'87 240 DL w/ 210K miles. On 2/27/04, front brake pads and rotors (OE) were replaced. Beginning in May, whenever I apply the brakes at highway speeds, the steering wheel vibrates (feels like driving over a washboard) but otherwise the brakes work fine and there is no brake noise. I returned to the garage and they said that the the brakes were fine, but the RIGHT front ball joint was bad and causing the vibration and the rear pads/rotors would need replacing soon. I continued to drive it like that and 5 weeks ago I took it to another garage and they said the LEFT front ball joint was bad. Not remembering that the first garage said it was the RIGHT b. joint, I had them replace the LEFT one. They also said I needed new front brake pads and would soon need new front rotors. They replaced the pads, but not the rotors as they had only 11,000 miles on them. The vibration continued. I went back to the first garage and they said the rotors should be good for 3-4 sets of pads. They also said the RIGHT ball joint still needs to be replaced and the REAR pads and rotors are metal to metal. They "think" the vibration is due to the bad ball joint, OR the rear pads/rotors, but won't know for sure until they're all replaced. Any help is appreciated.

BudaVol '87

Hmm...are you taking your car to Midas? just kiddin'

Vibration in the steering wheel when braking is due to a few things
1. either excessive runout in the rotor(s) (most often noticed with a occillating steering wheel)
2. either excessive parallelism in the rotor(s) (most often noticed with a pulsating pedal)
3. bad wheel bearings

A ball joint could possibly cause a vibration, however it depends on how bad it is and most often a bad ball joint on the 240 will click when going over bumps at low speeds, not vibrate the steering wheel, at least not on a 240.

TIP: whenever replacing pads ALWAYS!!! either replace rotors or machine rotors to true. A new rotor DOES NOT need to be machined, regardless of what shop tells you so, they are already done the best they can be at the factory and the finish on them is the best they can be.

I would have your wheel bearings checked or do them yourself, a shop manual has an easy procedure for this.

REAR BRAKES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH VIBRATION WHEN BRAKING!!! they only do about 20-30% of the braking and regardless, ask yourself how would the rear brakes affect your steering wheel???? eh?

Good luck!

Chuck
(Now ASE certified in Brakes and Electrical! YAY)

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'88 244 174K, '87 BMW 325e 180K (used to feed a '84 245, '84 244, '85 744)