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Thread: wheel shimmy after brand new front suspension

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    wheel shimmy after brand new front suspension

    I do have wheel shimmy more persistent around 55 mph. At higher speed, I can feel in my seat I am stumped on this issue. I run 275/35/18 PSS tires all around on Apex wheels 74.1mm bore using hub spigot ring to 72.56mm.

    Here is a snap of what I did to suspension;
    -Front upper and lower TRW control arms
    -TRW center link with new tie rod ends
    -New stabilizer links
    -New struts/shocks all around (bilstein B6 paired with BG springs)
    -alignment
    -Rear upper and lower control arms lemforder brand

    I have never touched the integral links and bushings.

    Any Ideas?
    Current
    '03 BMW 330i ZHP alpine white on tan interior (daily)
    '01 BMW 740iL Anthracite metallic on black interior (project)
    '03 BMW 530i automatic (california car) (summer car)
    and few others

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  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeafM5 View Post
    Any Ideas?
    Yep. In my experience, vibrations above 55 mph are always wheel/tire related.

    Frankie
    Texas, USA
    frankies-bmw.com

  3. #3
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    Try a road force balancing. Solved my 55mph shimmy

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by sirbevo View Post
    Try a road force balancing. Solved my 55mph shimmy
    Explain?
    2001 740iL "Silver Beauty"
    1986 Porsche 951 "Silver Bullet"
    1987 Porsche 944 NA Auto (rebuilding for my son's first car)
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  5. #5
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    EXOTICS

  6. #6
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    Didn't know that was a thing. Never seen one in any of the shops I've used. I'll have to call around!!
    2001 740iL "Silver Beauty"
    1986 Porsche 951 "Silver Bullet"
    1987 Porsche 944 NA Auto (rebuilding for my son's first car)
    https://home.doonze.net/filepage.php <- BMW/Porsche doc's and files, work in progress

  7. #7
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    I have had this same issue on my E32 after complete front end suspension was replaced. Still no solution but some ideas. I also did a road force and did nothing for me..
    Do you have any play in the steering wheel? Do you have a set of original wheels to try with? Did you confirm the hubcentric rings are still on?

    Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

    BMW 7er Website www.7er.com
    1989 BMW 735i Schwarz (sadly, sold) // 1989 BMW 750iL Cirrusblau Metallic // 1998 BMW 740iL Oxfordgrün Metallic // 2000 M5 Carbon Schwarz ///

  8. #8
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    start easy. make sure you put the rings on, if you did swap rear tire to front and see if that works, mine ended up being bad tires.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by 951Dreams View Post
    Didn't know that was a thing. Never seen one in any of the shops I've used. I'll have to call around!!
    I haven't found it to be an issue on previous cars, but on this one it certainly is. I replaced the upper and lower control arms on mine, most of the shimmy went away (it was worst under braking). I still noticed a bit and after a few months it got worse (but not as bad as before the suspension work). Went and got my front tires re-balanced using roadforce (they and the wheels were new around the time I did the front suspension). Solved the remaining shimmy issue.

    I found that Discount Tire locations generally use a roadforce machine or at least have one available in most locations. Good place to start.

  10. #10
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    I used to fully believe in the road force until recently when I took some of my 16" rims and tires to an old school shop around here that does tire shaving. I told them they were road forced and measured out of spec, which is why I wanted to shave them.

    Long story short, they put them on the balancer and they spun quite true. I'm ashamed to admit I did not look at them and realize that the last shop did not actually do a proper road force balance on them. They just rebalanced the wheel and didn't even take the old weights off!

    Anyway, this shop dynamically rebalanced the wheels (not road-force) after stripping the weights, and they go so far as to pull little stones out of the tread. I had them do my front m-pars also. Wow they run smooth.

    The key is these guys cared and took their time. When the machine has a laser line marking where to place the weight, they make sure it is lined up exactly to the machine and mark it with a crayon. That way the weights are exactly where they need to be.

    Moral of the story? Find a shop that cares about their work, and if you get it road- force balanced make sure they actually do that and separate the tire from the rim if it needs to be moved. Chain stores aren't gonna do that. Ever.
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  11. #11
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    Stupid question. When you torqued everything down, you did have the strut compressed to road ride high, correct?

    02 e39 540i Sport (Son), 01 DINAN 7 (Me), 12 e70 X5 x35i (Mrs), 95 e34 525i (Daughter 2), 01 e46 325Ci vert (Daughter 1)

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by kouks View Post
    Stupid question. When you torqued everything down, you did have the strut compressed to road ride high, correct?
    This is very important, but I would expand on it a bit.

    1. When new bushings control arms are installed, they have to be torqued to specific values while at exact road height.
    2. Tires are properly balanced.

    When I bought my E38 with 100K miles, it had the 55 mph shimmy.
    I replaced the control arms, steering, sway bar bushings, but still had some shimmy left, although, it was much improved.

    The car had a set of brand new Khumo tires that had less than 500 miles on them. The previous owner put them on to sell the car. Since the tires were so new, I did not dare to blame them for the shimmy....was I wrong.
    After several months of hopeless troubleshooting and even additional bushing replacements, I decided to get new tires as somebody pointed out that Khumos are only good for boat bumpers.

    Got a set of Michelins and the problem immediately went away completely.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frankie View Post
    Yep. In my experience, vibrations above 55 mph are always wheel/tire related.
    I will swap back to factory wheels and see.

    Quote Originally Posted by sirbevo View Post
    Try a road force balancing. Solved my 55mph shimmy
    Maybe it is a balancing issue. I will check the balancing issues this week.

    Quote Originally Posted by SergeBMW View Post
    I have had this same issue on my E32 after complete front end suspension was replaced. Still no solution but some ideas. I also did a road force and did nothing for me..
    Do you have any play in the steering wheel? Do you have a set of original wheels to try with? Did you confirm the hubcentric rings are still on?

    Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
    I do have a set of original that I will be putting on tomorrow to eliminate the shimmy issues. There are no play in steering wheel as I did center link along with tie rod ends. The steering wheel shakes due to vibrations.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zedbimmer View Post
    start easy. make sure you put the rings on, if you did swap rear tire to front and see if that works, mine ended up being bad tires.
    This is what I am thinking. The tires might be bad.

    Quote Originally Posted by racer2086 View Post
    I used to fully believe in the road force until recently when I took some of my 16" rims and tires to an old school shop around here that does tire shaving. I told them they were road forced and measured out of spec, which is why I wanted to shave them.

    Long story short, they put them on the balancer and they spun quite true. I'm ashamed to admit I did not look at them and realize that the last shop did not actually do a proper road force balance on them. They just rebalanced the wheel and didn't even take the old weights off!

    Anyway, this shop dynamically rebalanced the wheels (not road-force) after stripping the weights, and they go so far as to pull little stones out of the tread. I had them do my front m-pars also. Wow they run smooth.

    The key is these guys cared and took their time. When the machine has a laser line marking where to place the weight, they make sure it is lined up exactly to the machine and mark it with a crayon. That way the weights are exactly where they need to be.

    Moral of the story? Find a shop that cares about their work, and if you get it road- force balanced make sure they actually do that and separate the tire from the rim if it needs to be moved. Chain stores aren't gonna do that. Ever.
    My friend did the balancing and he really took care of it. He took his time to do balancing for me.

    Quote Originally Posted by kouks View Post
    Stupid question. When you torqued everything down, you did have the strut compressed to road ride high, correct?
    Yes, I have torqued everything properly.


    Quote Originally Posted by marclar View Post
    This is very important, but I would expand on it a bit.

    1. When new bushings control arms are installed, they have to be torqued to specific values while at exact road height.
    2. Tires are properly balanced.

    When I bought my E38 with 100K miles, it had the 55 mph shimmy.
    I replaced the control arms, steering, sway bar bushings, but still had some shimmy left, although, it was much improved.

    The car had a set of brand new Khumo tires that had less than 500 miles on them. The previous owner put them on to sell the car. Since the tires were so new, I did not dare to blame them for the shimmy....was I wrong.
    After several months of hopeless troubleshooting and even additional bushing replacements, I decided to get new tires as somebody pointed out that Khumos are only good for boat bumpers.

    Got a set of Michelins and the problem immediately went away completely.
    This might be the case of tires being bad.
    Last edited by DeafM5; 07-15-2018 at 11:38 PM.
    Current
    '03 BMW 330i ZHP alpine white on tan interior (daily)
    '01 BMW 740iL Anthracite metallic on black interior (project)
    '03 BMW 530i automatic (california car) (summer car)
    and few others

    Sold
    '03 BMW 330xi
    2001 BMW M5
    2000 BMW M5
    2000 BMW M5
    1998 BMW M3/4/5 S/C'ed
    2002 BMW M3 SMG
    2002 BMW 330ci
    2002 BMW 525i 5 speed
    and list goes on

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Connecticut
    Posts
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    UPDATE: I switched back to my factory wheels, It is lot smoother. It points out to tires I believe are bad.
    Current
    '03 BMW 330i ZHP alpine white on tan interior (daily)
    '01 BMW 740iL Anthracite metallic on black interior (project)
    '03 BMW 530i automatic (california car) (summer car)
    and few others

    Sold
    '03 BMW 330xi
    2001 BMW M5
    2000 BMW M5
    2000 BMW M5
    1998 BMW M3/4/5 S/C'ed
    2002 BMW M3 SMG
    2002 BMW 330ci
    2002 BMW 525i 5 speed
    and list goes on

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