Steering vibes in new used M3

[dopple]

Drove my new used M3 home (88k miles) and one thing I noticed is you get alot of vibration from the road through the steering wheel. I suppose part of this is the stiff suspension.

I seem to have a little steering wheel shimmy going on too. I know it need to be looked at and cant be diagnosed over the net but has anyone notice what they thought was a steering shimmy on an M3 to find that it is just a characteristic of the car?

The car has been babied and very well maintained with inner and outer tierods replaced but no control arms yet.

How does one test a control arm bushing anyway? I almost did it myself on the wifes 525 but I let a mechanic do the job. ( I save hundreds with Lemforders from Steven Haygood for less than $100 for the pair with bushings.

[foamerdave]

jack up front end. Pull the wheel (tire)up and down (12 o'clock to 6) movement here will tell you what shape the ball joints are in. Move the tire right to left ( 3 to 9) to see if the tie rods are truly new and good. O make sure your steering wheel is locked. If you can get movement in all O'Clock could be the bushings. Also if the bushings are bad you can feel the front end "shift" under hard breaking. Might also be one shot set of struts look for singe of leaking oil on them

[PJBIMMER]

Foamerdave hit the nail on the head! Check all those points.

[dopple]

Thank you very much. I appreciate your response and I will check the tire to see if I have a problem.

I think I am really going to love this M3. It is solid as a rock. Raw but solid.

[dopple]

Thanks for the help. I took it down to discount tires where the previous owner had tires put on and it turn out I had a badly bent wheel so we swapped out the spare and the problem is solved.

The tire guy suggests running a z series tire on the m3 for better feel and performance as opposed to the h series the previous owner ran to get better wear off the tire.