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| 04-26-2020, 10:49 AM | #1 |
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Steering wheel vibration/shake
2008 BMW 135i
I'm getting steering wheel shake(not a lot but enough to question)... From 60-80mph I get the shake... From 80mph up it gets more steady(what i would like it to feel like)... (Note - car sat at Indy shop for 50 days while on travel for work for new turbos) Car was aligned and road forced balanced at Goss garage Extra info to know: - coilovers(dinan camber plates) - nitro neo gen tires(bought in 2018, staggered) - used bmw performance rotors up front(a lot of life left) - M3 control arms - M3 sway bar Can anyone shed some light or have any suggestions? |
| 04-26-2020, 02:51 PM | #2 |
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I was going to suggest it was the lower control arm bushings, which produced a nasty shake for me as mine were worn.
Could be the tires themselves, in some cases can't quite be fully balanced due to manufacturing defects. Also could be remaining control arms that have some limited play in them but not enough to detect with the traditional testing...only way to find out is to rebuild the entire front end. I'm presuming of course you have high mileage based on the model year of your car....I'm afraid these are things we have to live with in an old car...kind of gave up trying to make mine perfect given it's age now. |
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| 04-26-2020, 03:37 PM | #3 | |
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Well the thing is... Before I left the steering had minimal shake... So back in January... It's was perfect... It wasn't until I got back and took the time to actually drive it that I felt the steering wheel shake... Maybe with nitto tires you can't let them sit for longer than a month? Rebuilding the entire front end is probably out of the question for now, maybe later on down the road... The only other thing that changed was me putting on performance rotors... But I know that I should not get steering wheel shake from that... Not to mention, I have no steering vibration when I brake! |
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| 04-26-2020, 08:48 PM | #4 | |
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| 04-26-2020, 08:55 PM | #5 |
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Bad balance job. If you had it rebalanced, scrape all the weights off, and take the car to a different shop and have them rebalanced.
Other thought is you may need new tires if they're more than 3y past the production date and sat in a lot for months.
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| 04-26-2020, 09:54 PM | #6 | |
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Was gonna call the shop to complain... They told me my tires were perfectly balanced... They did road force but they couldn't match mount them... The reason for me not to complain would be because my car sat for 50 days(as mentioned)... So most likely my fault IF they have developed hard spots... Will check the tire expo/production to see what the date is... Bought them in 2018, and if they are expired then I know who to call to complain too... |
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| 04-26-2020, 09:55 PM | #7 | |
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Tires production date is 2017... What I did notice though is that 3 out of 4 tires have wheel weights on... Probably not an indication of bad balancing but warrants a call... Hopefully a rebalance is given because they certainly didn't remedy the steering wheel shake... |
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| 04-27-2020, 07:25 AM | #8 | |
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| 04-27-2020, 08:08 AM | #9 | ||
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I was told they couldn't road force or match mount my tires do to the hard compound of the nitto tire that i have... I was told that the tires did balance out to zero... He also told me that due to the car being lowered and having excessive camber(i have Dinan camber plates) that the car is prone to more steering wheel shake... And then he finally said that maybe I should get tires with a softer compound... Ok... This is the difference between someone who takes pride in their work and someone who does mechanic work because it's their job... I took my car to this same garage when i first put my coil overs on about a year ago and the gentleman(Jim) that did my alignment and balance was able to both road force and match mount my tires...(he is retired now). The car drove well! I'm willing to bet that if they road force and match mount my tires... It would drive with no steering shake or minimal at best... Don't think there is anything I can do at this point... Unless I call discount tire and see if I can get them replaced... I have 2 tire replacements I haven't used... |
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| 04-27-2020, 08:46 AM | #10 |
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After reading this through, my vote is the weights have come off the wheel where you don't find any. Most likely was balanced fine when they finished the job, but at some point those weights were lost and now you have the classic out of balance vibes from 55ish to 75ish.
You can pay your original shop to rebalance that one, or someplace different and have them check all four. Regardless, that should correct your symptoms.
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| 04-27-2020, 10:14 PM | #11 | |
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They agreed to rebranding the one tire... SA said the tire should have had weights on it and that it must of fell off... Wednesday appointment, will see how it goes! Thanks all for the guidance and suggestions... Much appreciated! |
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| 04-28-2020, 06:58 PM | #12 |
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Awesome they agreed to take care of you!
Bet the wheel is cleaned a bit better this time before the weights are stuck on! 
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135i - E82.N54 2009 BSM - MHD / xHP / DCI, PR CP & 7.5" Race IC / N55 mid & Borla . . WL RSFI, Koni, Eibach & Dinan CP's, M3 CA's / EBC Red's & Firehawk 500's X1 - E84.N20 2013 MGM - JB4 - The Wife's, now with new turbo & ewg |
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| 04-29-2020, 02:49 PM | #14 | ||
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The wheel did in fact balance out without wheels weights... Saw it with my own eyes... The issue that I'm having per the tech that i talked to... My tires are wearing uneven... And I guess the unevenness is contributing to my shake... He also told me that due to the negative camber... It's causing my tires to wear uneven... So if i was to get new tires I would have no steering wheel shake but eventually I would right back to where I am due to uneven wear... And then finally he told me to get tires with a softer compound because the nittos are a hard compound, not good for the type of cars we have... So i guess I'm in the market for either adjustable upper control arms or adjustable camber plates... That would help with the uneven wear... |
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| 04-29-2020, 07:13 PM | #15 |
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Having additional negative camber alone is not enough to cause a vibration at certain speeds if the alignment was good and the suspension is in good condition. It can cause your tires to wear more on the inner edge of the tire than the outside but this wear should be even on both sides of the car (the left front tire will wear the same as the right) and it shouldn't cause a vibration issue.
When reading this thread, my first instinct was missing wheel weights but you seemed to have eliminated that. It is possible for wheels/tires to not need weights when mounting them but it is definitely the exception rather than the rule. It doesn't sound like you are able to isolate the issue to one side of the car or the other, but you might try switching the two front wheels and seeing if the vibration moves along with the wheel. That would confirm that it is a wheel issue and not a worn piece of your suspension. -Tom
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| 04-29-2020, 09:42 PM | #16 |
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I've had Dinan camber plates on my car since the summer of 2016 (and a Bilstein B12 kit). I've gone through 3 sets of tires (on my 3rd now) with the plates on. I don't buy the argument that the plates are what is causing the shake - none of the tires that I wore all the way down had a shake, it only started for me once the mileage got higher and was mostly my lower control arms. Replaced those and I have a slight shake still - tires balance out and they are relatively new (only 1 summer old).
So the pattern doesn't stick. It's an easy thing for the shop to point to since it's not a stock component...the shake may be due to poor wear on the tires but I wouldn't say it's caused by the plates per se - it could be other worn components... As I was saying, hard to really tell unless you're doing a full refresh. I kind of gave up after the lower control arms and I deal with it - the car is now at 175K kms, it's never really going to be the same as when I bought it.... |
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| 04-30-2020, 09:35 PM | #17 | |
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Could be entirely possible that they rotated all four tires...(front right to front left, rear right to rear left)... I have for the most part all new m3 suspension parts on my car(less than a year old)... Even have front and rear m3 subframe bushings(have yet to put on)... And I know my car was dialed in handling wise while I had my turbos installed 3 months ago... I plan on taking the front right wheel into work on monday(essential worker)... If it tells me to add weight then i know they didn't do a proper job balancing my wheels and it would then prompt me to balance all the wheels myself... Would have done it myself... But I have to get special permission to work on my car at work(government job, government vehicles only)... (1 wheel a day while no one is looking!) |
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| 04-30-2020, 09:41 PM | #18 | |
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My Indy shop told me to take my two front tires to a tire shop and get them to replaced them with used tires(keeping my original tires of course)... If the steering wheel shake goes away then I know is the tires... If it's still there then it's suspension related... |
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| 05-01-2020, 05:08 PM | #19 |
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Sometimes you can un-mount the tire, rotate it around the wheel and re-balance to try to get rid of some of the remaining runout. I've never balanced a wheel myself, but I saw a tech get a pop-up message once that basically told them that if they remounted they could get better results, and to either accept remounting or deny. If they deny, it'll still balance the wheel, but there could be some runout remaining.
Most places just ignore it though and go ahead with just weight balancing. |
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| 05-01-2020, 06:18 PM | #20 | |
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| 05-02-2020, 10:35 AM | #21 | ||
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When I put the tire on the balance machine and got it all set up, it indeed read "ok" as in balanced... But as I was walking my tire back to my car I remembered the advice about rotating the tire... Deflated the tire, rotated it, and what do ya know, it called for .50 of some sticky weights... Not much but hopefully it helped... Will be taking my car out for a drive today to test and confirm... |
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