Vibration in Steering

[newbold1]

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping that someone will know better than me how to diganose the problem that I'm having with me car.

I have a 2005 BMW 330ci convertible that had some vibration in the steering which is most noticable at speeds of about 40-55 mph.

Since that time I have done the following:

Brakes - All 4 wheels received brand new rotors and pads.

Wheels - All 4 wheels have been replaced with Motegi DV5 Racing Wheels. I went from the OEM 17" wheels to 18" wheels.

Tires - All new Pirelli P-Zero Nero tires 225/40 R18 in front and 255/35 R18 in the rear.

I also had a 4-wheel alignment done and all 4 wheels balanced.

Having done all of this unbelievably the vibration is now worse instead of better. I am at a loss as to what to do at this point. I hate to keep spending money aimlessly but have no clue as to what else can be checked.

Could one of the wheels be out of round? Even so, the OEM wheels were completely different wheels and I still had the problem so that seems like an unlikely scenario. Anyway, I am open to any and all suggestions. Short of that, the only thing I know to do now is to have BMW do a thorough inspection to identify the issue but I sure hate to go that route... cha' ching $$$$.

Thanks for any and all help!

David

 

[Tom]

Hi David,

I was originally going to suggest having the tire rebalanced but it looks like you've already covered that by getting new tires.

That said, do you experience the same problem when using your OEM wheels? If you do not experience the same issues then at least we can isolate it to perhaps being a bent wheel or at at least wheel related. Let me know so that I can provide additional suggestions.

 

[newbold1]

Yes, the original BMW 17" wheels were on the car previously and gradually the vibration problem started. I had assumed that the car probably needed an alignment but decided to wait since I planned to do all of that other work too and figured I would finish up with the alignment.

When the alignment and balancing didn't fix the problem I was stumped as to what to do. It seems that I've already covered all of the obvious potential problems. Now, I think it must be something else that maybe only a mechanic would know to check into.

 

[Big Daddy]

Check the Guibo disc and driveline, they can cause vibrations usually under acceleration.

 

[newbold1]

Check the Guibo disc and driveline, they can cause vibrations usually under acceleration.

Well, I am going to sound pretty stupid...

But, what is the Guibo disc and driveline? How are these checked? I assume that this has to be done by a shop and none of this can be done at home... correct?

 

[newbold1]

Browsing through previous similar posts I've seen comments regarding hubcentric rings for aftermarket wheels.

Then, I went to various wheel websites where you enter your car information and then the wheel that you purchased to see if they have hubcentric rings for that application. Sure enough, I found some to match my vehicle.

The cost is about $35 so I guess it is worth a shot.

Any thoughts as to whether the centering of my wheels may in fact be the problem. Could I be so lucky that it may be as simple as this to correct?

Again, not sure though why I had some vibration with the OEM wheels but it is much worse with the new ones and that really didn't make any sense.

 

[Big Daddy]

The Gubio is in the drive line set up and if you can jack up the car you can rotate the drive shaft by hand a feel for wobble. All BMW's are "hubcentric" and if the wheels you purchased are not hubcentric you need the rings. However your factory wheels would be hub centric and you said you had the vibration with them?

 

[newbold1]

The Gubio is in the drive line set up and if you can jack up the car you can rotate the drive shaft by hand a feel for wobble. All BMW's are "hubcentric" and if the wheels you purchased are not hubcentric you need the rings. However your factory wheels would be hub centric and you said you had the vibration with them?

Yes, with the OEM wheels I had a little vibration but noticable enough to me. Then, after doing all that work the vibration was actually far worse than before. I tried to order hubcentric rings from a site called, "Just for Wheels". Their website allows you to enter the information for your car and then also the specific brand and specs of the wheels that you bought and they then give you the appropriate sized hubcentric rings. So... I did this and placed my order. However, today I received an e-mail from them stating that I won't need rings and they were refunding my money.

After doing some reading up on this subject it seems very unlikely that the diameter of my hubs just happens to be an exact fit for the center bore of the wheels that I had purchased. Its not like they are made specifically for the BMW 3-series. So, wouldn't it make sense that I really would need rings in order to get an exact center mount for these wheels? And, in that case without them one or more of the wheels would easily be somewhat off center causing bad vibrations?

Maybe I am completely off base but it seems to make sense to me that this could very well be the problem.

Thoughts?

 

[newbold1]

Well... today I made several phone calls. I spoke with Tire Rack. I spoke with the wheel manufacturer, Motegi. I spoke with a couple places that sell hubcentric rings.

End result is that they say that the hub and the center bore of the wheel are a match as is. I pulled a tire off the car and removed the center cap from the wheel so that I could see what was going on back there. Upon observation it does appear that these wheels really are an exact fit for my car without the need for hubcentric rings.

SO... back to the drawing board.

I drove around again today, really paying close attention to see if I could determine any pattern in what was happening.

The only thing that seemed completely consistent was that the steering wheel shake is most noticable at almost exactly 40mph. From that speed, accelerating seems to have no effect, coasting is about the same, but braking does make the shake somewhat worse. Braking while on a curve whether to the right or the left creates the strongest shake.

Here is another strange situation. After I pulled that front driver's side tire off of the car and then put it back on the vibration during my road test was far less than it had been previously. But, I didn't do anything special. Just unbolt and rebolted the wheel. No big deal.

At this point the vibration is so slight now that I may just leave everything alone for a while and see how it goes over the next few days. Previously it was so bad that I didn't want to drive the car and now it's barely noticable.

This is so weird.

 

[jesh]

Hey David,
I know a good mechanic near midtown bowling. His name is Jack and phone number is 404 875 0052

Trust me he is genuine and smart and good at what he does, repairs BMW's and all european cars

Regards
Brijesh

 

[William330]

Have you verified the tires have been installed centered on the rims?

There is an alignment machine that places a small wheel on the tire/rim
combo and detects if the tire is not centered while spinning.

 

[MMLJTIGER]

Hi there,
when you had your alignment done, i assume they checked the front end.
sometimes the control arm bushings get overlooked.

 

[AspenSpencer]

My OEM wheeled car ('02 330i sport- 17 inch 225 45 front and 245 40 back) tends to really make a growling sound and the steering wheel has vibration in it once the front tires get down to 30% tread.. New tires and an alignment makes it smooth again..

 

[dball711]

Had a similar vibration, lower control arm bushings were replaced and no more vibration.

 

[newbold1]

Sorry to have been ignoring everyone... I've been away on vacation all last week.

I have a few budgeted expenses to take care of right now and one that is done I think I will have my car checked out once again. So far, none of the shops I've been to have mentioned the control arm bushings. I hate to tell a shop something specific like that and then have them say... oh yes you do need to have that fixed.

I drove my wife's CX-9 all last week on our trip. Her vehicle is brand new and drives fantastic. So, I figured that my car would REALLY feel bad to me now. But, surprisingly, the past two days I am driving my car again and I'm noticing that the vibration seems to have subsided quite a bit. Still feel it at about 40 mph and more so when I am hitting the brakes. Under 30 mph and over 50 mph I can't feel any vibration at all. When I let go of the wheel at those speeds it doesn't shake. At 40 mph its a slight left / right shake but not too bad. Last week it really was very bad. Okay, so now I think I must be losing my mind.

I keep feeling like this is related to the brakes... like something is going on with a front rotor. Honestly, I have nothing to really base this on, its just a feeling. But, in any case, I am going to have someone that knows better than me to check it out. I may check out the mechanic in Bowling Green or have the BMW dealership check it out. I had the alignment done at Firestone but obviously they only know just so much about the mechanics of my car.

 

[newbold1]

Since I don't have the money for a repair right now I swapped back to me original OEM wheels / tires. That made a big difference. I still feel like there is some light vibration but ever so slight. Totally different from how bad it was with the new wheels.

So... maybe I need to get the control arm bushings checked out. I'll do that pretty soon. For now, at least the situation is livable with the original wheels.

I really regret that I bought those wheels and tires. Its a shame because they looked very good on the car. Maybe at some point I'll save the money to buy some chrome BMW wheels as an upgrade. They sure are expensive though which is why I tried out the Motegi wheels.

Lesson learned I guess.

 

[newbold1]

Well... over the past couple weeks things got worse and I just couldn't stand to drive the car anymore. This past Friday I dropped it off at BMW.

Their report back to me is...

The problem is that the front lower control arms are definately worn out and need to be replaced. Somehow the rear lower control arms are bent. They asked if I had been towed and maybe somehow that caused it. I haven't had the car towed though. I must have hit something at some point. Not sure what though. And, they told me that one of the front rotors is slightly warped. They said I should wait and see if it is at all noticable after the control arms and alignment is done before deciding whether to swap out the rotor.

Damage... a little more than $1,500 after tax. The parts and labor on the rear control arms is about double the price of the front ones.

The plus side to all of this is that maybe when all is said and done I will find that the Motegi 18" wheels can go back on the car and will be fine after all. I hope so but really at this point I just want my car to drive like normal again.

 

[newbold1]

The job is done and the car drives great now!

I swapped the wheels and put the Motegi's back on and they seem to be fine. I guess I will know for sure after I commute to / from work a couple times.