It all started with a vibration at 60mph then it started getting worse.
It felt like it was coming from my front offside wheel,but no vibration through steering wheel. After a read up in a haynes manual , jacked car up .No wheel movement spins smooth (bearing seems to be ok and outter cv joint no movement or grinding)
Thought it must be inner cv joint or shaft bearing as when i unbolted bearing seemed like a slight bit of move ment.
I took the plunge and bought an off side and nearside drive shaft as my baby had done 215,000 miles, I fitted both sides one saturday afternoon checked bearings again and checked all control joints for play .All checked out .
Took her for a spin.
Oh my god its still there.
Another look in the haynes manual and on the internet ,and it was pointing to a gearbox bearing or fluid loss.
Drained gearbox oil and found metal particles in the oil.
I purchased a gear box from a local breakers yard that had 75,000 on it.
A day and a half later new box on and its time for a spin.
No thats not it .
I have to use it for work 50 miles a day and its getting worse its starting at 30 now gets worse to 60 and stays the same up to 80 .Everyday its there vibrating buzzing at me.
Still nothing through the steering wheel am I looking in the wrong place?
but it goes quite on a left hand corner and worse on a right !
Is it at the back ?
A read up about it again ,vibration felt through the car and not steering at the rear.
It dawned on me the bad winter we had ,lots of pot holes it could be something as simple as an un balanced tyre or out of shape.
Had all four checked NO wasnt that . All 4 ok.
Once again car jacked up at the rear . Nothing loose with the rear wheels hanging or sat on the wheels.?
Bearings could be the cause but they seemed ok . sod I thought back to the breakers a pair of rear bearings of a 70,000 car for £20 .
( I had desided to use the breakers as its the cheaper option until I find the offending part)
No that didnt work I thought it must be the shocks its the only thing left to do. Another £20 for the shocks off the same car,and you can guess my heart sank lower than a snake in a wagon rut.
Its had started to be obsessive a long time ago ,its not going to beat me.
And everyday it vibrated at me like it was laughing at me,you could turn the music up and drown it out buy I new it was there. the evil Bas:@<d.
Another few days later I put it on axle stands at the front (again) and jacked both front wheels up to ride hieght. and found nothing to be wrong or lose all the engine mounts I had checked when I took the gearbox out.
???????????????????????????????????
I started the engine and in to gear and I could hear a hum in 5th on tickover .Result Ive tracked it down to the front of the car.
I put my hand on top of the front offside strut and it was buzzing ! .went to the nearside strutt nothing.
I know this was dangerous but I got under the front on the offside and felt the suspension spring (Buzzing) but not the nearside (I felt like predator with his lasers on hunting an alien down)
I next let my finger tips touch the drive shafts and nothing.
Strange I thought looking up Ive checked the bearings for movement span the wheel couldn`t feel or hear any grinding more than a few times?
And as I lay there engine running above me in gear contemplating if the front strutt was duff ,I noticed the outter cv joint moving slightly only maybe 1 or 2 mm (or about a 32nd or 16th of an inch).
Back to the breakers yard again same doner car 2 front bearings another £20 .
Fitted the offside first and took it for a spin .
It was gone that bloody noise was gone
When you span the old bearing it felt like a dial on a safe.
Changed the other side It all would of taken a about an hour to do apart from I lost my locking nut socket and spent a few more removing all locking nuts. Oh joy.
Anyway the vibrations gone
Its just if you suspect a wheel bearing check it properly and take the drive shaft out of it.This would of save me a lot of time and money.
All this for a 1995 850 20v with 215,000 on the clock but now with a 75,000 gearbox and under carriage. So she will be good for a few more then I hope.
I hope my post helps a few people if they are having the same problems
Cheers
Chris

 

When I get vibrations, the 1st thing I suspect is the tires being out of balance. But I guess that would shake the steering wheel a little.

 

Glad you found it Chris!! Finally finding a nagging problem like that is very rewarding; thanks for sharing.

Don't forget to get the alignment checked after all that front end R+R...

 

Thanks for the replies .and I checked the wheel alignment .It might not be a computer doing it,but with a bit of fabrication and 2 new tape measures of the same brand you can get it to within half a mm .
If anyone intrested I will take some pics to show you what to do.
And gdog you carn`t imagine how good it felt on the drive to work today.
cheers
chris

 

Pics are always welcome!

 

I'd be interested to see your alignment setup, too. I've done a driveway alignment with a laser level shining on the garage door. I simply checked the distance between the spots on the door to see if the car was toed in or out.