Flagpole Sitta
07-27-2008, 03:52 PM
On the E9x forum, many folks with the E93 vert are having a fluttering/buffetting noise when driving at certain speeds (namely around 60mph). It has been suggested that having your tires balanced on a Road Force Balancer (RFB) may eliminate the problem.
How common is Road Force Balancing a tire? I assume you have to ask (and pay extra) for such a service. Do all (most? some? not many?) tire shops have a Road Force Balancer?
Gary, when searching tirerack.com for installers, will we need to call the installer to ask if they have this service an how much extra on top of the installation prices found on tirerack.com?
BMW should do this for us with the fluttering noise. In fact, the SIB distributed to fix this problem first states to balance rear tires (but not specifically RFB). Many people who have had the SIB performed do not have a satisfactory fix, but someone has posted the RFB nearly eliminated his fluttering. However, depending on cost, I may not want to wait for BMW to figure this out (they have been incredibly slow to respond so far, and I find it curious that we on the 'fest may have fixed the problem before their engineers can). Plus, if I get rid of my RFTs soon, I want to ask about this RFB during install.
How common is Road Force Balancing a tire? I assume you have to ask (and pay extra) for such a service. Do all (most? some? not many?) tire shops have a Road Force Balancer?
Gary, when searching tirerack.com for installers, will we need to call the installer to ask if they have this service an how much extra on top of the installation prices found on tirerack.com?
BMW should do this for us with the fluttering noise. In fact, the SIB distributed to fix this problem first states to balance rear tires (but not specifically RFB). Many people who have had the SIB performed do not have a satisfactory fix, but someone has posted the RFB nearly eliminated his fluttering. However, depending on cost, I may not want to wait for BMW to figure this out (they have been incredibly slow to respond so far, and I find it curious that we on the 'fest may have fixed the problem before their engineers can). Plus, if I get rid of my RFTs soon, I want to ask about this RFB during install.
