I have had a few issues on my 525iSE regarding ride comfort. Since the start I have picked up what I consider to be an unreasonable amount of road vibration and shimmer coming through my drivers seat (only a little through the steering wheel and transmission). I have 16" wheels with standard 225 tyres, standard suspension. I haven't seen any other posts regarding this.

I had the dealer check the suspension and they reported no faults (this might have been a well padded service manager taking it for a quick blast up the highway however). The shimmer is not there if you rev upto 4000 rpm from idle (parked in neutral) and its not related to rpm - so in my book that rules out engine and transmission problems. There seems to be two parts though - an underlying wobble at 40 and 60 mph (I will have all four wheels re-balanced today) and a shimmer which is directly related to road surface quality (smoother tarmacs are almost fine, rougher country road green-top is worst).

Any other ideas what it might be or how I might correct it ?

Thanks guys !

DrT

 

cannot say i've noticed anyhting like this myself and I would have expected any issues to be magnified by the 18" runflats on my car, esp given some of the crap road surfaces i drive on.

can the shimmer as you call it be felt by someone driving in the front passenger seat also ?

if you are on good terms with the dealer see if they would be willing, for testing purposes only , to swap your wheels with a set from another e60, either same size wheels or bigger, then go out with one of the tech guys and see if you notice any difference....just in case you have a damaged our out-of-true wheel, if thats possible. just a thought.

if you are having your wheels rebalanced ensure the place doing the work does it correctly certain sizes of wheels/tyres need dynamic balancing (weights inside + outside rim) whereas most high street tyre places will only do static balancing. I also had issue with my last 3-series coupe when checking wheel alignment (i assume you've had this checked at a bmw dealer to ???) only certain tyres franchises will be able to correctly align your wheels etc...kwik fit wouldnt touch my old 3 series so I had to find a specialist with the right alignment rig todo the job.

 

Thanks Northernmonkey.

I'm getting the dealer to balance the wheels - so hopefully they will do it right. They did do an alignment check on PDA but not sure how accurately- the cars only 10 weeks old (3500 miles). Would rear misalignment cause a vibration or just a pull to left or right ? There is certainly no pull either way.

The dealer is not being too helpful at the moment. They haven't recognised the problem. I'm thinking of getting them to lign up a new E60, same config. and drive them one after the other to make the point. Like you're idea of a wheel swap too ! Let's see how they respond.

By the way, where did you get your handle ? Are you a Hartlepool lad ?

 

not 2 far from hartlepool...middlesbrough born 'n' bred but now livin "darn saarf" well hampshire

 

OK, a quick update. All wheels were fine already and alignment was set at PDA. Its either the wheels or the prop shaft balance according to the tekkie who drove it. Doing a wheel swap on Monday - keep you posted.

Trust me to end up with the lemon.........

 

ah well at least it sounds like the dealer is narrowing it down...keep us posted as to the resolution. Good luck

 

There may still be a wheel or tire that is not straight. The ballance can be perfect for rotation but the wheel or sidewall is not rolling in a single plane normal to the axle. I beleive the error is called run-out while the other is out-of-round. Wide wheels can also get out of ballance due to excessive wheel weight on one edge of the wheel. Z rated tires are not supposed to react this way. Changing wheels and tires is sure test too.

 

There is also a process (called "finish balance", I think) that spins the wheel and calibrates the balance requirements while the wheel is mounted on the car.

Finish balance takes into consideration the hub and disc in addition to the wheel and tire.

Many shops don't have the gear to do finish balancing but sometimes that's the only way to cure these kinds of problems.

 

Thanks Guys! Tried something else this morning to convince me it was not transmission related - turned the engine off at 40 mph , wobble continued right on, 100 yards later kick started the engine back in. Definately an issue on the rear wheels. Will keep you posted.

 

Would that procedure eliminate all the rotating shafts and universal joints from the equation?