E34 535i Vibration/shimmy on front at 55mph - solved

[Ricky318i]

I've recently added some new 17" style 65 replicas to my 535i. Before that, I could drive up to 100mph/160kph without any issues with the standard wheels.

After putting the new wheels on, I have a vibration at about 55mph/90kph.

My control arms seem to be in good condition (replaced 4000km ago).
I've installed 12mm hubcentric H&R spacers on the front.


What should I still check?

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[tantumaude]

17" style 65 replicas

What should I still check?

There's your answer. Try original wheels again. I've yet to find reps of any sort that are 100% good. Your spacers won't help either.

[moroza]

My experience has been that the slightest imperfection in mounting spacers/adapters, especially with bigger wheels, will cause the 55mph shimmy even on a perfect suspension. Try the wheels by themselves. What's their offset before spacers, anyway?

[jmile46]

1. Are wheels balanced?
2. Did you get an alignment?
3. Spacers change suspension geometry, and will almost always cause shimmying/ shaking especially if cheaper.
4. Replica wheels might not be perfect from the start.
Just some ideas.


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[84318i]

Yep, same here . I bought a set of mpars here form a forum member years back and could never get the front end shake to go away even with a complete full brand new front end using all lemforder parts , and even with two different sets of brand new tires . Ended up being the front wheels weren't oem and caused the shake , swapped the wheels and problem went away .

Stay away from replicas if you can .

[demetk]

Do they need hubcentric rings?

[ross1]

Do they need hubcentric rings?

replicas almost certainly will.
ANY wider or lower profile tire will exacerbate the slightest looseness in the suspension.
IF your wheels are true, properly centered(rings?)and balanced then you'll need to freshen up the suspension bushings.

[The Chauffeur]

As it has said before, even with a suspension in optimal conditions, it’s basically trial and error...

My car had the infamous 55mph shimmy even with the stock 15” wheels. Last year I tried to run 16s (they needed 20mm spacers), and the vibration was so bad, it made driving really unenjoyable.

I reverted to the stock 15s, but left the spacers on the rear ones (I liked the look :P), and oddly enough, the shimmy disappeared... I’d guess that’s the perfect setup for my crappy suspension, but a perfect example of what a little tweaking can accomplish.

[Neel]

what condition are your brakes in ? I had a shimmy running Mpars so I ended up getting style 32s, only to have that shimmy still present. Keep in mind I had done all of my suspension bushings up front. Turns out at some point my caliper had gotten stuck and caused some heat spots on my driver side rotor. I had planned on doing 540 brakes so I had them laying around and put them on sooner then I had wanted and just like that 90% of my shimmy was gone.. upon further inspection I still needed to change my idler arm bushing.. so Im going to just replace the whole idler arm..
Edit- I also see it from time to time at work.. ( Service writer for Acura... yes Acura rotors are soft as hell)

[Ricky318i]

1. Wheels were balanced recently.
2. Alignment not done with new wheels.
3. Spacers changed offset from 38 to 26. (standard offset on E34 is 20)
4. I will have the wheels checked by a professional shop within the next week for true and roundness.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the replies.

[GregT53]

The front suspension on these cars is very sensitive and prone to vibration. The usual cause is worn thrust arm bushings, but abnormalities such as a bent or out of round wheel can cause problems. I once had a problem with my M5 that was only resolved by balancing the wheel on the car to take into account the weight distribution of the hubs and bolts. The problem was fixed, but when subsequently removing the wheels I had to mark them so they could be reinstalled in the same wheel/hub orientation. I have also found over the years that Michelin tires have such tight quality control standards that they usually don't require a lot of rim weighting to balance them. And, wheel weights are best applied to the inner and outer wheel edges, as unattractive as that may be.

[moroza]

There shouldn't be a need to realign a car following a wheel change.

Were the wheels balanced with spacers?

Greg, where did you get on-car balancing? I looked into it ages ago and everybody told me there're perhaps two places in the whole country that can do that, and they only work on dirt rally cars.

[MMMEAT]

I've had wheels balanced and turned out they weren't done right..after a complete rebuild front and back. Don't be afraid of getting a second opinion on a balance!

[chislern]

My 2 cents. Control arms, thrust arms should be preloaded with car weight before tightening down. Just a thought. Cheers. George

[Ricky318i]

So I measured the diameter of the bore of the mag and compare it to the hub of the wheel spacer (which is same as car hub, 72,56mm).

Turns out the replica wheel bore is 74mm and the hub is 72.5. :|

This causes the wheel to not centre when tightening. I used some tape to take up some of the slack, and test drove again.

Vibration gone.

The standard OEM wheel has a small ring on the inside of 72.8mm diameter for exactly this purpose. Aftermarket wheel did not.



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[moroza]

Yup, that'll do it. I've had problems from an even smaller diameter mismatch.

[GregT53]

Greg, where did you get on-car balancing? I looked into it ages ago and everybody told me there're perhaps two places in the whole country that can do that, and they only work on dirt rally cars.

Radial Tire Company, Silver Spring, MD

[Ricky318i]

I've replaced the temporary tape with some machined spigot rings. 74.1mm to 72.6mm.
Vibration is now totally gone. _20180302_121932-1465x864-366x216.JPGDSC_0344.JPGDSC_0342.JPG

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[q20v]

Glad you found the issue! Did you make the rings yourself?

[Ricky318i]

No, I bought them off eBay.

Seems like I'm not the only one to have experienced this problem before then.

s-l500.jpg

[demetk]

I bought two sets of these. $2.85 a set shipped. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-Hub-Cent...53.m2749.l2649

[fo3]

I bought two sets of these. $2.85 a set shipped. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-Hub-Cent...53.m2749.l2649

Yeah I got the same thing. I bought my car with e39 wheels on it and after getting tyres replaced in Dec it had horrendous vibration at freeway speeds - as bad as a tyre about to come off!
I already knew about the spacers needed due to reading these forums but the tyre shop threw out the plastic spacers when changing tyres

I ordered that set from ebay/china in Dec and and fitted them a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime though I got rid of a lot of vibration by slowly hand tightening the wheel bolts in a cross pattern a little bit at a time each so they self centred a lot more in oorder to make the car driveable during the 3 week wait from ebay.

Needing them in the first place is pretty weird I have to admit - like my first car used wheel bolts too and my wheels didn't even fit the hub at all and I didn't have this problem. (Mazda rx3 with some rims probably for a toyota that only fit just due to offset and PCD being the same, - universal fit or something, the hub was probably 5mm+ no where near the rim centre and not in contact at all. The bolts just self centred it somehow without too much care or effort when torquing)