Steering Wheel Shimmy at 80-90 MPH.

[m3pete]

I've had this shimmy since day one and I've taken it to the dealer and had my front wheels balanced twice already and it still does the same thing. My car has about 3500miles on it. It sure feels like a out of balanced wheel but the dealer balanced them just a few hundred miles after I took delivery and again today. I took my service manager out to show him that I am not making it up or going crazy. He had no answer but says he'll check around and try to find some info.

Has anyone else have this problem? It seems like if you grip your steering feel too hard, the shimmy may not be obvious. But the vibration is even visible if you gently hold the wheel.

[bmstyle71]

Alignment?

[Kadarin]

See if the dealer will swap the front wheels with a different car temporarily, to see if the problem goes away?

[IWearScrubs]

Warped rotors maybe?

edit: maybe not warped, but the pads leaving deposits on the rotors similar to what has been reported by others.

[rav7ks]

I had that problem. It was one of the tires which had a defect. Got it changed and problem solved.

[Battle]

I'm having the same problem when I brake around 100MPH. I have lowered the car and have Brembos on. I will do an alignment and see if it fixes the problem.

[booforty]

A friend of mine with E92 M3 had this. It was his alignment

[Romo]

Cupping tyres..........................is this a good English word?

Anyway, try new tyres

[V8MAN]

m3pete,

I am experiencing the exact same thing you've described on my E92, I have had it since day one, took it to the dealer and they balanced the tires under warranty. The issue is still there, maybe not as prounounced but it still there.

I am taking it back again in a few days because this is really frustrating to me, as soon as I hit more than 70mph the freaking steering starts to vibrate just like you described. At first I thought it was just me feeling the road imperfections through the steering wheel, but I do not think this is the case.

Did you ever get resolution to your issue?

Originally Posted by m3pete

I've had this shimmy since day one and I've taken it to the dealer and had my front wheels balanced twice already and it still does the same thing. My car has about 3500miles on it. It sure feels like a out of balanced wheel but the dealer balanced them just a few hundred miles after I took delivery and again today. I took my service manager out to show him that I am not making it up or going crazy. He had no answer but says he'll check around and try to find some info.

Has anyone else have this problem? It seems like if you grip your steering feel too hard, the shimmy may not be obvious. But the vibration is even visible if you gently hold the wheel.

[canook]

Do you mean when you're braking and the wheel just turns, very smoothly in one direction? If so, I have that on my e92 328...i just thought it was an imperfection in the road.

[V8MAN]

nope, I mean I get the vibration once I hit 70+ as I am driving/cruising straight down the road.

Originally Posted by canook

Do you mean when you're braking and the wheel just turns, very smoothly in one direction? If so, I have that on my e92 328...i just thought it was an imperfection in the road.

[ihyln]

I noticed that the feel of the car is very sensitive to the road surface. Freshly paved roads produce no vibration in the wheel, however, on some older roads even though the surface is fairly smooth, relay imperfections easily.

[TLud]

Driving back from the out-of-town dealer where I bought my E92 M3, I noticed that on one stretch of the road, I felt some shimmy. However, it stopped as soon as I hit a better section of pavement. If that's not the issue, I would check three things:

1. Wheel allignment
2. Wheel/tire balancing
3. Flat-spotted or otherwise defective tires
4. If you've modified your wheels/suspension or added spacers, check to make sure everything is properly torqued and check your wheel bearings.

[zuggerat89]

I've noticed this in my ZHP. Hit a strange patch of pavement and the steering with vibrate, even pull off in one direction.

[graco]

a very very small bend from the interior of the rim can produce that type of vibration too.

regards.

[m3pete]

Originally Posted by V8MAN

m3pete,

I am experiencing the exact same thing you've described on my E92, I have had it since day one, took it to the dealer and they balanced the tires under warranty. The issue is still there, maybe not as prounounced but it still there.

I am taking it back again in a few days because this is really frustrating to me, as soon as I hit more than 70mph the freaking steering starts to vibrate just like you described. At first I thought it was just me feeling the road imperfections through the steering wheel, but I do not think this is the case.

Did you ever get resolution to your issue?

Nope, I took it in twice and got my wheels balanced and the shimmy is still there. It's not from road imperfections because it happens regardless if its on smooth or rough roads. I haven't driven it hard enough to cause unusual amt of brake pads deposits on the rotors (Haven't tracked it yet). My SA says the next thing would be to put on another set of wheels from one of the cars on the lot and try that out to rule out if its the wheels or the car (suspension?) causing the problem. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. I may also ask them to check the alignment. I just can't imagine it would be that because I've noticed the shimmy the day I drove it off the lot.

[spyderco10]

yeah i have a slight steering wheel shimmy at about 70mph also. my car is lowered with H&R springs, and it was aligned right after the spring install. not sure if the shimmy was there before the drop though. i'm assuming it's not the tire balancing, because it was balanced from the factory, and also assuming it's not alignment because it was aligned within manufacturers specs after the drop. btw, my car's only got 1500 miles on it.

[watrob]

I had this problem and it was two fold, firstly rotate the tyre on the rim 90 degs on the rim. These low profile tyres will get flat spots because when drive home the tyre is hot and you park it on cold conrete over night. Pump your tyre to 50psi heat up with hard cornering, drop pressure and drive slowly to cool down. Never drop wheelies with new tyres on rims straight away you will spin the rim in the tyre and put it out of balance, drive slow for the first day or so, this is because of the detergent gue they use when they slip the tyre on the rim.

Second unless you dealer has a very expensive wheel balancer they will only balancing your wheels to 5-10% margin. They need to dial the balancer down to 0% to a perfect balance. Also the lower the profile tyre the more road sensitive the tyre and suspension becomes resulting in a finer wheel balance required.

[elm3]

Originally Posted by m3pete

Nope, I took it in twice and got my wheels balanced and the shimmy is still there. It's not from road imperfections because it happens regardless if its on smooth or rough roads. I haven't driven it hard enough to cause unusual amt of brake pads deposits on the rotors (Haven't tracked it yet). My SA says the next thing would be to put on another set of wheels from one of the cars on the lot and try that out to rule out if its the wheels or the car (suspension?) causing the problem. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. I may also ask them to check the alignment. I just can't imagine it would be that because I've noticed the shimmy the day I drove it off the lot.

Some tire shops offer on the car wheel balancing, meaning that they will balance your wheels while on the car. This is better, because when they balance your wheels the old fashion way, they only take it to about 55mph, but in your car they can take it to about 120-130mph. Thus eliminating the 70-80mph shimmy. What this does is you will get a true balancing all the way through 130mph. I had that doen and it will quit the shimmy. Another thing that you might one to check, which the tire place can do thifor you is check that your wheels or tires are not out of round.... that can produce the shimmy and no matter how much balancing you do, your tires will still vibrate. Hope this helps.

[V8MAN]

Well hopefully I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on getting this resolved.

I took it back to the dealer today as the first balancing job did not solve the issue, this time the shop foreman rode with me so that I could show him exactly the situation.

We took the M out on the highway and showed him how as I started to go past 75 the vibration would get more pronounced, as we reached 78 or so he said that it could be just the road, I scanned for cops and then punched it hitting 90 and closing in on 100, the steering wheel was shaking a lot as I stayed at 90+ for 20 or so seconds, he said he had seeing enough and that there was certainly something wrong as that much vibration was not normal

They tried to rebalance the front tires again and could not get the right balancing point no matter what they did, bottom line is that they informed me I am getting two new front tires now. Hopefully this does the trick.

Whatever the case the dealer's service dept has been great about this, and really wants me to be happy so I cannot complain.

Originally Posted by m3pete

Nope, I took it in twice and got my wheels balanced and the shimmy is still there. It's not from road imperfections because it happens regardless if its on smooth or rough roads. I haven't driven it hard enough to cause unusual amt of brake pads deposits on the rotors (Haven't tracked it yet). My SA says the next thing would be to put on another set of wheels from one of the cars on the lot and try that out to rule out if its the wheels or the car (suspension?) causing the problem. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. I may also ask them to check the alignment. I just can't imagine it would be that because I've noticed the shimmy the day I drove it off the lot.