I searched the forums but couldn`t find answers to this issue...

This spring while I was driving 8000km from Israel to Finland with my new baby I hit a huge pothole in Turkey in the middle of the highway.
It damaged both rightside 18" M-sport 135 wheels and I had them replaced. I took the car straight away to the dealer in Istanbul and they did 4 wheel alignment and didn?t find anything remarkable. Everything seemed to be OK.

When I got home to Finland I bought all 4 wheels OEM style 122 from the dealer.

THE PROBLEM IS:
Since that pothole and that unbelievable hit to the chassis, there has been noticeable vibration. Steering wheel is vibrating and I can feel it just slightly through the seat. Its worse when driving 80 km/h = 50 mph

The dealer cannot find the problem. This is what?s been done to the car during these 4 months:
1. They have done the 4 wheel alignment twice in two different BMW dealers in Finland. There was only small change in the rear axle and they adjusted it.
2. All the brakediscs and hubs have been tested and they are OK.
3. The tires have been balanced approx 6 times and they have used BMW:s own fitment tool to get the wheel fitted correctly with the balancing machine and get the tires balanced properly -->should be OK
4. They have measured (don?t know exactly what and how presicely) the geometrics of the A-arms etc...and said they couldn?t find anything wrong.
5. They have checked the tie rod and didn?t find any "gap" etc. They said its ok.
6. Today we changed with the dealer all the wheels from brand new -09 520 to my car and the vibration was there even with the whole new set of wheels

So now this problem is starting to bug me... Have any of you had a similar experience?

What to do next???
Is there anything else to do than start changing the hub, bearing, tie rod, bushing, a-arms etc???

If you have any experience/can give advice about this matter it is highly appreciated.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. Unforetunately I am not technical enough to be help you further. I would do what you are doing and systematically have components checked.

If the rear axle needed adjusting, could it need further adjustment or maybe a similar type of adjustment up front?
(I'm obviously just guessing here.)


Can anyone else help out??

 

I'm betting its control arms - they have these bushings that fail when you hit potholes.

GL and I hope you can erradicate this problem once and for all, now that we're involved

 

My guess would be control arms as well but if you already checked them I guess a busted wheel bearing would give similar issues. I had vibrations in the steering wheel and seats that disappeared with a new bearing. Of course I had the classic humming noise as well which you don't seem to have but since it took quite a beating, perhaps the bearing unit or the aluminum casting holding it got slightly bent.

 

Good point on the bearing (I didn't even think of it rightaway).

Keep us posted on your progress, please.

 

Agreed. Bearing would be the next logical place to check. This kind of problem is annoying. GL.

 

I don't think this would be it, but I'm going to offer my opinion. In my dads X5, there was a lot of vibration through the steering wheel, esp. at high speeds, mostly while braking though, and it turns out it was the brake linings that needed replacement. I don't really know what those look like or do but it might be a possibility because we also felt a lot of vibration through the steering wheel. If no other suggestions worked, this one might be worth a gamble.

 

THANKS A LOT EVERYONE!

I don?t have any humming noise from the bearing, but I?m going to suggest to the dealer, that we start changing the bearing and possibly the control arms to solve the problem. It seems that there isn?t any common part which always is damaged if you hit a pothole, so its just guessing.
Well I?ll keep you posted when I find out the problem....



I will find some time in the near future to write some stories from the 8000km roadtrip from The Middle East to Scandinavia.

 

I am waiting for that.

 

I hope you get this solved very soon Mika !