samwilli2002

I have a 05 530 with the sport package option. The car has 28k mile on it. Just recently replaced the factory tires and discovered I have 3 warped wheels. I have never plowed through excessive pot holes, or any that caused me to say Oh S***. I was able to have them balanced and the car rides pretty good, but not perfect.

Should I bring this up with BMW or not. My car is leased and is due to be turned in in 12 months.


I just find this odd. Any words of wisdom?

E60M5E60

What's the profile on the tires? With 45 and less you can damage the wheels easily. No need for big potholes.

samwilli2002

They are 245/40-18's

kscarrol

Seems odd that you didn't notice the ride quality earlier and it only seems to since the new tires were put on that this is noticable. Were the old tires run-flats? I assume that since you ask whether you should bring this up to BMW that the new tires were not installed by your BMW dealer. Any chance that the place that removed the old tires could have damaged the rims?

samwilli2002

The car had developed a little vibration and ride quality was poor, prior to installing the new tires. I chalked this up to lack of tread. (down to tread bars)

It isnt really "bad" with the new ones. I just had expectations of "brand new car ride". The new tires are not run flats like the originals, too $$$$$.

I have great respect for the company that replace my tires. Family member and honest.

They commented that several BMW had come in in the last couple of tears with this issue, just not 3 wheels out of 4.

I am in Birmingham, AL - USA and our roads ( in town ) are sub-par.

kscarrol

Know what you mean about B'ham roads, my brother lives there. Just checking off possibilities, sounds like a very reputable place. Others certainly have bent or damaged rims as they do seem to be a little "soft" for lack of the proper technical term. Whether the dealer would catch this upon you returning the car, who knows. Maybe not the initial inspection but certainly at some point I would think they'd notice the poor ride...

VTbound

May be a wheel balance issue. Check out this thread:

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...adforce+balance

monacobmw

I think that it is possible that you have warped wheels, but a good balancing job with a tire can hide the problem.
You will only know about the wheel balance if you test the wheel without the tire.
Many of us have bad wheels, but the tire balancing hides the issue.

You may have a bad testing machine as well. The people who own the shop could be as honest as possible, but if they will not pay for a good balancer, there could be problems. What kind of machine do they have?

To have 3 warped wheels means that something more than bad roads caused the problem. I do suspect that the machine tool that separates the tire from the wheel could have done this. Once again, the shop could be as nice and honest as possible, but it only takes one "employee" who makes an honest mistake to warp a wheel as it is spinning.

samwilli2002

I guess i should try and let another shop fine tune the wheel balancing. They are warped, I could see it with my own eyes as the wheel was spinning..

kscarrol

This why I asked as removing the OEM tires, especially if they are run-flats, have been a problem for some folks who used non-BMW tire shops. Not that they are dishonest, the combination of what is a fairly soft alloy in the wheels and the effort needed to remove the run-flats make for rim damage if a person is not experienced at removing the run-flats.