hello, I am new to this NG, hope someone might be able to shed some light on a steering problem i have on a newly aquired 1992 E36 BMW 316i. at speeds over 60mph ( approx) the car feels very unsteady and appears to jump about at the front end if i hit a small bump etc on the road. the steering wheel shakes ( it is not a wheel balancing problem, this has been done on all 4 wheels) on smooth roads it seems to behave better, but on a poor road surface it can be quite scary! i have replaced both front lower ball joints ( these are the semi-floating type) and also the rear wishbone bushes on both sides of the front wishbones. The shock absorbers appear to dampen the spring movement, but of course bouncing the car while stood still is about the only check i can make here. I have not had the wheel alignment checked as of yet, however the wheels do not look excessively far from parallel to the eye and i am reluctant to think that wheel alignment slightly out will cause such a harsh symptom ? there is a tiny bit of play in the steering rack on the inner ball joints (inner track rods) which of course will be rectified with either new track rod joints or a new rack, however again i am wondering if such a small amount of free play here will cause such drastic issues? if anyone has any other suggestions as to what might cause this i would appreciate any comments. P.S. the wheels are all true with no problems on the tyres, i have swapped front to back on both sides to elliminate this.
Regards. Steve.