My E300 1996 has developed a 55mph shimmy. It goes away at higher and lower speeds. On my kids BMW it was control arms. Any advice?
Milage 112k, new Michelins 10k ago, recently aligned.
TIA
Steve

Start with getting the tires rebalanced on a high quality machine. That seems to solve the problem 70% of the time and it doesn't cost much.

Discount Tire here in Texas has an excellent machine that they charge more for, but it works.

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

I just had my wheels rebalanced and much to my surprise the 55-mph shimmy is gone! This tells me my wheels were not as precisely balanced the first time as this time around. My control arm bushings are still probably worn, but this does confirm that a properly done balancing can cure this problem. Certainly having your wheels balanced is much easier and cheaper than replacing those bushings and should be tried first.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I've thought about just replacing the lower control arms when mine need it next...both can be bought for about $500-$600, and while I know this is a lot more than the bushings cost it means you can do the job fast and have a spare set of control arms to rebuild when the car is not "out of commission". Then, next time the bushings are worn in a few years you can just plug and play again without having the pressure of getting the job done while the car is immobilized.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

In addtion to the previous post if your tires are more than 70% worn they can make that same shimmy. On my 96 and 97 when I replaced the tires myine went away. But do try the balance job first.

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Keith Schuster
2006 E350 98K miles
2013 Ford Explorer 15K miles

Steve,
The 55mph speed related thing is almost always a symptom of worn factory Lower A-Arm bearings/bushings. You just had an alignment so they would have checked tie rods and ball joints so those must be OK or they would not have been able to do the alignment. If your new tires were not balanced properly or a balance weight flew off you would feel vibration through a longer range of speeds.

On all three of the MB's I have owned including the current 98 E-300TD they all had the same problem. And I tried new tires, rebalancing tires, alignments,
new shocks and they continued to have the 56-60MPH shimmy. The factory MB Lower A-Arm bearings are the culprits and they are crap! They were crap when they left the factory!

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FRED

Daily Driver: 98 E300TD 199K
Hobby Car: 69 Austin Mini
Past Diesels: 84 300SD, 312K
87 300SDL, 251K
94 Chev. K-1500 6.5Ltr.TD, 373K

They are lower Control Arm Bushings, I'm looking to replace mine this weekend. I just hope they press out ok....

1998 W210 Lower Control Arm Bushing Pix

97E300D,
Let us know how long the job takes....its been a while since I've done one myself and really was not looking forward to doing one again! ..keep us posted.
Thanks

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FRED

Daily Driver: 98 E300TD 199K
Hobby Car: 69 Austin Mini
Past Diesels: 84 300SD, 312K
87 300SDL, 251K
94 Chev. K-1500 6.5Ltr.TD, 373K

I'll take some pics of the process....My press is only rated at 11 Tons so I hope that will do it. My car is shaking like a wet dog when I get to 55-60. It's funny how it get better when the cold weather is here an worse when the summer heat makes the rubber softer. I wonder if this "LCB" issue contributes to the spring perch failures?

My car has the same issue even though my tires are fairly new and balanced, but I'm kind of reluctant to do something about it because it seems like a big job, I don't have the proper tools and it doesn't bother me very much or most of the time. Is an alignment required after this job? I'd hate to have to do that again because the local MB dealer had trouble getting it right last time. I noticed that the road surface also affects the extent of the shimmy. On rougher roads it's a lot less noticable. But on a very smooth road, on a hot summer day and around 55 mph, the shimming is embarrassingly noticeable.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL