Hi all

Hope you can help on this one. My 2000 530d has a 'slight' wheel wobble. I have read through the various threads and am struggling to link my symptoms with those others describe. The wobble occurs at 55 - 75mph, but is not what I would call severe, just a vibration, but still annoying. There is no vibration on braking, and no strange knocking noises. I had the car checked out by an Indi last week who could find no play or worn bushes (although that is not to say that they don't exist!!!)

I had new tyres fitted at the weekend with balancing, and still no change. I have today taken the car to a reputable tyre tracking and balancing specialist (Gordons - Wakefield, if anyone knows them), and they have confirmed no problems with the tracking or balancing. Although they did change the weights as they said a combination of clip on and stick on ones could throw things out. But still no change.

So far after reading the treads and I feel I have eliminated the tyre and tracking/balancing issue, other threads suggest:

1.. Brake discs - I was told today that as it doesnt occur when braking this is highly unlikely
2. Bushes - again, the vibration can only be felt through the steering wheel and not the car, so would this be a possible cause?
3. Control Arms - the mechanic last week said there was no wear, How can I check for myself before elimating this?
4. PAS fluid - this one is Dogmans suggestion from his thread.

Any advice please

Dave

Are you using aftermarket wheels? I ask because most aftermarket wheels require spigot rings and if they arn't used they cause the wheel to rotate as an elipsoid causing all sorts of vibes.

Aftermarket wheels? Not sure what you mean. They are the original alloys.

I have tried to get the bottom of this problem for ages !!! pain the ar*e

I would sugegst you get the BRake reaction arm bushes checked first as these are common, and in terms of inspection what can look okay perhaps may not be....mine looked fine but when under braking from a large car they are having to work very hard !!!

It's a difficult one......keep us posted

I've had a bit of vibration in mine recently so I had my wheels balanced by a place using a Hunter machine. It's not cheap, but much better than your average tyre centre machine and resulted in a vast improvement.

Another thought is the prop shaft, dunno how you would diagnose it though...?

Another possible is either the surface of the wheel or hub where they touch each other being dirty and not allowing the wheel and hub to sit together perfectly, worth giving the wheel and hub surfaces a good clean the next time the wheels are off, assuming that you have not already done so.

HTH.

Current update, going for drive/prop shaft. Car sat up on chocks exhaust off and drive shaft off, picking up bits from BMW tommorrow to fix. They dont actually look that bad, but am sorting out a oil leak at the same time. I will post up later with results

I had/have such a wobble on my E39 - it is meant to have been cured pre-delivery but wasn't and now has been at the dealership for a week having a long list of things sorted (see my thread about AUC in the E39 section).

I have not collected the car yet but have been told it was sorted by a wheel re-balance but I am not holding my breath!

My very low mileage 530d which I owned a few years ago did the same though after having a wheel off for a puncture repair so maybe they were right this time. Have to see. My steering wheel actually literally moves at the speeds you mentioned but again, nothing through the rest of the car or when braking, etc. Passed MOT with flying colours too.

Do you get wheel wobble after a while or straight away??? Mine start after about 30 mins driving, and it turned out to be the caliper sticking on slightly. After a while though, the steering wheel would literally jump out of my hands!

I know you shouldnt really do it, but swap your front wheels with your back wheels, and see if theres any difference

^^^Had the same issue with mine. All of a sudden I was fighting the wheel to keep it straight. Problem was the o/s caliper. Replacerd the piston boot & freed it up a bit & hey presto.

Got mine back today. There is still a very faint wobble but not like it was before where the steering wheel would shake like mad.

The dealer had balanced all 4 wheels and done the tracking. Seems to be such a common E39 issue tbh.

Hi, i have the exact same problem. Vibration through the car from between 55 and 80mph.
Had the wheels balanced by 5 , yes 5 different firms and no difference.
My bmw trained mechanic has looked at it about 5 times also (am sure he thinks am a looney)
and still to this day cant find a fault. Am pulling my hair out, (what i have left).
Can anyone help !!!!



Andy

Suspension bushes are probably the culprit.

Warped discs or sticking caliper if under braking.

btw - mine was not under braking but also only the steering wheel would wobble. Nothing felt in the rest of the car, etc.

The mechanic says he has checked everything including bushes, but i might invest in a set of powerflex bushes

The bushes on these are very hard to check, most people report that the old bushes feel the same as the new ones but the problem goes away, so don't discount them. I have also not heard very good things about powerflex, others may chime in.

Had my wheels balanced last week & 4-wheel alignment done. All fine Friday & left until today. Now I have a slight wobble. Seems to go after a while though. Mystery!

Mines started to wobble a little bit again in the mornings when the tyres are cold, but after 5 mins, and a bit of weaving to and fro, its ok again. Im going to change the front tyres as soon as I get some spare cash, as i think its the tyres in my case.

Sounds exactly like mine then!

Mine wobbles too!
I think its brakes with mine I noticed a distinct judder through the pedal this morning for the first time BUT when I mentioned to my local tyre place that I had a wheel wobble which was worse first thing in the morning and especially when cold they suggested the tyres might be "flat spotting" over night. Now being a girl I didn't have a clue what they were talking about so checked it out on tinternet so have stolen this from another forum...

"Many heavy duty, high performance, high speed rated and racing tyres have a memory because they continue to remember the position in which they were last parked after they begin to be driven on again. Unfortunately, their memory can become a problem when the tyres experience big swings in ambient temperature, have been parked overnight in cold temperatures, or parked for an extended period of time...because it's a lack of use that can cause tyres to flatspot.
As they roll, tyres go from a relaxed state to a loaded state about 800 times every mile. This constant deflection generates heat that makes the tyres more flexible. But once they are parked, the spot in contact with the ground (the tyre's footprint) flattens as it is pressed against the road's flat surface as the tyres cool. This is what generates flatspots. And until the tyres "warm up" again, the flatspot on each tyre can cause a ride disturbance that will be felt for the first few miles the next time the vehicle is driven.
Flatspotting can be temporary (the tyre will round out as driving warms it up) or in the most severe cases, permanent (in which the tyre's memory effectively destroys its ride quality). A flatspot's severity is often a function of the tyre size, internal structure, load, ambient temperature and time.
Low aspect ratio tyres have less sidewall flex due to their short sidewalls and much of their load carrying capacity is absorbed by the deflection of their wide footprints.
The tread compounds and firm, nylon reinforced internal constructions used on high performance and high speed rated tyres are more susceptible to flatspotting.

Its a thought for those of you with transient wobbles.....

I had the thrust arm bushes go. The main symptoms seemed to be that the vibration was worse when car (and hence bushes) was cold and that it occurred in the 50-70mph range. Once the bushes got worn enough, and after I had the wheels rebalanced, it got worse and would happen a bit under braking. The pads were worn so I had new discs done with the pads but to no avail.

After new bushes it was perfect.

does wobbling stop if you let go of the accelerator? if you put it in neutral?

On another thread there is mention to tyre pressures having an influence on this type of wobble and how once the car has done a few miles and the tyres heated up a little (this will cause the tyre pressure to increase slightly) the wobble goes away. This could also be linked to the car sitting not being used for a few days so that the tyres slightly go out of shape (flat at the bottom) as sometimes my car will not be used for a few days especially at this time of the year.

As I only have 16'' wheels with relatively high profile tyres (more room for the side walls to move) I checked my tyre pressures when cold and found the fronts to be a little low and the rears a good 4 PSI down. I increased the pressures in all of my tyres to 0.1BAR above the standard recommended pressures and this has certainly improved things.

If you have a wobble that appears after the car has stood for a few days and then disappears after driving a few miles then in my experience it is well worth looking at the tyre pressures and maybe experimenting with raising them a little above standard.

Also my local indie recommends having the wheels balanced to a higher tolerance than normal, apparently there are two balance settings on most machines and most places use the standard tolerance as it takes less time and is fine for the majority of cars but E34 and E39 cars seem very sensitive to wheel balance so this might also be worth trying the next time you have some wheels balanced.

HTH.

Update:

So started off with Propshaft. Replaced centre bearing and front rubber do-nut. Repacked rear prop diff with new grease (Also took time out to sort out an oil leak whilst we had it off!!).

Result: This cured a vibration which could be felt through the car, but steering wobble remained.

Next:

Replaced lower thrust arms (both side).

Result: cured steering wheel vibration at 50-60mph. Vibration now moved to a higher frequency at 70/80mph which wasnt there before. General handling improvement (firmer).

Next job: Will be replacing Upper Control Arms. Hope for a full result this time.

Dave

Hi Dave..

What tyres are on the car ?

Have you had the wheels balanced properly ?.ie Hunter machine.??

The E39 is very twitchy about wheel balance,they need to be super accurate not to cause problems.

Hi

Just had 4 new tyres on only 2 weeks ago and tracked and balanced then double checked twice again.

What make of tyre ??

What machine was used to balance the wheels ?

They are Falken.

Not sure what the machine was which balanced the wheels. Didnt really take much notice.

Just swapped out the upper control arms and track rod ends. Had it retracked again at Gordons on his John Beam or Jim Beam whatever machine. Great until 75mph then a slight, and I mean slight vibration. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wont rest until I have conquored this.

Any futher suggestions?


PS How do I find out if there is a Hunter tracking centre near me? I thought I found a page saying one in Huddersfield but cant find the link now (seem to remember it was alltyres or something similar)

AlignMyCar.co.uk

Worn wheel bearings have also been known to cause a steering wheel vibration. Have a look at the following threads.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215593

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=911463&page=6