Steering Wheel Shake (limited speed range)

[SnakeyesTx]

I've driven Jeeps with TSL Bias Ply Super Swampers with those huge lugs that always make you feel like your tires are out of balance. I've had Camaro's, cadillacs, and even street tires on a Wagoneer before as well. When a tire has been out of balance, its usually not so pronounced that the steering wheel shakes and the whole car vibrates a little bit, which makes me wonder.

My 525 only from 55 to 60mph shakes the wheel, and I can feel a pulsing vibration in the body. Once I get past 60 all is well again. The front tires do show a little more wear on both corners of the tire than in the center, and I have already checked the pressures just to verify its not an underinflation issue. Does it sound like my balance is off? I don't know much about the sensitivity of the steering system yet to know if the shake can be so pronounced due to tire balance.

Earlier I took put the front end up on jackstands to try to shake the wheels to check for play in the steering and such, and I couldn't get any wiggle so I feel pretty confident that the tie-rod ends are okay.

[BillionPa]

this is a VERY well known problem

my car shook like an earthquake once i hit 50, and it was gone at 60.

i changed my upper thrust arms with new ones, as is the thing to do when this happens, vibration totally gone.

if that doesnt completely fix the problem, you may need a wheel balancing.

only get your wheels balanced on a Hunter balancer with Roadforce, the E34 is rather picky.

and if that still doesnt fix it (very unlikely) you may have badly worn steering linkage, but as you said it feels secure so it probably is.

[kts96]

Are you running stock wheels

[stx133]

a balance is cheap. get it done.

[SnakeyesTx]

Update : In the massive stack of all the previous owner's reciepts, I found that he had the dealer he purchased the car from replace the upper control arm bushings roughly 50k miles ago, about 3 years ago. Is it possible that they wore out this fast? I don't mind buying new ones to replace them, but I thought their age was a little curious?

[BillionPa]

3 years is a while ago, the cheap ones are shot in about 3 months.

[pingu]

I used to get wheel shake like this (at 128,000 miles) - I assumed it was the upper thrust arms (the originals were still on the car) but my Indy replaced the front brake disks and that (almost) completely fixed it. Since then I've also had the upper thrust arms replaced... which made no difference!

[BillionPa]

if the brake disks are not factory balanced, or rusting away, they can make some pretty serious vibrations. if they are warped, the rotational balance shouldnt be too out of whack, but they should only shake the car during braking.

i think thats how thats supposed to work... or would that be how it not works?