540i shakes badly and left front wheel HOT

[wayned]

My '99 BMW 540i started shaking over 40 MPH quite badly. It is intermittmentnet however, is becoming more violent where the entire car shakes badly for a while. It settle down and returns. Also noticed my left front wheel is very hot whereas the other three are cool. Just had my brakes done but that was 6 months ago and doesn't appear to be related as the shaking on started this week. Since the shaking started I changed my wheels/tires back to summer however, this hasn't stopped the shaking. Does anyone have any ideas?

[brettski]

If you jack the front up and try spinning the wheel in question. the front ones should spin easily (relatively speaking) and fairly quietly, if there is a big difference in the amount of force or noise (a rumble or crunching noise is bad) then its likely to be a wheel bearing issue, if it just locked or really restricted in its movement, it could be that the brake caliper is stuck out and holding the pad on the disc. Good luck.

[german-speed-demon]

bad caliper or bearing. either way fix NOW as it could fail in a manner you would not prefer, trust me. As in, the wheel could fall OFF while driving.

[marti5]

I would say deffo a sticky caliper..

[darkhorse737]

Two issues are apparent:

1) shaking at certain speeds point to defective wheel balancing or a tire "out-of-round" so to speak. I suggest you have your front wheels checked out for trueness and dynamically balanced... and perhaps wheel alignment.

2) one tire abnormally hot tells you that the brake caliper is defective as mentioned earlier.

Good Luck.

[wayned]

You were correct the caliper had seized. Replaced and all working perfectly. Thanks for you input.

[brettski]

Well done. Glad it was a simple fix.