I shot the shimmy but I did not shoot the 740

[acspecialists]

Well after over a year my shimmy is gone. props to Timm again I followed his right up to the letter.

When I bought my car over a year ago it had a shimmy. I knew the deal because of the excellent information on this forum that i reviewed before my purchase. The front tires were due so I started with new tires and balancing. In fact they got me the wrong tires at first so I drove on two different sets of tires to eliminate that possibility.

Next was the hubs. I purchased new hub spacers because I have aftermarket 20" wheels. No change. During my driving when it was quiet I could hear a thunk so I knew something was loose.

Next I had the car up to do the brakes and pushed the hub around. The car has urethane bushings on the strut arms and I had an invoice from the PO for tie rods end and an alignment 10K before I bought it. Couldn't find a smoking gun.

Just last week I had the struts out to install new camber plates and I found my problem. The last piece of the puzzle, the tie rod. I grabbed the passenger wheel and was able to move it about a 1/2" in and out by hand. I could see the socket for the tie rod moving. With one wheel off it was not hard to change. I tried several methods for disconnecting the taper joints. Good old fashioned smashing it with a hammer did the trick. Both the end socket and idle arm socket were worn out.

Now that I have the new tie rod in and the shimmy gone I'm going to do a shade tree alignment before I take it to the pro's. I'll do write up on how close I get with a simple string and a level.

In closing let me say the BMW ownership is a true PITA! Everytime I lay my hands on my car I spit and curse. If it were not the finest true drivers car on the road I would douse it with gasoline and light it on fire. If I drove a Honda I would never have to work on it but I would shoot myself.

[oldroller]

Well said. We all feel the pain/joy of the E38.
Any pleasure worth having is worth enduring some aggravation for.
With the exception of my marriage...wish I had bought an M5 instead!