Never heard this one before....

[aazevedo]

but then again, I've never driven a BMW before the last 6 months.

Since the day I picked up my 2000 528iT (CPO with 60k on it) I have had a distrubing vibration that is most definately coming from the rear tires/wheels. I feel it at 45mph and up, through the seat of my pants. When there is no passenger in the passenger seat, the head-rest shimmies back and forth. My past experiences told me it was wheel balanceing. BMW told me it was an out of balance tire, and that it was within spec for CPO. They say they have countered it as much as then can on the wheel itself, but it seems to be a slightly out of spec tire. BS, I said, but got tired of fighting with them.

Yesterday, I took it to a local BMW place to get some CPO work done, and while it was there, I asked these guys to take a look. They discovered increased treadwear on the indside of al 4 of my tires. I forgot to mention the car is stock sport package with ContiSportContact Y rated tires. this BMW dealer told me the tire wear would cause the sensation, and when I replace the tires, I should go down in speed rating, as these tires were too much for my car - too aggressive a tread - and any high performance tire will wear this way on my car.

Am I insane to beleive either of these guys? Please share your experiences with me - especially E39 sport package tire experiencs.

Many thanks,

[jpr]

The inside tread wear is basically normal, it's a consequence of the alignment with lots of camber and relatively high toe. The "fix" for this is to go to a less aggressive alignment setting by dialing back either the camber, the toe, or both, depending upon how you want the car to behave.
But they're out to lunch on the speed rating thing.
As for the "it's out of balance and shaking your car to death, but within spec" - that's just silly