Help My car is vibrating!

[cherylo]

Can anyone give me advice on my intermittent vibrating steering wheel and car? I have booked it in to my nearest trusted garage but they cannot look at it until Saturday and I dont know if I should be driving it at all until then?

Symptoms include:

Steering wheel vibrating violently
entire car vibrating
low noise coming from underneath
feeling of being on rough terrian even on a level road service.

It doesnt happen all the time, I may drive 30 miles before it starts and it could last for 5 minutes or a half hour.

Thanks

Cherylo :(

[witeshark]

What model car? How many miles are on it?

[cherylo]

Many thanks for taking time out to reply.

My car is a 1999 328i and the mileage is 87k.

[witeshark]

I would check the tires for strange wear patterns. It may be a good idea to get the drive shaft and joints inspected.

[cherylo]

I had it serviced in november and he said the bushes would need looking at by the time the next service came around. One thing he didnt know was the fact that I driver circa 2000 miles a month to get to work.
Would worn bushes cause this problem do you think?

[witeshark]

Yeah it's possible.

[Steve323i99]

My first guess would be that the Control arm bushings are going bad, like you mentioned.

[warcraftjjs]

The rear control arms are most prop the problem. But have the front arm checked to and your tires.

[cherylo]

Many thanks for your reply and thanks to everyone else who contributed! I shall post a message on the forum on Monday as it's booked in to the garage tomorrow

[yammahamma]

My car had similar symptoms...turns out it was the drive shaft coupler. The bearings had completely broken through the housing.