[nightcrawlerb]

Hi,

Recently, I got a 2012 320D. (F30 184HP)

When my speed hits 50MPH, the car is getting shaky and my steering wheel starts shaking (not much but you can see sometimes especially in the morning but always feel when you are holding it).

Also, I get a feeling like pulsating on the steering wheel.

No shake on the car body.
No shake on the floor.

Shaking is higher in the morning for a few miles.
Also some roads the shake is disappearing.

The shaking starts on 50MPH and disappears 55MPH +

Here what is checked to now,

- All wheels road force balanced couple times, all is fine.
- Wheels are not bent
- All front parts are in tolerance values.
- No flat spots on tires
- Engine mounts are new
- I changed tires (Pirelli RFT to Hankook)
- I disconnected steering wheel servo

No change in braking or accelerating. (also new brake disc etc.)
I go neutral when shaking starts and nothing changes.

I have no other problem with the car. But this shaky feeling makes me crazy. I have been on it for two months.

Thank you very much for your comments.

 

[khammack]

An alignment which is off a bit can cause that type of shake.

 

[John MS]

A cv joint going bad can give a vibration like that. Is the car xdrive?

 

[nightcrawlerb]

An alignment which is off a bit can cause that type of shake.

We checked alignment, also, actually no pull to the right or left, the car goes straight

 

[nightcrawlerb]

A cv joint going bad can give a vibration like that. Is the car xdrive?

no, sDrive. We have checked both front and rear all components in their tolerance values.

 

[John MS]

Was it vibrating before you changed to Hankook tires?

 

[nightcrawlerb]

no, sDrive. We have checked both front and rear all components in their tolerance values.

Yes, It started while I was using Pirelli SottoZero3 RFT then I put Sottozeros to Hunter Road Force Balancing Machine, we got high road force values from two of them (22LBS, 18LBS ).

So I decided to move Hankook. Now Hankook gives 3-5lbs road force on machine.

 

[John MS]

I'm running out of ideas then. However you could try front to rear rotation, if tire sizes are the same.

 

[John in VA]

I initially thought flat-spotting of the tires, but doubtful on two different sets.

 

[John MS]

By doing a rotation you could eliminate or identify the wheels and/or tires as a cause.

 

[nightcrawlerb]

By doing a rotation you could eliminate or identify the wheels and/or tires as a cause.

I did it a couple of times with new and old tire sets. No luck. We checked with all possible wheel positions.

 

[nightcrawlerb]

I initially thought flat-spotting of the tires, but doubtful on two different sets.

Yes, I think tires are off the list. Tires create flat spots if they sit for a long time, but I am driving the car every day.

If the car sits more than 4-5 hours (the car is completely cooled down), It starts doing it more.

The car is on 100.000miles now and also has chain noise, turbo whistle. So, today we start to strip engine off from the car.

We will test every possible component and change them all. I am focusing on driveshaft components.

Also, I will change shock absorbers too.

Here are some photos :rofl:

 

[nightcrawlerb]

OK, here is update.

We put together the car. Also, we did some heavy maintenance jobs.

- Timing Chain,
- Injectors (Cleaned and Calibrated), also some parts of the engine replaced
- Driveshaft guibos
- Front shock absorbers (They were dead :rofl: )
- Transmission mounts
- Wheels Rebalanced and aligned
- Control Arm Bushings (forgot to mention)

BUT,

In the morning first 20-30 miles steering wheel is shaking and front of the car is still shimmy.

While the comfort and acceleration of the car are increased very well, the problem still persists.

Any ideas? :dunno:

 

[Jaakkova]

I have the same problem on my 99 540i. Same exact speed range steering wheel shakes and there is a slight vibration you can feel.

As my car has more pressing problems at the moment it's on the back burner for me. However I do remember finding a thread from some other guy with an e39 and the same problem. For him it turned out to be something wrong with the bushings in... The control arms?... Maybe. Something about gunked up oil and debries getting stuck in them. Maybe if you find the thread it will help.

Sent from my G9 PRO using Tapatalk

 

[nightcrawlerb]

I have the same problem on my 99 540i. Same exact speed range steering wheel shakes and there is a slight vibration you can feel.

As my car has more pressing problems at the moment it's on the back burner for me. However I do remember finding a thread from some other guy with an e39 and the same problem. For him it turned out to be something wrong with the bushings in... The control arms?... Maybe. Something about gunked up oil and debries getting stuck in them. Maybe if you find the thread it will help.

Sent from my G9 PRO using Tapatalk

I forgot to mention but the first thing we did is changing control arm bushings if you mean this part (an example is attached)

All parts that we changed could cause this problem but none of them is the right solution.

It is really interesting that there is no change after this effort. I mean the car is still doing the same thing in the same way.

we have also checked if a brake is stucking in the mornings, but no luck.

 

[JeroM3]

I know you mentioned that you checked for stuck brakes but do one thing. After driving around for a while with it shaking touch the wheel bolts and check how hot they are. If one side is a lot hotter then the others I would suspect sticking brakes.

With what you have done already, it might be the wheel bearings or CV joints but I***8217;m guessing those were already checked

 

[nightcrawlerb]

I know you mentioned that you checked for stuck brakes but do one thing. After driving around for a while with it shaking touch the wheel bolts and check how hot they are. If one side is a lot hotter then the others I would suspect sticking brakes.

With what you have done already, it might be the wheel bearings or CV joints but I'm guessing those were already checked

Two days before I have checked both discs after 2-3 minutes of driving, I found the right one %100 hotter than left.

Although we have already checked brakes on the lift there was no problem with braking, this was an obvious clue.

so, We rebuilt caliper and check all brake components carefully and replaced brake hoses today.

BUT NO LUCK, after 2-3 hours of sitting, my steering wheel shaking like crazy for 15-20min of first driving then shaking is going away, almost to zero,

I am totally lost again

 

[nightcrawlerb]

UPDATE:

This morning, before I hit the road, I got my tires pressured up to 45psi, waited a while, then drop 35psi, to eliminate If there is any flat-spotting.

So, no shimmy and shake on the same road every morning I passed.

So my conclusion is that my Hankook 225/55/18 tires, creating flat spots for 4-5 hours of sitting. Day or night if the car sits 4-5 hours, getting out of round

But how can this be possible? Outside temp here is 15C in the night, 25C in day.

 

[Glenn_gov]

Should think the brake discs

 

[ciscorob]

Should think the brake discs

This right here is where you should look. I have seen a lot of people scratch their heads about this issue, and I've seen it hundreds of times in the past, both when I was a mechanic and even after, helping others with the same issue.

You've ruled out all the other culprits, but warped brake rotors will cause this issue, your best bet is replacement. For the little extra money, some may argue against, or for the value, but I prefer to have the rotors cryogenically(sp?) treated. I had these on my former 328i and those rotors were on there for 100K miles, replaced them around 50K and sold with the same rotors, and this included a lot of trips around the mountains.