Help !! 'Shimmy' at the back of E36

[moreymach]

Got a 1996 E36 318 and recently its developed what I can only describe as a shimmy or wobble when one of the back wheels goes over a pot hole or more normally manhole covers. Even on a straight road it still almost seems to step out at the rear when the either wheel passes over anything larger than a cats eye. The rear tyres were a nondescript make and last week I put some Continental's on it and its made very little diference. Today was MOT time and I was hoping somthing may come out then, it went straight through. Any thoughts would be apreciated as its really rather unpleasant to drive as it is.

Guy.

[silverback mike]

Possibly rear suspension bushes.
A pig to get off but not too expensive.

[moreymach]

silverback mike said:

Possibly rear suspension bushes. A pig to get off but not too expensive.

Sounds like skinned knuckle time to me .. thanks for the input.

[cortinaman]

my e30 developed a 'shimmy' on the back end after i hit a large pothole,the force of hitting it pushed the n/s suspension damper through into the boot.apart from the obvious 'shite handling' that occured during driving the only other clue came when i noticed when i pushed down on the back end of the car the top of the damper could be seen going up and down through the top of the turret.

cost of repair-£105 for both rear dampers and a new top plate from kwik-fit (top plate fitted by a bmw technician at kwik-fit as their own fitters are not allowed to touch this.)

[hughjayteens]

Rear top mounts are a common weakness of E36s - would get those looked at first as they are pretty cheap and will need doing before long either way!

[dannybmw]

I had something similar which can only be described as when accelerating and changing gear the rear of the car would lurch from one side to the other i had it checked out and it was a rear axel mount so may be you have go the same problem. It was quite costly though as it needed welding.

[moreymach]

I had the rear shocker mounts done ( was only 50 squids and after 158,000 miles they were pobably due anyway ! ) but no diference.. I guess its off to the dealer for rear bushes which look a bit too tricky for me to fiddle with. Many thanks for the input guys.