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Devastated!

8K views 54 replies 14 participants last post by  First_745Li 
#1 ·
Fellow 7 owners I hoped I might have solved my vibration issues with 4 refurbed wheels and new tyres at considerable expense only to find she still feels like I'm driving up a cobbled street,. I took the car in thinking it was a tyre issue, I was told that they were mis sharpen, old and I had some small buckles. Fare to assume this might be the problem

Many pennies later the car looks fab but at 55 mph, drives like it has square wheels. The wheels are original 19inch spoke wheels as fitted from new and the tyres are new Dunlop as recommended for the car, not run flats.

The weird thing is this, some months ago I ran over a small bolder on the neighbours lawn, slow speed on the rear right, the car drove like silk and thought nothing of it. 2months later the vibration started and my wallet emptied.

It the bolder was the cause I might have expected to feel the vibration sooner? Or might it have caused something to stress and weaken with time, I'm at a loss. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
Um, you bent something and now it is broken loose or is vibrating loose. Have you taken the car to a qualified BMW mechanic that will check all of the suspension?

There cold be multiple problems, and driving the car could be making it worse.

My indy charges 49.90 to put the car on a rack and check it out, that's refundable if I use them for the repair.

Good luck
 
#3 ·
Thanks Sirstopher.

Yea had it checked out by a BMW specialist although not a dealer, he suggested a mis shaped rear tyre which prompted its change. The fitter saw the buckle which prompted the refurb! Looks like I might have to take it to a dealer, just wanted to avoid the robbery!

Will post any findings
 
#4 ·
I stay away from BMW at all cost. The only item that I will ever have them work on is alignment because they are the only place that can do it correctly.

I didn't look at your area but I would get on the phone and call every shop that can and will work on a BMW. Ask what their shop rate is, ask if they check your car and find the problem that the diagnostic charge is waved.

Many shops will work with you on this, you have to be firm in your request and get everything in writing.

I have two shops that I trust here, one will let me shop for parts and that is a plus because everyone marks stuff up or charges a higher shop per hour fee. Eventually you will find the best shop for your needs.

The shop I also like the best is great at the hourly rate, does quality work but is slow, I add two days to his quotes right off the bat.

Hope this helps again the dealer would be my last resort.
 
#5 ·
interesting....our bmw started doing the same thing but only after i installed 20" rims few weeks ago....the vibration starts over 45mph and gets worse with speed..under 45mph car is smooth

with stock oem 18's and bridgestone el400 car drives so smooth,but ever since i put 20's on the car they are staggered the vibration is there...

will have to take off front rims and take them to a place for balance and see if that helps...

all the bushings...suspension components look like new and solid on front

so im thinking its tires...back ones are falken fk452 they are excellent but front ones are some cheap brand..

will get back with results after wheel balance
 
#6 ·
Wheel balance should help. It will let you know if your tire has a flat spot or bends on the wheels. You would also feel most of the vibrations from the front just cause it would cause the steering wheel to vibrate.
 
#8 ·
I have today called a few garages and have found one who will put the car on a rolling road to see exactly wher e the vibration is coming from. I'm reasonably confident its not the wheeles.

I've also got some leads on BMW specialists who charge half the price of the dealers.

Once we've identified the area I can hone in my investigation.

Thanks for the advice
 
#9 ·
I have today called a few garages and have found one who will put the car on a rolling road to see exactly wher e the vibration is coming from. I'm reasonably confident its not the wheeles.

I've also got some leads on BMW specialists who charge half the price of the dealers.

Once we've identified the area I can hone in my investigation.

Thanks for the advice
what PSI are you running on front tires?
 
#12 ·
Could you isolate which side exactly is causing the vibrations. Front will vibrate the steering wheel and rears would vibrate your seat cushion. From there see if you could determine if it is passanger/driver side. Pull that wheel off and inspect for any wheel damage or maybe even a tire out of round such as a bubble. Replace the wheel with your spare and drive it around and see if that solves the issue. Start off with the minor solutions and if doesn't work then progress.
 
#13 ·
Can you describe the vibration a bit better? Do you feel it in your seat, steering wheel or both? Does it change with speed? How so?

There could be a few GOOD possibilities on what is causing the issues you are experiencing and these are my steps to eliminating vibration issues. With more info I can try to help out more.

Most common is wheel balancing; make sure you go to a GOOD shop that uses HUNTER ROAD FORCE machines to balance tires. Clean off your wheels as good as you can get them before you go!

Second issue I've noticed with newer tires is that most shops aren't mounting them properly. Make sure your tires have seated on the rim properly! A tire shop should be able to check this. IF it hasn't, dismount it and then remount the tire using high pressure mounting techniques!

Third, check all the lug bolts and make sure they are in good condition and properly torqued.

Fourth, check the suspension by putting the car on a lift and moving the wheel back and forth and such. Depending on which way it moves you can find and see if the issue is the control arm (thrust arm) bushings, the actual control arm (thrust arm), swaybar bushings, etc.
 
#14 ·
Csmeance.

Thanks for getting in touch.

The vibration is felt through the seat and a little through the steering wheel. It's generally worse around 55 moh and the frequency increases with speed. This gives the sense that it improves with speed!

I wnt this morning to have the tyre pressures checked as I had fitted new tyres. I found they were all set at 2.2 bar, I've had the rears set at 2.5 and this seems to have had a positive effect although the vibes are still there.

Next week I am visiting a garage with a rolling road so I can identify where the problem lies and visually check whilst running the car.

I will report my findings
 
#18 ·
still having issue...went down from 37.5 PSI to 35 PSI on fronts while still having 41 PSI on rears and now vibration in steering wheel is not as bad as used to be but still present...before it started around 45mph now starts at 53mph

should i lower the PSI on front to less then 35 with tire size 245/40/20???

last chance is to have them balanced with computerized machine and see if that is going to help...

all bushings on front end and all components are like new
Vibration in your seat predominantly means that it's the rear tires that are at at fault; and the slight vibration at the steering wheel means that there is a little bit of the front as well.

Now that we know the rear tires are the BIG issue, lets start with some things. First of all what rims are on the car? Are they BMW? What size are they?

Next the tires, What tires do you have and what size are they? The tires can be a HUGE issue! Where were they installed and how were they balanced? I suggest a tire place use a Road Force Balancer which warms up the tire and applies a load to it as they are much more accurate.

Third, do you have any sort of spacers, adapters or foreign objects between the wheel and the hub of the car?

Fourth, What is the condition and torque on the rear lug bolts? If improperly torqued or if damaged, the lugs cannot do their job properly!

Fifth, how are the bushings on the rear suspension?
 
#16 ·
still having issue...went down from 37.5 PSI to 35 PSI on fronts while still having 41 PSI on rears and now vibration in steering wheel is not as bad as used to be but still present...before it started around 45mph now starts at 53mph

should i lower the PSI on front to less then 35 with tire size 245/40/20???

last chance is to have them balanced with computerized machine and see if that is going to help...

all bushings on front end and all components are like new
 
#17 ·
From what I can tell there are four us now with that annoying vibration that's felt in the seats as steering wheel. My beast goes in tomorrow to have the lower control arm bushings checked, driveshaft inspected, and another member suggested counter weights might be missing in the driveshaft. My INDY doesn't think it's any of these items, still think its the wheels. Idk anymore.
 
#27 ·
I too am getting the vibration in the seats as well as in the steering wheel. I took it to my INDY today, he checked the rear suspension, bushings, control arms, and drive shaft.. according to him everything looks good. Tomorrow I am taking the car back so we can try the stock 19" wheels and see if the vibration is still present. My INDY thinks its the wheels/tires. I doubt it since this is the second set of brand new wheels. I'm so unhappy right now.
 
#29 ·
I hear this problem a lot an have heard that it may be the the larger rim. I'm not sure though. I wish everyone the best an please post the final results.
 
#32 ·
I think it's the Rims, they might be defected. They might be and look new, but could be poor quality material. I had a friend who had this issue. If the car runs fine with the 18's, then most likely it's them rims. Make sure that those screws are tighten right with the spacesors. If so, i would get rid of them. Stop wasting your time and money trying to find or fix something else that's not broken.
 
#33 ·
I had slight movement in my steering wheel at about 55-65 mph...no movement aft. 65-70mph, was really getting frustrated with it and was at a shop to have it Hunter road force balanced and the mechanic raised my car up and spun my front wheels and I could see the whole rim/wheel move very slightly from side to side, purchased new rims (aftermarket for 1200.00) now it is perfect. Oh and also I could feel the shaking in the floorboard) '06 530i...good luck it took me over 6 mos. To figure out...before that I bought 4 tires!

Sent from my MB855 using Bimmer App
 
#38 ·
Here's an update.... My INDY put OEM 19"s back on and we went out for a ride.. up and down I-95 and locally, smooth as glass.. like a 7 should be. Put my 22's back on and went back out... steering wheel shaking at 45mph and vibes in the seat, etc, etc. So I then took it to Serious Autosport here in WPB, they road forced all the tires, machine showed 3 "bad" tires meaning out of round or defective in some way. They re-indexed one tire and it balanced better. All four wheels were able to be balanced better than they were before. I drove home, the steering wheel doesn't shake anymore, still some vibes in the seat but that's from the tires. I called the other shop and I told them what the results were and I've requested to have all four new tires.. We will see what happens. I will definately go back to Serious Autosport to get the balancing re-checked.

bayerisheteknik,
They charged $15 extra to re-index that tire.
 
#41 ·
btw i solved my problem too...
with stock 18s car drives smooooooth...20s little vibration in steering wheel

i had my psi set in rear at 41 and fronts were 37.5....went down to 35 on fronts vibration less but still present...

so i thought let me go as sticker on door says...

i put 32PSI Front and on rear i went from 41PSi down to 35PSI and no more shaking....

i think like First_745Li mentioned you need reindexing and tires...

i believe my tires even though new are not perfect and with higher PSI they shake...

went down with PSI and no shaking.....
 
#44 ·
Hi all

It seems some of you have resolved the problem with smaller/larger rims and experimenting with different tyre pressures, I however have a different tale to tell:

I managed to find a garage that had a rolling road amd a lift, I'm fact they are a firm who deal with race engines, mod and manufacture, including mapping etc, not quite what I need but skilled engineers and much cheaper than BMW.

Firstly my re-ferbed wheels still had burrings on the wheel hub so they were not sitting well on the hub. The wheels are now true however the vibration was still present. The culprit was found to be a worn and cracked doghnut between the driveshaft and rear axel, this slack was being transmitted through the shaft to the rear wheels.

I went to collect the car and after only 30seconds of driving a loud knocking vibrating noise came from the middle if the car.......SSSSTTTTOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!

I called the garage"something is proper wrong" car in overnight

Got a call this morning, driveshaft bearing gone, the doughnut had been taking the slack and now it was new and rigid, the defected bearing was now having a voice!

My 750i sport is 7 years old with 80k on the clock, lets hope this is the end of it
 
#45 ·
Hi all

It seems some of you have resolved the problem with smaller/larger rims and experimenting with different tyre pressures, I however have a different tale to tell:

I managed to find a garage that had a rolling road amd a lift, I'm fact they are a firm who deal with race engines, mod and manufacture, including mapping etc, not quite what I need but skilled engineers and much cheaper than BMW.

Firstly my re-ferbed wheels still had burrings on the wheel hub so they were not sitting well on the hub. The wheels are now true however the vibration was still present. The culprit was found to be a worn and cracked doghnut between the driveshaft and rear axel, this slack was being transmitted through the shaft to the rear wheels.

I went to collect the car and after only 30seconds of driving a loud knocking vibrating noise came from the middle if the car.......SSSSTTTTOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!

I called the garage"something is proper wrong" car in overnight

Got a call this morning, driveshaft bearing gone, the doughnut had been taking the slack and now it was new and rigid, the defected bearing was now having a voice!

My 750i sport is 7 years old with 80k on the clock, lets hope this is the end of it
Good luck. I hope that was your issue.
 
#49 ·
Ahh, yes. I forgot that there is approx. 3 of you on this thread with a similar issue. Thanks for the correction. I still suggest isolating the problem to the rims.

I have a flat spot on my right front, but there is no mistaking where the problem is. Last time it was on the inner lip of the front rim (paid $150 to have it fixed), then a month later I hit another pot hole and flattened the outer lip. FAK! Totally my fault. I dont have vibration issues it has a little shimmy. Luckily there is a shop locally that carrys outer rings for Asanti wheels.

Once the issues are resolved please post the solution as this is always good to know and pretty common problem.

With all the state budget cuts the roads suffer around So-Cal. Combined with too many people here.
 
#48 ·
Bad Bearings

Sounds like bad bearings some where in the drive shaft or wheel bearings that are getting out of whack, depending on what load they have on them at a particular weight & speed. Once in a while they actually get into position whereby you think you fixed the problem. Then under a particular load they get out of alignment due to bad spots on some of the bearings and start causing vibration until they fall back into place temporairily. Pretty soon they or it (bearing) will break into small pieces and then you will know for sure where the problem is due to noise and crunching sounds. Thats my guess for now! I hope it works out ok for you. Good luck
 
#50 ·
Problem Solved!

The problem lay finally in the Drive/Prop shaft and specifically with the prop shaft mount and latterley the CV joint. I have had these replaced and the vibration has all but gone. i still have an issue with one of my wheels which was supposed to have been straightened but still has a ding in it which has just about balanced out.

There are plenty of threads on this site about vibration from the shafts and in most cases these two areas are the most common faults.

You might be told to replace the entire shaft.THIS REALLY IS NOT NECESSARY. you might also be told to have is rebalanced, again this may not be the case.

There are a few people who have done the job themselves but its a big job involving the removal of a very heavy exhaust and some specialist tools might be needed. Personally id find a garage that charges around 50 quid an hour. its a 4 hour job and the rear CV joint was 130. its not gonna blow the christmas fund!

best of luck....
 
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