And I'm sorry, I know this was discussed but I can't find it.
83 W123 300D Coupe 205,000
I haven't used the car for about a month. Got in it this morning and when I started to accelerate to highway speeds, say 60~70 mph the car started to vibrate very very severely, felt like a wheel was coming loose. Brought the speed back down and continued to drive. The shimmy all but disappeared. I gradually built speed back up and actually got to 75 mph with no more than the slightest out of balance wheel type shimmy. During the summer I had the car up and looked over it's suspension. The upper control arm rubbers are a little cracked, the ball joint rubber seems OK and the control rods appear to be where they belong. I'm pretty sure I read in here someplace of someone else experiencing this kind of sudden, severe wobbling problem. Any suggestions as to what I should check? Very scary when it happened.

Tires can get a "flat spot" from sitting in the same spot, especially with cold weather. The "problem" disappeared when the tires warmed up.

You probably don't have a problem. Just drive around a little more at slower speeds until the tires get warmed up.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

RM,

I agree that its tires that caused the shimmy. Shimmy is usually from a slipped radial belt but if it corrected itself, its probably what SD Blue said.

Most of you younger guys don't remember when Nylon cord tires came out in the early sixties. Every cold morning the tires went bump, bump, bump until the nylon cords warmed up and became flexible. That's why Nylon cord was replaced by polyester cord as soon as it became economical to use.

P E H

Well, I hope this is it. I do have to drive about 6 miles before getting to a highway where I can get up to 60+ so I'm still a little worried. The car was sitting for a month; the tires would definitely be somewhat flat spotted. I should know for sure tomorrow morning when I take it to work again as it never did the last winter when it was being driven a lot. After tomorrow though, back to sleep, too nice a car for salted roads.