1997 E36 Back End "Wobble"

In the last two weeks or so, my 1997 E36 has started to "wag it's tail."

From about 15-20 mph, the car wobbles...not very technical, I know, but that's the best way to describe it. It feels like one of the wheels is eccentric, like those little kids toys where the center of the wheel isn't where the axel is mounted. There is very limited feedback through the steering wheel, so I suspect the back end, but I'm not positive.

It appears to be some kind of resonance between the drivetrain and the suspension, since it goes away above 20 mph, comes back around 35-40, then is gone until you get up over 65. It gets really bad at 80+. It scales with wheel speed, not engine RPM, so I know it's something downstream of the transmission.

At first I thought I'd thrown a balance weight off one of the wheels, but that shouldn't have so pronounced an effect at low speeds (I think). I haven't had any collisions or bumps with anything that might have bent anything. The only thing that's a little off with the car at the moment is my rear tires are overdue for replacement (they're starting to look like racing slicks), but it's uniform wear without any flat spots or anything like that.

Any ideas? Wheel bearing?

Thanks, Tom.

Reply to
Tom Sanderson
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On Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:46:12 GMT, "Tom Sanderson" waffled on about something:

Well it could be many things from a buckled wheel, worn rear bearing or shot damper, but my immediate thought is the damper top mounts. They're quite well known for going, and can make the back end feel incredibly vague when they're worn.

They're not expensive, and they're very easy to change (unless your boot/trunk is as full of stuff as mine was at the time!).

Dodgy.

Reply to
Dodgy

Drive shaft misbalanced? guibo shot?

Reply to
Fred W

Could be any number of things. Might be a bad suspension bushing or broken link.

Have some> In the last two weeks or so, my 1997 E36 has started to "wag it's tail." >

Reply to
Rex B

Reply to
Pashlipops

The most common fault that causes the symptom you describe is tread separation on one of the tires. If you get your tires rotated so that your back tires are placed on the front it will also cause the steering to pull to one side. If you let it go for a while longer you may also start to hear a slapping sound at high speeds.

Reply to
Jack

An E36 I bought recently did something similar. It reminded me of my old E36 318iS after it was mildly rear ended by a blind woman in a Renault. In both cases a four wheel alignment fixed it, the rear trailing arms were slightly out of position.

Reply to
John Burns

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