"wubba wubba wubba", huh? Well that's better than "WHOMP, WHOMP, WHOMP"!

I just had to say that I literally laughed out loud when I read the title of this thread. Been a long time since I've done that

Is the one tire that is down to the wear bars worn evenly, or just on one edge? 18k miles sure seems low for a tire to be worn out...

Does the steering wheel shake at all?

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

That was intended.

Worn evenly. It was on the right rear of the car.

Has for some time now. Even before I rotated and rebalanced.

Steering wheel shake is not normal, find a good alignment shop and have the alignment and front end components checked again. Last time I had that it turned out to be a bad tie-rod end.

That is exactly where I was going with that question...

Do the steering wheel shake and the "wubba, wubba, wubba" seem to be in sync? One shake for every wubba, or two shakes for every wubba, something like that? Or do the speed and frequency of the steering wheel shakes and the noise seem to be different?

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

The shaking is somewhat in sync with the noise, but it was there before the rotation. I will probably have the LCAs, front suspension and alignment done sometime in the next six months.

Sounds like it could be as many as 3 separate issues to me
1) a tire with bad rubber compound - shouldn't be worn out at less than 18k
2) alignment isn't right - steering wheel shouldn't be shaking
3) a tire with a separated belt or cord - the wubba, wubba, wubba, sound...

__________________
1984 300 Coupe TurboDiesel
Silver blue paint over navy blue interior
2nd owner & 2nd engine in an otherwise
99% original unmolested car
~210k miles on the clock

1986 Ford F250 4x4 Supercab
Charcoal & blue two tone paint over burgundy interior
Banks turbo, DRW, ZF-5 & SMF conversion
152k on the clock - actual mileage unknown

I can only speak to my own personal experience with my '98 but I can tell you two facts I have observed on my car:

1) If you don't rotate the tires you WILL wear the right rear out faster than all of the others. I wore out a snow tire in about 10K miles by leaving it on that corner. It is critical to rotate them every 5K and use a criss-cross pattern. For that reason I recommend avoiding directional tread tires unless you want to pay to have the remounted and rebalanced every 5K miles.

2) Any time I had front end vibration it was attributed to a tire or wheel problem, period. These are very common. Even brand new tires can be balanced and still be out of round causing vibrations and need to be scrutinized very closely. Wheels can be bent also causing vibration. Bent wheels occur by hitting potholes and don't think you don't have a bent wheel - I had 2! They can be repaired, though it is costly at about $100 a wheel it is the only way to eliminate the problem they cause.

Just getting brand new tires and having them balanced is no assurance they will fix the problem since if you have a bent wheel changing the tire will do nothing. I would stronly recommend you have the wheels and tires on the front closely examined rather than spending money on parts like LCAs which may have nothing wrong with them.

I will now say something controversial here, you will not get a vibration in the front end if your tires and wheels are perfect and you have worn front end parts or minor alignment issues, period. The vibrations all come from the tires and wheels. Worn suspension parts may make out of round or out of balance balance tires and wheels related vibrations worse and if the front end parts were new it might help mask/damp the vibrations. In other words, if the tires and wheels are perfect your vibrations will almost assuradly go away. It took me 3 years to realize this but now, without changing a single suspension part but simply by having 2 wheels straightened and new, round tires installed I have a car which has no front end vibrations.

I know people will say things like "I had a vibration at 60+ MPH that went away after I replaced the LCA bushings" but they are confusing the improvement by thinking the bushings can cause vibrations which they can't. The vibrations only come from the parts which are spinning. New bushings simply treat the symptom and absorb some minor shake, like the way taking an aspirin will make a headache go away but it won't cure a brain tumor. The bad tires/wheels will wear out the suspension parts faster too, so just replacing them without curing the cause of the problem will simply mean that you'll be doing it again sooner than you would if you fixed it right. Of course your dealer will be happy to sell you $2000 worth of suspension work to mask it but you can probably cure it for $500.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz