Well, the shop called ... the good news is, the tire wear is what's causing the vibrations ... the bad news is, what's causing the tear wear is all four shocks are bad. Not the worst thing in the world. I'm having my dad's friend at the shop replace them with new Bilsteins while they've got the car there. A bit too much for me to handle right now even though I've been feeling a bit more chipper.
On the bright side, he complimented me on my brake work, and also said the rest of the car looks good. I always worry whether I'm doing the right things for my car or not so it's nice to get unsolicited reassurance.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

Just a little update. I got the 300D back from the tire shop, with all news struts and the tires rebalanced and rotated. It's a vast improvement. It still vibrates occasionally, especially at high speeds (70-80), which I'm assuming is because the tires are still very oddly worn. But the fact that it improved a lot when the tires were rotated, and has a different feel now when it does vibrate, at least suggests it was definitely the tires. Rather than buy new ones (these have 20K on them) the tires shop suggested I put a couple thousand miles on them and see if they even out a bit now that everything else is in all in order.

So, improvement, at least. My dad drove it and said it feels fantastic so maybe the little bit I still feel is my imagination. Nice to have confirmation that it wasn't the brakes dragging or anything I messed up in the driveshaft. Maybe now I can stop second-guessing myself ... at least a little ...

Now, onto replacing the rear window regulators and doing a little paint touchup ...

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

How often have you been rotating the tires previously? I'm just surprised that within the regular interval, they could wear THAT unevenly. Guess dead shocks would do it.

General recommendation is every 5K with the oil change, rotate the tires too. If you've been doing that, and had problems anyway, then this is pointless. But if you haven't -- one reason to do so is that the wear never has a chance to get that bad again in the same spots.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Very embarrassed to admit I've only had these rotated once. It's the one bit of maintenance I repeatedly neglect (via forgetting, not intentional neglect). I need to get it tattooed on my forehead.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)

When I first moved here (The Netherlands) I was amazed to see that virtually every car here has a little tag attached to the steering column - on the tag (wait for it) - they write when the car needs a service. May be you could use something like this instead of going through the pain of body art on a rather tender part?

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Have the ball joints ever been replaced on Bodhi?

__________________
98 Dodge-Cummins pickup (123k)
13 GLK250 (135k)
06 E320CDI (323K)
16 C300 (62K)
82 300GD Gelaendewagen (54K)

They were done in 2003 along with pretty much everything in the front, by my indy.

__________________
1987 300D, arctic white/palomino--314,000 miles
1978 240D 4-speed, Euro Delivery, light ivory/bamboo--370,000 miles
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited, light khaki/slate--140,000 miles
2018 Chevy Cruze diesel, 6-speed manual, satin steel metallic/kalahari--19,000 miles
1982 Peugeot 505 diesel, 4-speed manual, blue/blue, 130,000 miles
1995 S320, black/parchment--34,000 miles (Dad's car)