Steering Shimmy Shake When Car is Cold

[guyg1969]

2000 740i Gets strong steering wheel shake when cold and driving 0-55 MPH. AS car warms shakes susbside. Anyone experience this? Also, steeing shakes--feels like driver side wheel-- when braking hard???

[slavabon]

Shaking when cold is most likely due to flat spots your tires develop while sitting overnight. Once you get going, tires warm up and the flat spots go away. This issue does not exist on some tires and some tires are really a pain. I have same issue on my 740i w/Kumho Extas as well as my Infiniti FX35. On the FX, it was horrible after I got new tires (stock 20" rims with stock size tires) and I went through 3 sets of tires until I was able to get rid of the shaking. What I have learned is that the bigger the rim (hense the lower profile for the tire) the more the tire is sensitive to flat spots. Just take it easy for a few miles, let the tires warm up and then go faster.
Regarding shaking when braking hard - warped rotors most likely. Rotors warp when you overheat them couple of times due to rapid braking or braking for a while and then hitting a puddle. I like to run drilled rotors on all my cars - these tend to dissipate heat a little better and less proned to warping.

[slevy951]

2000 740i Gets strong steering wheel shake when cold and driving 0-55 MPH. AS car warms shakes susbside. Anyone experience this? Also, steeing shakes--feels like driver side wheel-- when braking hard???

Check tire pressure lately?.......

[TheodoreHendrix]

Could be control arms and bushings, brakes, just don't go throwing money at it until you're sure. Any more symptoms? Try search.

[95 BMW 740i]

Could be control arms and bushings, brakes, just don't go throwing money at it until you're sure. Any more symptoms? Try search.

I would really check tire pressure first like said above and go from there

Check tire pressure first like said above as it is the cheapest to do lol

[slavabon]

Not to doubt the above mentioned suggestion, but how is the tire pressure can be related to shaking that goes away after a while? Just curious... I have my money on flat spots.

[Landis00002]

I recently had nearly the identical symptoms to your own. I gave the car over to my Indy for brakes and told him to do my thrust arms in the effort of remedying both the shimmy and the shudder when braking hard...

Four rotors/pads/sensors later both issues were resolved. If you have done the brakes recently I would look at the thrust arms next.

[slevy951]

Not to doubt the above mentioned suggestion, but how is the tire pressure can be related to shaking that goes away after a while? Just curious... I have my money on flat spots.

If tire pressure is low, it will cause a greater chance of tires flatspotting when sitting for long periods of time. When you drive it next, as the tires heat up the flat spots go away....

[95 BMW 740i]

If tire pressure is low, it will cause a greater chance of tires flatspotting when sitting for long periods of time. When you drive it next, as the tires heat up the flat spots go away....

I had that when I first got my car. It had sat in his garage for 6 months and the tires were all pretty low and she had a bad vibration for the first 10 to 15 miles but then it was good after I filled the tires

Good luck

[guyg1969]

Thanks for the help guys!!! Slavabon I actually have the same Kumhos on her!!! Does it help if the tire presure is increased? If not, which tire would u recommend?

[95 BMW 740i]

Dont increase tiree pressure beyond the markig on the tire, also your door sill tells you what psi to run if you are still running stock tire size

[slavabon]

I haven't figured out yet what tires will work best for cold temps on this car. I got this car with Kumhos on and haven't tried any other tires on it yes aside from Blizzaks on my winter set up. This year I decided to put the summer M-Pars/Kumho Extas back on a bit early and while the set-up with Blizzaks was nice and smooth in any temperature, Extas have a tendency to develop flat-spots from sitting overnight and once you warm them up on the highway they get really smooth again. The colder the temperature, the longer it takes to go away, but usually after couple of minutes of driving on the highway it is all gone. I have 18 inch staggered M-Pars and I keep the fronts at 33 psi and rears at 37psi on a cold tire. I have heard that even in summer months Kumhos will have a little shake first thing in the morning, but then it goes away really quick. The warmer the outside temps the better they behave. Last year I had heck of the time dealing with this issue on my Infiniti FX35 that has factory 20-inch rims on. I replaced the original Goodyear Eagle RSA tires that got almost bold after only 15K with Yokohama Parada and the car started shaking like crazy when driven for the first time in the morning. It took a while to go away too. I kept them on for a few weeks and swapped them our for Hankook Ventus St - same problem, though these would warm up faster and shaking would dissapear much quicker. After about a month I took them off anyways and replaced them with Toyo Proxies ST. This tire is a bit louder on the highway, but no issues with flat spots whatsoever. The lesson I learned from all of this is to stay away from big rims and when selecting a tire read as many reviews on tirerack or similar sites to see what other folks have to say about the tire. Kumhos are not that bad compared to other tires I had to deal with on the FX.