I have a terrible steering wheel vibration at around 56-60mph. Feels like the whole car is shaking.

this is what I have done-
-2 new Lemforder engine mounts
-new Lemforder center drag link
-2 new TRW tie rods
-2 new strut mounts
-professional alignment (every thing adjusted to spec)
-got my tires balanced
-new flex disks and tranny mounts installed with the new transmission 2 years ago

the vibration is as bad as can be. I would even use the word violent. I tried moving the tires around with the same effect.

the shocks are 2 year old Bilsteins. However, When I put them in, I didn't install the mudgards that protect the shocks' center shaft. I did notice that when i installed the passenger side strut mount, the shock was much easier to pull down than the drivers side.

Could 1 soft shock cause the violent vibration? Note that I can always feel it at that speed.

The one part I have not changed is the idler arm bushing. could it be the culprit?

The car is almost unsafe to drive. Please help.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

When was the last time the lower ball joints were done? What do they look like?

I've never had steering wheel vibrations at higher speeds that wasn't tire / wheel related. I'd try swapping tires front to back.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

I have, and it burned through the tires. But it wasn't a Mercedes.

Sounds like lower control arm (LCA) bushings to me. There shouldn't be any noticeable flex in the LCA if you take a pry bar to the joint in the perpendicular direction to the LCA bushing bolt. If there is then that could be your problem.

This sounds like extreme ball joint wear, on a 201 they are under tension so to check them you need to sort of unload the weight off the control arm and then lever the wheel/hub up and down.

I faced this only once in my W124 - and never faced it again after new ball joints - the old ones had lots of up and down play and even side to side play.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

I am thinking lower ball joints too.

When I was a mechanic at a local Indy shop I had a lady that owned a car that had a vibration in the front at around 55 MPH, even though the tires showed fine on the computerized balancer (Uniroyal's), We replaced all the tires and two rims and all was fine.
If I remember the rims did not wobble, but with no tire mounted on it they needed about 2 or 3 ounces of weight, That's crazy for a rim by itself. It seems the rim caused the tire to be out of round after running on them for a few months.
I wondered if she had not hit a median or curb?
Anyways story is 55 to 60 MPH vibration is tires or rims. If it was ball joints it would be easy to determine because of the amount of play in the front end and the tire wear.
Then that tire wear could cause the vibration.

with the front raised, there is no up and down slack. the ball joint boots look fine.

i will have to check the LCA bushings. I assume this is the rubber that attaches the LCA to the frame of the car. Visually, some of the rubber looks worn.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Here is my problem with inspected it with it raised by hand. Do you think you put more force on it than the weight of the car moving 50 mph? I am not saying the ball joints are bad, but I do not think a raised hands on test is definitive for anything where forces are greater than we can mimic.

this might be the next alternative. New tires.
I will get them to check the balance of the rims (without tires) as well.

until then, i will rotate the tires to isolate the problem further. it just sucks.

luckily, the w123 300d is the backup car and it seems to be doing fine.

Deer rutting season is coming up and where I live, hitting a deer is often a 50/50 proposition. I would rather hit one in a w123 anyway.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

good point. also, ball joints are cheap anyway and i have the tools to replace them.

this whole exercise is rather annoying to me because I am turning into a 'parts changer' not a mechanic. what can i say? i am learning as I go!

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

For problems like this I find that slip plates often help. You have to watch yourself and what the car is doing if you try this (it can be dangerous) but by getting someone to bounce the car up and down you can often see what is happening; because the slip plates allow the kind of travel and movement that you get with a rolling wheel

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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!

This has some interesting aspects..

.

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You need a pry bar to properly check the ball joints. Just shaking the wheel isn't enough on these cars. gsxr shared a diagram of how to set the pry bar within the last couple of months.

Sixto
87 300D