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[BMRLVR]

It sounds to me like one of your wheels may be bent or out of round. Probably just a flaw that was not picked up by QA when they were produced.

If a wheel is not "True" you will never be able to balance it perfectly....... the dealer will need to try another set of 19" wheels on your car to confirm this is the issue.

I'd say more people on here run the 19's than the 18's and you are the only one I can remember to have this issue! Make your dealer pony up and fix your car rather than making excuses!

[shendrick]

If wheel balance can be eliminated as a source, then you should check the run-out of the wheels. You should check for lateral runout and out of round. Any good shop can put a meter on their jig and tell you how many 1,000ths you are out. I forget the threshold - but its something like 10/1000. If you exceed the threshold - the wheel is out of round and it can balance up just fine but will vibrate.

[tailgate1234]

I had exactly the same issue with my factory 18s. When I hit about 75 mph, the steering wheel started vibrating. The dealer did a (free) alignment which didn't do anything. Took it to an independent and verified alignment and balance. Over time, the vibration has lessened but not gone away. My best guess is that the tires had flat spots from when the car sat on the dealer's lot for 5 months.

[V8MAN]

I feel for you bro, I am now going through a similar issue myself...

I just switched to my 19" summer wheels (OEM 19's) which I bought from a fellow member last year. After getting them last year I installed them for a quick test and did notice vibration, knowing this I took them to my local BMW dealer to get them road forced balance with a Hunter machine. After installing them this weekend and going out to I95 to test the ride out, the steering wheel started to vibrate after I hit 70mph's and the faster I went the more it vibrated. I did install 12" spacers also so this could be adding to the issue, so now I will have to take off the wheels and remove the spacers to see if the issue goes away (which I doubt it will).
When I first got my car I had vibration issues with the OEM mounted 18's, these were balanced 4 times before the dealer gave up and just swapped the wheels for another set of 18's, this took care of the issue though it still is not 100%, at very high speeds there is still some vibration but these are speeds that I hit just for test purposes so it does not matter.
Now I install the 19's and here we go again, only this time I know the dealer is not going to replace the 19's because they did not come with the car, so my only option is to continue to rebalance these wheels until the vibration threshold is acceptable to me....what a PITA

Originally Posted by SCL_///M3

When I took delivery of my new M3, the car had a real bad vibration at high speed (>100km/h). It turned out 3 of the tires had flat spot on them, so dealer replaced all 4 tires with Michelin PS2 245/35/19F 265/35/19R. After that the car drives fine on the freeway, but whenever I'm cruising around 90km/h there is a noticeable vibration through the steering wheel, going at any lower and higher speed the vibration disappears. Dealer told me that that's the nature of this type of wheel & tire combination, and they justified it by putting a set of 18' OEM wheel/tires on my car and asked me to test drive it. The car drove like a completely different car. The ride was so much smoother and there was no vibration at any speed whatsoever. Now I know that my car does not have any suspension problems, I'm just wondering if anyone had experience the same issue with the OEM 19'wheel/tires. Would it help if I switch to a different brand of tires (keeping the same specs)?
Thanks in advance.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by BMRLVR

It sounds to me like one of your wheels may be bent or out of round.
If a wheel is not "True" you will never be able to balance it perfectly!

Yes and not necessarily. Side to side runout that is not excessive does not affect balance (according to Discount Tire), but causes high-speed vibration indeed.

Here's my story. My car drove almost perfectly before dismounting tires, powdercoating wheels, and remounting tires. My car was parked the whole time while that was taking place. After testing the car again, now it vibrates slightly after 70 mph. Going back in time, I could feel sometimes a very slight vibration at speed on certain roads since new, but it wasn't objectionable at all. Now it is, although not too bad (only got it up to 90, but could feel getting progressively worse). Wheels were not dropped or anything, and I know the offending tire is one that a different guy mounted (scratching my freaking wheel) and balanced, and I saw a 0.25 on the Hunter machine and told the guy why he didn't zero it, and said he had moved the weights (but he never ran it again to confirm). Will remove wheel tomorrow and have them check it, and also see if a polish the guy was going to bring removes the scuff, but I know it won't. It's not too bad, and couldn't have caused any defects, but wheels were just painted, and the a-hole said it was already like that, when the rub was obviously caused by the machine's arm that the bozo didn't adjust right initially. Oh, and he had the nerve to charge me full price.

Anyway, this same guy called me to the machine to show me the right front wheel had runout, and told me he's often ssen that on BMW wheels, and it shouldn't feel too much (he was right). That leads me to believe it's been like that since day 1. I'm hoping the wheel still shows 0.25 out of balance, and it can feel like before. But the wheel definitely has runout.

Does anybody know for a fact what's the acceptable spec? And at almost a year old (4.2K miles), would a non-selling dealer replace a wheel that was painted?

At least I know for a fact the car is fine, since I just parked it after a trip. There're other sources of a 'shimmy', so glad it's not the steering, suspension, etc. If wheels balance to zero on a Hunter machine, what some of us are experiencing is wheels with too much runout folks . I'm going to get mine checked for balancing tomorrow, and report back. Hope we can get our wheels replaced if runout is out of spec, but somehow I doubt I'll be successful. Take care folks.

[JCtx]

Well, my hunch was right. Removed both front wheels at my wife's suggestion (not just the one I suspected was wrong. Thanks sweetie ), took them back to Discount Tire, and both were off. One WAY off. And on the same freaking machine. WTF???
This time the guy input wheel dimensions and some other crap, and the weights ended up being at totally different places than they were before. Geez. And the wheel I didn't suspect had anything wrong had some weights shifted. Precisely the ones he put wrong the first time and 'relocated' them a little. I'll tell people balancing my wheels that if they screw up the location the first time, I want new weights, not the same ones removed and relocated, as adhesive will never stick the same.

Am not going to have a chance to test the wheels until weather cooperates, but will report back here. Now I guess it's safe to say balancing can be done wrong. The better question is how the hell can we tell? If a wheel is truly balanced, and still exhibit vibration, it can be too much runout, but now I lost confidence in balancing, as I saw the machine show zeroes before, but wheels were not balanced properly.

I'd still like to know the allowable runout, but if it's the same as oil consumption (1 qt per 1K miles), am sure it'll be like 2" . Later gang.

[calintexas]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Now I guess it's safe to say balancing can be done wrong. The better question is how the hell can we tell? If a wheel is truly balanced, and still exhibit vibration, it can be too much runout, but now I lost confidence in balancing, as I saw the machine show zeroes before, but wheels were not balanced properly.

I'd still like to know the allowable runout, but if it's the same as oil consumption (1 qt per 1K miles), am sure it'll be like 2" . Later gang.

Did they spin your wheels again after changing the weights to confirm (on the machine) that they are balanced?

If you still have issues, I recommend that you measure the lateral and radial runout and post those values here. Someone will have a clue whether the values are acceptable or not.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by calintexas

Did they spin your wheels again after changing the weights to confirm (on the machine) that they are balanced?

Of course. First step was to spin the tire as it was, and first one was 1.00 and 1.25 off. Next step was to remove old weights, which I did with a plastic pry tool (they use a metal butter knife). And final was to add weights where machine pointed out, and spin it again until it read zeroes. The other wheel showed 0.5 and 0.25. What I don't get is one of the tires now has the weights in totally different places. The other now has one row of weights rather than 2, which is more or less what it had stock. I don't want to get excited until I drive the darn car and it doesn't vibrate. Last time they also read zeroes, so who knows. Will keep the gang posted.

[Mr. Boost]

Originally Posted by SCL_///M3

When I took delivery of my new M3, the car had a real bad vibration at high speed (>100km/h). It turned out 3 of the tires had flat spot on them, so dealer replaced all 4 tires with Michelin PS2 245/35/19F 265/35/19R. After that the car drives fine on the freeway, but whenever I'm cruising around 90km/h there is a noticeable vibration through the steering wheel, going at any lower and higher speed the vibration disappears. Dealer told me that that's the nature of this type of wheel & tire combination, and they justified it by putting a set of 18' OEM wheel/tires on my car and asked me to test drive it. The car drove like a completely different car. The ride was so much smoother and there was no vibration at any speed whatsoever. Now I know that my car does not have any suspension problems, I'm just wondering if anyone had experience the same issue with the OEM 19'wheel/tires. Would it help if I switch to a different brand of tires (keeping the same specs)?
Thanks in advance.

I just got my new M3 and I'm having the same problem. Mine vibrates at 83mph. Its a minimal vibration but I'm one of those picky people and I really dont think a brand new car should be having these issues.

I spoke to my sales representative and advised him of my problem. He said that if I wanted, I could just wait and bring it in at the 1500 mile tune up; however I'm worried that by then my warranty on the tires and alignment issues will have expired, if there is such thing... Do you guys recommend I take my salesman word, or should I just bring it in right away?

My steering wheel is also a bit tilted to the right and I feel like the car has a minor pull to the right as well....definately sounds like the took a joy ride on my car, or has anyone had this same issue with their brand new M3? I really appreciate the help.

[jrlee53]

Was there any resolution to this? I'm noticing the same on my car and had the wheels independentl balanced by a hunter machine and said both were fine, but still getting the vibe. Could it be ball joints already? I've hit some of the notorious nyc potholes and am concerned it did the joints in.

[Subw00er]

There are different breeds of hunter now. Look for someone that has the version 3. They are hard to find. There is only one within a hundred miles of here.

[Ctm309]

Originally Posted by Subw00er

There are different breeds of hunter now. Look for someone that has the version 3. They are hard to find. There is only one within a hundred miles of here.

There's a shop in Plainview L.I. exit 46 off the L.I.E. EXOTIC MOTOR WERKS
ask for Jayson. Premier shop by the way!