Front end shimmy and excess steering wheel play

[Al Gray]

My son Sean's 1992 525i has a bit of a problem with the front end. At speeds of 40 - 50 mph if you hit a bump or crack in the road the front end will shake until you apply the brakes to stop the shaking. Also I have noted the the steering wheel has excessive play. Has anyone had this problem before and if so what do we need to do to correct it. The car now has 205,000 miles on it and the engine still runs great and the transmission has been rebuilt.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Al Gray (age 61 and luvvin it)

[shogun]

http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Maintenance/Steering/steering_link.htm
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Maintenance/Steering/Steering_box.htm

These are the most important
On the BMW E34, E28 and E32, upper control arms, also called thrust arms are attached to the subframe through bushings and to the steering arms by ball joints. The bushings are well known for failure because they take most of the load in the front end under braking and may cause the car to shimmy if worn.Shaking of the front end is often cause by worn thrust arm bushings.

Please if you love your BMW use Lemforder (OEM) or Meyle parts only!!!! Else you will change your arms every year...

Failure syndromes:
- The 50-60 Mph shimmy.
- Severely enhanced brake shimmy.
- Clunk noise (cause by defective ball joint).
- Bushings torn or with small cracks.


You might want to change the whole arm instead of just changing the bushing if the ball joints are worn. Bushings must be pressed into the arm.
http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/maintenance/suspension/upper_arm.htm

less important
Failure syndromes:
- Clunk noise (cause by defective ball joint).
- Bushings torn or with small cracks.
http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/maintenance/suspension/lower_arm.htm

Failure syndromes: clink noise when driving over bumps.
http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/maintenance/suspension/sway_link.htm

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

That covered just about everything, from Shogun that is.EXCEPT, do you have original wheels? Get them checked and if you have aftermarket ones, check the centre bore, you may need the infamous rings,search on forum.

[shogun]

Thanks, good that you mention the wheels!
Also swop wheels from front to rear to see if any change. Use a steel brush and clean the contact surfaces of wheels and hubs.

[Al Gray]

That covered just about everything, from Shogun that is.EXCEPT, do you have original wheels? Get them checked and if you have aftermarket ones, check the centre bore, you may need the infamous rings,search on forum.

I do have the original "bottle cap" wheels. When you say get them checked what specifically am I looking for that would be a problem?