Steering shake / vibration at highway speed

**rslifkin** · 05-11-2019, 11:51 AM

I've spent the last few weeks chasing this issue (which has slowly gotten worse). Above 63 mph, I get a shake in the steering. Can't really feel it in my feet. It's not an out of balance or out of round tire. Once you get above 75, it fades off the faster you go and by 80 - 85, you can't feel it anymore.

The shake is also not completely consistent. Sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's not as bad. And sometimes it goes away after a few minutes or doesn't show up immediately.

I found today that if I lightly drag the brakes (and maintain speed) while it's doing it, the shake completely stops. When I release the brakes, it comes back.

Everything up front is new suspension-wise (struts, control arms, thrust arms, sway bar links). Alignment is good. The only parts up front I haven't replaced on the car since I got it are the brakes and the wheel bearings. From what I'm finding, I think it's one of those 2. Wheel bearings don't have any play that I can identify, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're good.

Brakes are on my to-do list at some point anyway, so should I just do them now and maybe swap the bearings too? Any other thoughts?

**Zedbimmer** · 05-11-2019, 02:10 PM

Tires?

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**rslifkin** · 05-11-2019, 02:27 PM

I do need to confirm the tires aren't the issue and swap the fronts and rears. I'll give that a try in the next day or 2 and see if it changes anything.

But based on the issue being inconsistent and slowly getting worse, I don't think it's the tires. It also doesn't keep getting worse with speed like a typical tire imbalance (and it goes away at high speeds). Plus, I only feel it in the steering and not in the rest of the car. It still tracks straight too, and turning does sometimes reduce or worsen the vibration.

I had a little bit of this when I first bought the tires, but I put snows on it immediately and the issue was gone. Same wheels for the snows. New wheels and summer tires and then I started to notice the issue.

**Ruskii** · 05-13-2019, 07:52 AM

Either wheel balance or tires. My wife's Highlander had this issue come up at completely random times at high speeds. We rebalanced front wheels and it helped a little bit, but the issue was still there. New tires solved the issue and never returned. Remember, shaking steering wheel is for front wheels, while shaking that you feel with your butt/body is for rear wheels.

Also, applying a brake during the shake reduces the vibration because you're caliper and pads are absorbing that energy instead of giving it straight to the steering wheel. I don't think it's your brakes, and rather focus on tires. Like you said, swap front to rear wheels and see if the issue moves.

**racer2086** · 05-15-2019, 02:02 PM

Are the wheels aftermarket or for a different model BMW? Do the wheels need hub centric rings?

**rslifkin** · 05-15-2019, 02:19 PM

The front wheels are 18x9 M pars for an E39. I have centering rings on them currently. I've tried them both with and without the rings, as well as with no spacer, a 3mm spacer and a 5mm spacer. None of those eliminated the issue, so I don't think it's likely to be a wheel centering issue. However, the issue has sometimes seemed better or worse after having the wheels off the car, which makes me think something isn't sitting right.

I also noticed yesterday that if I push the car a bit in a turn it'll sometimes reduce the vibration for a few minutes (sometimes until I hit a bump or turn slightly the other direction). Left turns seem to help far more than right turns. So it's possible I've got a bad wheel bearing that I just can't detect any play in. But I'm thinking it might be a brake related issue (like a rotor not sitting flush on the hub) because I pulled the right front apart yesterday, attacked both mounting faces of the rotor with scotch-brite as well as the hub pilot and the hub face and the vibration hasn't been as strong since I put it back together. And it starts closer to 65 - 67 mph instead of right at 63 now, and it also fades off a little faster with speed.

Parts should be arriving today to do the brakes (they're on my to-do list anyway), so I'll swap the front and rear wheels/tires when I do the brakes in the next couple of days and see if I still have issues. If not, we'll see if it comes back when I swap the wheels back. I guess I've been wondering what the car would look like with 275s in the front anyway...

**racer2086** · 05-15-2019, 04:54 PM

Are the wheels used? Are they OEM or aftermarket M-pars? Are you 100% certain they are straight? For reference, aftermarket m-pars are notorious for bending. And even well used OEM ones can be bent and you wouldn't see it.

Also, with the age of these things now and little history, there's no way to know if center bores have been modified, etc, so maybe your rings aren't the right size?

**Timm** · 05-15-2019, 04:56 PM

All explained how to find your problem below, start by puffing up the front tyres to 42psi and see if that makes a difference - if it does then tyres are your problem:

https://www.meeknet.co.uk/E38/E38_Shimmy.htm

**Aitch** · 05-15-2019, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by Timm

All explained how to find your problem below, start by puffing up the front tyres to 42psi and see if that makes a difference - if it does then tyres are your problem:

https://www.meeknet.co.uk/E38/E38_Shimmy.htm

I'd always skipped over that portion for some reason. I need to try with mine. I have eerily similar symptoms, and have replaced almost everything in my suspension as has the OP, except for the front brakes (lots of life left) and wheel bearings. My only suspicion of the brakes is a variance in the braking force while slowing with only light pressure on the brakes - the car will slow a bit more and less as the wheel rotates coming to a stop using light pressure.

**Miatawoman** · 05-15-2019, 07:35 PM

I have a shake at lower speeds, and I just got my car back from the mechanic. They can't find the cause of my shake yet, but they did say that the front calipers dragging will commonly cause a shake. They took my car out on many test drives and then measured the rotor temperatures side-to-side and were looking for one side hotter than the other to see if that was the cause. My temps stayed equal, so they don't think that's the problem with my car, but you might try checking your rotor temps after a drive where the shaking happens.

**rslifkin** · 05-15-2019, 10:15 PM

The wheels are brand new M pars from BMW, not used. Front tires are at 39 psi currently, so I can try adjusting it.

I did notice the passenger side does have a tiny bit of brake drag through part of the rotation when the car is jacked up and I rotate by hand. So I figure I might as well just do the brakes now and rule them out being that I was going to do it soon anyway.

I should have time to do that and swap the front and rear tires whether Friday or Saturday, so I'll know more then.

**Aitch** · 05-17-2019, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Timm

All explained how to find your problem below, start by puffing up the front tyres to 42psi and see if that makes a difference - if it does then tyres are your problem:

https://www.meeknet.co.uk/E38/E38_Shimmy.htm

Well I inflated my front tires to 42psi, and for the last day almost all of my shimmy has disappeared! I assume the remaining tiny tiny vibration is that the tires are still obviously not perfectly balanced. I will look to replace them soon, as well as do my front brakes anyway.

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**Bmwpower603** · 05-17-2019, 10:08 PM

Thrust arm bushings

**Raudi Driver** · 05-17-2019, 10:15 PM

^He stated those are new.

Hit the brakes and the vibration stops? Not the brakes that are causing the issue.

Just replaced all the suspension components? Not the thrust Arms.

New Mars and tires and balanced? Could still be the tires and or wheels.

Vibrations that occur at one specific speed are usually attributed to the tires.

I have a GT3 and when I put new wheels and tires on it, I had the steering wheel vibration.

Had the car:

Rebalanced - still vibrating
alignment - still vibrating
corner balanced - still vibrating
another rebalance - still vibrating
back to the shop for another rebalance - still vibrating
back to the shop for yet another rebalance, but this time another tech, not the shop owner, did the rebalance - car drives smooth as silk or actually as smooth as a GT car can drive.

Moral of the story, go to an American's tire and have those wheels thrown on that brand new Hunter machine they have. It's not cheap but it's better than a pesky vibration.

**Bmwpower603** · 05-17-2019, 11:12 PM

I have the same vibration issue. But kind of goes away while accelerating. Which makes me think thrust arms.

The OP probably needs wheel bearings if thrust arms were already done.

**Raudi Driver** · 05-17-2019, 11:17 PM

Wheel bearings usually make a sound before they go out.

**rslifkin** · 05-18-2019, 10:08 AM

Brakes and the front / rear swap are on today's to-do list, so I should have some updates in a few hours. I'm thinking that between those I should be able to narrow it down. If it still has the issue after the brakes and with the rear tires on the front, I'll just do the front wheel bearings. They've got 156k on them, so it won't hurt. And the vibration getting a bit better after a left turn at speed does make me question the bearings even though they don't seem to have any play in them.

**rslifkin** · 05-18-2019, 09:44 PM

So I have some updates: after bedding in the new brakes the vibration is much less and happens in a narrower speed range as well. I also re-checked the wheel bearings and I did manage to get a couple of slight clicks from the right front at one point, plus I noticed there is a slight clunk somewhere in the front end. So I'll order up new wheel bearings and I think that'll end up taking care of the rest of it.

**racer2086** · 05-19-2019, 02:56 PM

I know you say they're new, but check the front thrust arm bushings. My car shakes the same and the mechanic said they are bad and leaking fluid when he was under there for the transmission. Explained why some days are better than others, as I think the bushings we're tighter some days than others. I've had them on there for 3-4 years. I was up in your area for 2 of those years, and the roads really abuse those arms. How old/how many miles on them?

**rslifkin** · 05-19-2019, 03:05 PM

I'll definitely take a look at the thrust arm bushings. I did have a little shimmy under light braking at 50 - 55 before I replaced them, that went away after and hasn't come back. The current vibration did exist slightly before I put snow tires on for the winter (and it happened with different wheels / tires than I'm currently running). So it's gotta be something I haven't changed, I'd think. And that's basically down to wheel bearings at this point for the front end.

I just checked my maintenance log, looks like the thrust arms have about 4900 miles and about 3 months on them. They're Meyle HD arms, so I'm pretty sure the bushings are all rubber, no fluid.

**racer2086** · 05-20-2019, 12:02 PM

Yup, you would be correct. I had those Meyle HD arms on there myself from 2014-2016, when I replaced them with Lemforder after having the steering wheel shake at 50 and bad under braking. I replaced my pads and rotors first, which helped some.

Then the arms, which solved everything for a few years until now. I did new tires, balances, etc etc, and gave up. Then when the transmission went, the shop test drove it and did a once over on the car and that's when they said the bushings are bad. Not sure the quality of these parts now-a-days.

Did you torque down the bushing ends of the arms under load? If not, they will tear shortly and need to be replaced.

**rslifkin** · 05-20-2019, 01:04 PM

Yes, bushings were torqued with the suspension compressed to ride height. This morning I noticed something new when braking somewhat hard at low speed. A very faint repetitive clicking from the front and a little bit of groaning / grinding. So new wheel bearings are on the way and that'll give me a good chance to inspect the thrust arm bushings.

I'm pretty sure the arms are fine though, as the symptoms I've got are different from what I had before changing the arms (and that symptom was noticeable with the snow tires, this one wasn't). When the arms were bad I had a shake around 50 - 55 (not at any other speed) and it got slightly worse under braking. After doing the brakes, this shake is mostly in the 68 - 75 range and only when I'm not on the brakes (goes away entirely if I brake lightly).

**rslifkin** · 05-20-2019, 04:32 PM

I just stumbled across an old thread that mentioned something similar to my symptoms and it ended up being a bad wheel bearing. They didn't report any detectable play either, but something similar to what I have with just a very slight noise from it. And on both (worse on the passenger side) I did find if I rotate the wheel back and forth quickly I can get a slight click from the bearing. So I'm going to say one or both is damaged, but not in a way that creates obvious play.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-wheel-bearing

**Koutavi** · 05-22-2019, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Raudi Driver

Wheel bearings usually make a sound before they go out.

What kind of sound? My car is making a noise I'm trying to pin down, a squealing while braking and sometimes when accelerating. It's not consistent.

**rslifkin** · 05-22-2019, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Koutavi

What kind of sound? My car is making a noise I'm trying to pin down, a squealing while braking and sometimes when accelerating. It's not consistent.

Sound can be anything from grinding to clicking to squealing. But they don't always make noise. I've seen bearings make horrible noises and have no play but I've also seen others fail and end up with significant play but no noises.