last week (friends a SA and this dealership is cool as shit). Like 4 of us under it digging, one of the techs was thinking he felt it more in his butt. We finally found some play in the driveshaft U joint. After some discussion we think it’s just do to age/corrosion and it’s sending enough vibration up the chasis to be able to feel in the steering wheel depending on the resonance with suspension/road conditions.

Now to quote my SA. “Do you even want us to price it?” lol. I’ll be taking it down to mporium at some point in the next year and will see what dean and his guys say/let them do the work.

Im just so happy to actually find something “wrong”

[Ajolives]

I’ve had this on and off over the years, seems to be no rhyme or reason. I’ve noticed if I load the steering before going on to the highway, aggressively swerving left and right in the on ramp it reduces the shimmy dramatically. Changing lanes does bring it back sometimes or makes it go away, which could support the wheel asymmetry theory.

I’m starting to suspect steering rack or weak power steering pump. Also I remember way back mine didn’t start until after I replaced my engine mounts, I didn’t disconnect the steering intermediate shaft connection possibly created some slack.

Or could be a combination of age wear and tear.