Steering wheel wobble/vibration over bumps

[Jay Cartay]

Anyone experienced this? I've literally changed all the suspension arms and tie rods on the car. But when you hit a bump the steering wheel literally wobbles up and down in your hands. In light of what I've done already, there's only the balljoints and the shocks left, assuming the rack isn't at fault.
When you hit a rough patch of road, it literally feels like the front end is skipping or moving independently of what I'm telling it to do! Not the best feeling...

If anyone has any ideas/advice it would be much appreciated!

[andrewwynn]

Is there a lot of play in the wheel when engine not running? Can you move the wheel up: down when not running? Maybe the problem is in the steering gear not the suspension. Plenty of people report similar problems when either the u-joint or the slip joint (no idea what it's actually called: allows telescope action).

[lichtman]

That sounds like something’s pretty f’d up. Your steering wheel shouldn’t bounce or move at all over bumps. It might turn a bit to the right or the left depending on which wheel hits the bump first but bouncing? Hell no. The only two things that I could see causing that is your front subframe bolts getting loose, or the bolts holding the steering rack to the subframe being loose. All that stuff’s supposed to be static. A remote possibility is one of your steering column mounts being loose causing some slop in your steering column letting it move when you hit a bump. Good luck.

[lichtman]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

Is there a lot of play in the wheel when engine not running? Can you move the wheel up: down when not running? Maybe the problem is in the steering gear not the suspension. Plenty of people report similar problems when either the u-joint or the slip joint (no idea what it's actually called: allows telescope action).

Or what he said

[oldskewel]

My 2001 3.0i did not have any up-down steering wheel motion that I remember, but it did have a disturbing amount of clockwise-counterclockwise rotational free play, whether driving or stopped. Turns out that is a not uncommon problem, caused by the double-u-joint in the steering column. Easily fixed, discussed here:

https://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-for...ring-play.html

Some people seem to solve it by replacing the steering column. I did it by carefully re-tightening the locking screws.

I'd take a look at that joint. Helps to have a helper wiggling the steering wheel while you have your hand on the joint to feel for what is moving. Since I fixed mine (mentioned in that thread), my steering wheel is rock solid in all dimensions, now with 199k miles.

[andrewwynn]

That is exactly the part i has in mind.

[pbaker456]

Have you touched the front axles ( driveshafts) as you replaced other suspension components? I did a front passenger wheel hub bearing and messed with the driveshaft in the process. Once all back together took for test drive and had similar vibrations and wobble at pulling away from stop and over bumps. Replaced both driveshafts and ( drivers side) hub as well and drives like new.
Just a thought if you’ve run out of other possible causes.


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