FYI: Winter Warning - Scary Experience

[dgellman@xxxxxxx]

I just had a rather scary experience that I thought I'd share with others, for
future reference.  I took out my car for the first time since the frigid weather
hit the East Coast.  I gave the car a few minutes to warm up, but not alot
considering that it had sat ice cold all week.  I tried to quickly merge onto a
parkway. and all of a sudden, the steering wheel shook like hell!  It was like
nothing I had experienced in twenty-five years of driving!  I slowly drove (no
shaking) about two miles, until I could pull off of the parkway.  I got out
looked at the front tires for a major flat or front-end damage that could
explain the problem.  None.  I started driving again, and once I went over
40MPH, it shook again.  I was actually heading to the BMW Ultimate Drive in NJ,
but decided I should go to the mechanic (EuroMeccanica, in Mount Vernon; a good
friend of the NY chapter of BMWCCA - in fact, he is hosting a chapter event a
week from tomorrow [ Feb 5th]).  While driving there, it continued to shake at
50MPH, so I drove VERY slowly.

However, just before I got to Mike's, I was able to ease up to 70 MPH!  I was
puzzled.  When I got there, I probably was pale, worried that I had really
damaged something on my e30.  I explained the story to Mike.  He said " You
probably had a chunk of ice or snow in your wheel and it threw it
out-of-balance, but then melted or fell out by the time you got here."  That
made perfectly good sense to me - unfortunately my car is parked outdoors, about
150 yards from the Hudson River, and my apartment windows were COVERED with ice!
So, probably some snow or ice blew up into the wheels!!

Moral of the story: If there is a major snow/ice storm, besides digging out your
car from the snow, look into the wheels and see if there is any snow or ice
stuck in there before you drive!!



Regards,

David:.............................................______
 '93 325ic <E30>.................................o/__ ___\o
5-speed;LSD;JimC................................ (oo=00=oo)
BMW CCA #138963..................................[]=----=[]
Spuyten Duyvil, New York

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