Vibration when braking... running out of parts to change.
 

When I bought my 05 530i it had bad rotors and a vibration upon braking.
The vibration is felt in the steering wheel, can't feel much in the brake pedal.
If I brake hard, the vibration is way less. Car has 200 000k miles.
No vibrations when I am not braking at any speed.

Parts changed:
- Rotors and pads all around (yes I lubed the sliders and the calipers aren't seized)
- Hub surface, rotor and wheel surface all cleaned.
- Thrust arms and control arms (bushings brand new)
- Front and rear shocks
- Wheel alignment is perfect
- New tires
- Bedding procedure on the pads performed several times.

No play in the steering linkages
No play or noise in the wheel bearing
No play in the rear suspension

I checked the front rotors with a dial and the runout is 0.0015". Measured runout on the wheel bearing surface: 0 on the right side and 0.0015" on the left side.

Front right wheel bearing was replaced by previous owner but not the left side.
I am really at a loss what it could be...

Rotors. Check for uneven pad transfer on the rotors. Caused by over heating the brakes and keeping your foot on the pedal. It leaves uneven pad transfer and that is more than likely what you are feeling. Unless you just put the rotors on and the issue persisted, I would be willing to bet it is the rotors. Ask me how I know. I have gone through two sets of rotors. My last set started doing this and were only 9 months old.

But wouldn't the bedding procedure takes car of it? And wouldn't I have seen the uneven pad transfer with the dial gauge, showing a high spot?

I will change the front left wheel bearing (after 200k miles, should be good thing to do anyhow) and then I will through a cheap set of rotors and see how the car behaves.

theoretically yes, but you could still have bum rotors

I wouldn't do that. Maybe that's the problem. Get a quality set of brake pads and a quality set of slotted rotors.

I use Brembo blank on my race car and never had a warped rotor (They do have surface cracks but never affected the braking).

The rotors I have are Zimmerman, a pretty good quality rotor. I tried different pads and nothing changed. I will scuff my brand new pads and put another set of zimmerman or Textar rotors and see how it goes.
Slotted rotors are ok, drilled rotors are a big no no in my books.

To be continued...

FWIW, back in the early 2000s when I worked for a German car shop we started using Zimmerman rotors on most cars that came in. We had a rash of E39s come back with 'vibration under braking' problems. We eventually started using ATE rotors on those cars and all of the problems went away. I have no idea what it was about the Zimmermans on E39s specifically, because as you state they are a quality rotor. All I know is once we stopped using Zimmermans and went to ATEs the problems stopped immediately. My salesperson at WorldPac was good to me and took all of those Zimmermans back under warranty.

agree 100%. pics of E24?

Worldpac has a very limited choice of rotors for the E60 unfortunately. I will get a set of Textar and see if it is better.

Picture of the 635csi
http://www.bmwe34.net/Ebay/Calabogie14.jpg

Why are drilled rotors a big no no. I have used drilled and slotted rotors for over 10 years with all my cars and never had an issue. Please clue me in.

Mostly, I think, that it has to with drilled and/or slotted rotors being a waste of money for no performance gain in normal use, i.e. non track or racing conditions. The might look cool for the uninitiated, though. There is a down side, however, less braking surface and the risk of cracking, which could be hazardous. Each is own.:(

Bob P.

OMG. you might have the coolest car on this forum. That thing is beyond gorgeous.

I have seen some drilled rotors develop small cracks that emanate from the holes that were drilled in the rotors. I've always used slotted rotors on my cars. Gas slotting supposedly helps dissipate gasses that develop between the pad and rotor surface under braking. The real reason I've always used gas slotted rotors on my cars is that they're cheap and I've never had a problem with them. I've used ATE power discs on my E30 since the mid-90s. If you've found something that works for you, I say stick with it.

OK i understand that logic. I only buy my brakes and rotors from one company in California. I have never had an issue with cracks. It could be cause I get both brakes and rotors every time brakes are due since I save so much money doing them myself. I use drilled and slotted rotors in all my cars because I always had issues with warping due to heat (I am a really fast driver) and I was getting push back every time i took the cars to the dealership for warranty. When I made the change the issue stopped so I stuck with it and the company. That could be crazy but it has worked for me.

nope, not crazy at all. if you find something that works for you, that's all that matters ;)

I had the same problem. Tried many options and nothing helped. Ended up replacing the front hubs/bearings (it is all one assembly, costs around $100 each). This fixed the problem and it has been ok thus far (10K miles already). I suspect that the front bearing wear out causing play (your car has 200K miles). That play causes the new rotors to wear out unevenly a little at a time. Ultimately the rotor wear is enough to cause the vibration you are feeling.

I recommend getting the hubs replaced and installing new rotors or resurfacing your existing rotors all at the same time. This should fix your issue. If you only do the hubs and not touch the rotors, you will continue having vibrations. Good luck!

Funny you are saying this (and I trully appreciate the input) a friend of mine had the exact same issue on his E39 (same basic suspension design) After changing several rotor sets, he ended up changing the bearing/hub, problem went away.

I am going to replace the front left wheel bearing as it was never replaced, right side was replaced already by PO and has zero runout.
Amazing that I cannot find any play or noise on the bearing... I have a new one in the trunk, I will replace it this week and report back.

I'm having the exact same issue, no vibration through brake pedal but crazy vibration through steering wheel. I haven't changed anything yet as I don't want to throw parts at it, but I'm also getting some groaning/creaking from the passenger side caliper. Pads are fine but I was told the thrust arm bushings are about due for replacement by my indy. The groaning/creaking caliper is what is clueing me in to the problem...does the caliper need lubing or replacement in your opinion? Caliper pins maybe? Thanks

Jim165 I would do thrust arms bushing 1st if they are bad and check your slidders on your callipers.

I changed my wheel bearing and my vibration is still there, I will do rotors again.

Wouldn't have suspected wheel bearings as they would always cause a vibration as long as the car was in motion, regardless of whether braking or not. But at 200K they probably weren't going to last too much longer. Call it preventative maintenance. :D


Funny you have Zimmermans. I had Zimmermans and went through two sets with the same problems. I now have a set of Textars. Hopefully they last longer.

Thanks for the response, frchdragon and sorry for your continued problems. I'll have to jave my indy check it out again and possibly go the thrust arm bushing replacement route amd check the caliper pins. I'll report back....

This Worked for Me...
 

(Copying one of my old posts from another thread. To update, even after another 15K miles on the "stock" rotors and pads, the brakes continue to feel perfect. With so many aftermarket options for slotted rotors, high carbon rotors, low dust pads, etc. it's easy to lose sight of the engineering that BMW put into the stock setup, and if brake feel is important to you, it's hard to improve on the way the car felt coming out of the showroom....)

Hi Folks, I've been reading this thread with interest and suffering from the same problem for more than a year, and finally fixed it this week!! I'll share the background and solution in hopes that it helps someone else.

My car is a 2008 528xi with 117K miles. I normally replace pads and rotors with whatever seems like a good buy from the online parts stores, and last summer I bought a set of Bosch QuietCast low-dust pads and matching high-carbon rotors to replace the front brakes. I installed them properly, did not grease the caliper slide pins, and bedded the brakes as directed. They seemed OK at first but soon I noticed a slight judder or vibration in the steering wheel under moderate brake pressure, especially at higher speeds.

So I replaced the thrust arms/tension struts including the bushings and ball joints, which improved the judder but did not completely fix it. It seemed to worsen this summer, especially on hot days, and I replaced the pads with a new set, also Bosch QuietCast, and checked both rotors for any evidence of deposits or warping. This did not help either, and the judder really started to affect my enjoyment of the car.

Before chasing down anything more extreme like sticking calipers or bad bearings (not a simple fix on an XDrive car), I decided to go back to full stock brakes and ordered new OEM rotors (Zimmermann) and OEM pads (Jurid/ATE). I carefully brushed and cleaned the hub surfaces where the rotors attach, as well as the inside of the wheels where they contact the rotors. Finally, I decided to go against published advice and lightly greased the caliper slide pins with silicone brake lubricant, just to reduce the risk of a sticking caliper.

IT FEELS LIKE A NEW CAR AGAIN. The braking is perfect at all speeds, pedal effort is reduced and easier to modulate, and even the steering and handling feel silky smooth. I suspect that the old pads and rotors were transmitting a slight vibration to the steering wheel even when I wasn't braking, and the difference is very noticeable. The drawback is that my front wheels are already turning black from brake dust, but that's a small price to pay for the end of this year-long problem. Hopefully it's gone for good!

I hope this helps some of you who are struggling with this issue.

I replaced the Zimmerman rotors with Textar rotors and kept my Bosch pads ( sand them a bit). So far the vibration is gone but I am doing a gentle break-in this time so I will report back after 500-600 miles.

I started suspecting the rotors when I realized that the vibration was proportional to the heat introduced into the brakes, so when the brakes were warm, the vibration was bad.

Bad set of rotors? Bad thrust arm and wheel bearing that somehow damaged rotors... Don't know, I will return that set of Zimmerman to my supplier for sure and hope that this is the last of the vibrations.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Like I said, we went through a rash of this with E39s that we put Zimmermans on. We switched brands and the problems went away immediately.