5 Series wheel wobble - BMW Forum

nutrition01 · 08-24-2004, 05:06 AM

my 1995 bmw 525ISE has developed a wheel wobble, this occured after a tyre change, balance and track...the wobble comes on at between 50mph and 80mph and i know it sounds strange but can intermitent aswell. The car was fine with the old tyres and as soon as the new ones went on the wobble was there. Since then we have had the tyres switched front to back B & T then new tyres on front and B&T then 4 new tyres all round and B&T again all to no avail. i therefore thought that possible an alloy could have been warped on buckled etc so then put 4 new alloys on the car with the new tyres ....back to the balance and tracker and again still wobble.....as you can imagine this is annoying....any help on the subject would be appriciated.

Eraj · 08-24-2004, 06:57 AM

Hi,

I had just about the same problem with another car about a year back. Question for you, did you get the second set of tires from the same place you bought the first set? Also, did I miss or did you actually do an alignment after the tire install?

The reason for the first question, I got a set of new tires for my car, started a wobble and went back to the dealer to do all what you did, rotate, rotate again, balance, alignment AND aother set of brand new tires!. Seems that the dealer got a bad batch of eggs and the tires were actually a little oval shaped, as against perfect round. Now, mind you, this will not be detected in wheel balancing or aligning in any way. The only way to verify this is to put the car on a hoist and spin the wheels fast, and look at the under-side of the tire. Just my 2 cents, but worth a try as you have tried many things already.

Thanks

Eraj.

nutrition01 · 08-24-2004, 07:25 AM

Hi thanks for the reply....i did have the alignment checked after every change of tyre etc and the tyres were from the same dealer but, they when we had them changed they were different manufacturers so i hope they would be ok.......will check out the wheel spinning and see.

thanks

nutrition01 · 08-25-2004, 09:27 AM

still no luck with that ....has anyone else got any ideas please.....

billB · 08-26-2004, 09:23 AM

Did I miss whether this whobling comes from the front or rather the back tires?
Does it stay constant at that speed regardless of breaking? Do you hear /feel anything when breaking? Is it time to look somewhere else other than tires/rims? since you changed them a couple of times. Also what size of tires and rims we talking about? stock 15"/ 16"?

Assuming you got the perfect tires and rims; My next step will be to dig deeper into front hubs/rear bearings which causes rumbling sounds from the back or the front?) Sometimes you cannot hear it so when doing 50-60MPH try to gently steer to left then right right; do u hear anything? this places stress on your bearing and identify the bad one.

Also if you open the back seats to the trunk and drive the car you will be surprised to hear so many sounds otherwise not possible with a closed back seats. Thats how I knew whether to change left or right rear bearings. The sound was echoing all over the place.
Good luck

nutrition01 · 08-27-2004, 07:40 AM

Thanks for the reply BillB, the actual steering wheel wobbles quite violently at sometimes so i guess its from the front ent but then once you go through the wheel wobble you can still feel the wobble all through the car IE you can see the passenger seat shaking. (just)
Does it stay constant at that speed regardless of breaking?
will check when car comes back from garage.

i dont feel anything when braking and have only recently had new brake pads and disc all round

stock 15" rims

will be trying the steering and the seat out this weekend......thanks again...

billB · 08-28-2004, 10:14 PM

Nutrition01

I missed this part from your original post and I am quoting from your messege saying:

"The car was fine with the old tyres and as soon as the new ones went on the wobble was there"

Why not concentrate on the above issue before anything alse to save yourself many troubles even if it means putting back the old tires or even borrowing another set of front tires i.e a friend, relative, mechanic etc etc as such you will be able to zero on the culprit or at least eliminate the possibility of bad tires
regards
bill

billB · 08-28-2004, 10:14 PM

Nutrition01

I missed this part from your original post and I am quoting from your messege saying:

"The car was fine with the old tyres and as soon as the new ones went on the wobble was there"

Why not concentrate on the above issue before anything alse to save yourself many troubles even if it means putting back the old tires or even borrowing another set of front tires i.e a friend, relative, mechanic etc etc as such you will be able to zero on the culprit or at least eliminate the possibility of bad tires
regards
bill

jimbob · 09-04-2004, 06:38 AM

just a quick note on this problem i purchased a 530ise a few months back when i test drove the car it had 18 inch bbs wheels fitted and drove great i had the option of 16inch wheels instead from ae39 this is the route itook picked up the car and the drive home was horrendus violent shaking between 50 80mph sawing my fingers off this stumped me for awhile until i was surfing the web came across web site for 5series 34 any way back to the point my hubs measured 72.5 e39 hubs measure 74mm what cured my shaking was aset spigot rings ie 72.5id 74mm od fitted these rings only this morning it has transformed the car its amazing what isuggest u do is check your hubs i might be staring you in the face whats wrong these rings might have not been put back in centre of your wheels when tyres were installed sorry to ramble on a bit hope this helps let me know how u get on

09-08-2004, 08:29 AM

May not be the problem, but it coold be a slightly warped or worn steerig rack, migh tbe worth a try!!!!!!

Bob_T · 09-19-2004, 10:29 AM

Is it possible that someone, during all of this, used an air wrench to put on a wheel and managed to warp something by using too much force? I've always heard that could happen if not torqued down to the right tension but merely cranked up as hard as the air wrench can go? Just a thought....

Hoppy's535i · 09-19-2004, 11:47 AM

thrust arm bushings.

Torque · 09-21-2004, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hoppy's535i@Sep 19 2004, 11:47 AM
thrust arm bushings.

[snapback]194433[/snapback]

indeed. replace them and the wobble goes bye bye.

Hoppy's535i · 09-21-2004, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Torque+Sep 21 2004, 03:54 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Torque @ Sep 21 2004, 03:54 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-Hoppy's535i@Sep 19 2004, 11:47 AM
thrust arm bushings.

[snapback]194433[/snapback]

indeed. replace them and the wobble goes bye bye.

[snapback]196216[/snapback]

[/b][/quote]

tell that to my car

ghead in like 99% of the case its the thrust arm bushings. in the other 1 % i donno, but if i did my shake would be gone.

i replaced my thrust arm bushing, and the problem almost dissapeared but theres gotta be something more cause i can still feel it and it feels like its coming back