Subject: 635 CSi Front End Shimmy Author: rayz : member since December, 2004 : 15 posts Posted on: 2005-02-04 10:49:28

I bought a very nice ’88 635 CSi in November and like the car very much. I’ve been going through it repairing little things, and some not so little. I was experiencing a front end shimmy when applying the brakes. A number of folks recommended I look at the thrust arm bushings. Yes, they were pretty much shot.

To make sure it was not the brakes, I checked the run-out and they are within spec.

I decided since I didn’t know the condition of the lower control arm bushings / ball joints and suspected the thrust arm ball joints were not very good either I decided to replace all four arms. The car has 129k miles.

After replacing the arms I went for a drive and the front end felt good up to about 40 mph and then began to shake very bad – much worse than before – without the brakes being applied.

I made sure to tighten the ball joints and the bushing end thru bolts to the correct torque specification. I preloaded the front end before tightening the thrust arm bushings. I did not preload the lower arm bushings. Is that where I made my mistake?

Could it be a function of the front end having been aligned previously with the weak bushings?

Could it be that I’ll need to replace the left, right and center tie rod (s) and ball joints.

I would appreciate hearing from someone that can shed some light on this -THANKS -Ray

• 635 CSi Front End Shimmy - rayz 2005-02-04 10:49:28 (1296 views)
  • 129K is the life expectancy of the steering stuff. This - kff 2005-02-05 09:39:50 (1281 views)
  • I believe they do need to be tightened with the weight of the - DavidC 2005-02-04 13:32:58 (1063 views)