Hi Folks

So, this week, got my first chance to 'stretch the car's legs? on a smooth road (new M7 in Sydney).

While I was loving cruising at 120km/h (20 over the speed limit on that road), I noticed a slight vibration that manifests itself as steering wheel shudder that is noticeable but not disconcerting until I looked at the passenger headrest which was vibrating pretty noticeably. I then think the worst as I?ve had 19? aftermarket wheels (166 replicas 235/35/19 all round) fitted thinking they?re not balanced or worse ? they?re crap quality.

I push onto 145Km/h and the vibes get worse then better but not really going away. In Aus, 145 is asking for serious trouble and the conditions (traffic mainly) didn?t really allow me to push further.

I phone the wheel shop and they happily say ?in you come, one of the weights has come off?, so off I go later in the day and they have a look at the fronts (did they need to check the backs????), and state that the wheels are perfectly balanced and no weights have fallen off!!

Anyways, one wheel gets 5gms on both sides which prompted me to think if perfectly balanced why the additional weight? But this slipped outa my mind quickly.

Anyway to day (3 days later) I notice the same condition at 80km/h a much more common speed on my commute and to be honest I?m confused.

My concern is the car is due in for a ??software upgrade?? and I fear if I mention the issue they?ll just dismiss it as non-oem wheels. Also the fact that these speeds are rare in this car (have you seen Sydney traffic ), so the fault-finding process is time consuming and frustrating.

Anyone had this issue??

It sounds like the wheels tyres (doesn?t it)??

I guess I could swap front to back but I?m not sure of whether backs being unbalance exhibit the same issues?? What I mean is could it be the backs in the fist place??

Should mention it to BMW service??

Thoughts??

Really appreciate comments/ dialogue/ suggestions.

Cheers

Thommo

The problem is either the wheels or the tires!
The bigger the wheels and tires are the more sensitive they are with balancing.

There's always a risk with replica non OEM wheels.

What brand are your tires?
I have heard of a lot of similar problems with Pirellis.

It's wheels and/or tires. There are more sophisticated balancing machines available--especially those that balance wheels while they are mounted ON THE CAR. If your vendor doesn't have one, get him to arrange for you to visit someplace that does.

Cheers,
Ray Hull

I've had the exact same problem with aftermarket replica wheels... the whole car would shake at speeds above 60 or sometimes 70 ended up swopping them back to the standard wheels