Hello,

I've owned my 1988 245 since 1999, and it has around 180k miles on it (speedo stopped working a while back). About five years ago I experienced a front end shudder at speeds in excess of 50 mph. I replaced the ball joints and tie rod ends, but the shudder got a little better, but never really went away....but I continued to live with it, because I normally only drive this car around town.

Recently, the shuddering has been getting very bad beyond the 50 mph mark and the steering doesn't seem normal, especially when steering at low speeds in a parking lot type situation. I don't believe there's a problem with the tie rod ends and ball joints, because I haven't put that many miles on this car since I replaced them. I know the steering column in these cars has an in-line U-joint, and I'm wondering if that might be getting sloppy. Since I'd like to be able to figure this out on my own, rather than paying $$ someone else $$ I thought I'd check on the Brickboard to see if any of you have experienced this problem in the past.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Oscar