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      10-03-2019, 09:14 PM   #1
BRNDNSLVRA
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Steering Wheel Vibration

For the past 3 months I've been getting a vibration/shimmy in my steering wheel. I've done just about everything and can't figure it out. First thought was wheel balance which would be an obvious cause but that checked out. I even got new tires and new rotors and that somewhat helped but not really. I had my control arms and tie rods looked at today while I got an alignment and they said they looked solid The only thing I need to do now is try removing my front spacers. Idk if removing all would help but I'd give it a shot as well. I had 20mm spacers before and I downsized to an 18mm yesterday. Didn't change much except the car doesnt feel like a bulldog anymore which I like.

Idk if anybody has had a similar situation but if you have an advice or a solution, please let me know before I end up driving this thing into a wall out of frustration.

Update 10/07/2019: No more vibration after replacing strut mount.

Update 12/20/2019: Strut mount didn't help. Changed control arms. Car feels better. But not 100%.

Update 12/29/2019: Swapped my wheels with a buddy. No vibrations so far.

Update 01/02/2020: Tightened subframe bolts. They were slightly loose. Front end feels solid again. Highly recommend you check yours.

Update 01/03/2020: Good News: My 18’s arent bent and the wheels/tires arent the issue

Bad News: Car still getting some shake/vibration. Convinced its due to a bad front right strut that wears the tire down unevenly the more I drive, throwing things off.

Ordering coilovers. Car has 111k miles on stock suspension. Definitely needs replacing. Right front has more camber than front left. Tried to fix it plenty times but nothing worked. Hopefully coilovers. fix it. Could possibly be a wheel bearing too but nothing evident there.

Also bought a center support bearing. Could also be an issue.



Car also looks better on the 18's
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      10-03-2019, 09:37 PM   #2
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It's probably the front spacers. Remove them completely and I bet the vibration goes away. Downsizing 2mm is not enough, that's roughly the thickness of a nickel or quarter.
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      10-03-2019, 09:39 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by R-35 View Post
It's probably the front spacers. Remove them completely and I bet the vibration goes away. Downsizing 2mm is not enough, that's roughly the thickness of a nickel or quarter.
I'll give it a go now. This didn't happen when I first put my 20's on. Had the car like that for a little while. So its a little weird but I'll try that now.
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      10-03-2019, 09:55 PM   #4
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Is it constant or only at a certain speed? Its fairly common for our cars to have a little bit of steering wheel vibration from ~65-80 or so.
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      10-03-2019, 10:25 PM   #5
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Mine vibrates a bit at around 60-80.

I'm running no spacers on my forgestars with PS4Ss, a road force balance, and alignment.

I had the shakes since I bought the car, the fresh rubber and balance almost completely removed it but it's starting to come back after 4,000 highway miles.

I've had everything looked at too.

I've started to learn to live with it, I've had people tell me if I put stock/genuine BMW wheels on it it'll stop. :shrug:
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      10-03-2019, 10:26 PM   #6
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Update: Took front spacers off. The vibration is much less but you can still feel a slight vibration. It feels like Im rolling over loose gravel.

Before removing spacers on a scaled of 1-10, the vibration was 7.5 with 10 being the worst

After removing spacers I feel as if its a 3 out of 10.
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      10-03-2019, 10:40 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjm41 View Post
Mine vibrates a bit at around 60-80.

I'm running no spacers on my forgestars with PS4Ss, a road force balance, and alignment.

I had the shakes since I bought the car, the fresh rubber and balance almost completely removed it but it's starting to come back after 4,000 highway miles.

I've had everything looked at too.

I've started to learn to live with it, I've had people tell me if I put stock/genuine BMW wheels on it it'll stop. :shrug:
Thats weird. Im on stock 18's. I upped the sizes to 255 front and 275 rear. It was running fine up until a couple months ago. Its frustrating.
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      10-03-2019, 11:46 PM   #8
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Take a wire brush on a dremel end to the hubs, back of the wheel, and spacer faces to ensure a perfectly smooth connection? Quality spacers installed right on a clean hub/wheel shouldn’t shake, but they can exacerbate something.

I had the shakes too. Went away with new tires road force balanced. Added spacers and still buttery smooth now.
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      10-03-2019, 11:50 PM   #9
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Take a wire brush on a dremel end to the hubs, back of the wheel, and spacer faces to ensure a perfectly smooth connection? Quality spacers installed right on a clean hub/wheel shouldn't shake, but they can exacerbate something.

I had the shakes too. Went away with new tires road force balanced. Added spacers and still buttery smooth now.
I'll give the wire brush a try.
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      10-04-2019, 07:34 AM   #10
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Get the rims checked, u might have a slight bend on one? Id also look at the stabilizer links, hubs and shock mounts while ur at it (jack the car and see if there is any play with the wheels).
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      10-04-2019, 09:02 AM   #11
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I am experiencing the same vibration in my steering wheel beginning at 60 mph.

I didn't experience this until I mounted new ZCP wheels I bought from a forum member. When I was getting these mounted, the shop warned me that my front right wheel is bent and I'm going to experience vibration at higher speeds. Drove home and sure enough, the vibration was there. I later got new tires mounted at another shop and they also told me the same thing.

Currently looking for a good shop to repair it, hopefully that solves it.
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      10-04-2019, 09:14 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AceBeezy View Post
I am experiencing the same vibration in my steering wheel beginning at 60 mph.

I didn't experience this until I mounted new ZCP wheels I bought from a forum member. When I was getting these mounted, the shop warned me that my front right wheel is bent and I'm going to experience vibration at higher speeds. Drove home and sure enough, the vibration was there. I later got new tires mounted at another shop and they also told me the same thing.

Currently looking for a good shop to repair it, hopefully that solves it.
Ive had the wheels and tires road force balanced 2x and they always came back green. Im leaning towards a wheel bearing. Im starting to notice that the vibration is coming from the right front. It also feels like that wheel is dragging.
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      10-04-2019, 09:18 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Makaveli7 View Post
Get the rims checked, u might have a slight bend on one? Id also look at the stabilizer links, hubs and shock mounts while ur at it (jack the car and see if there is any play with the wheels).
Im pretty sure I need shock mounts. Bushing is probably toast by now. I have 106k miles. The car does make loud noises over bumps.
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      10-04-2019, 10:40 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 954MM View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Makaveli7 View Post
Get the rims checked, u might have a slight bend on one? Id also look at the stabilizer links, hubs and shock mounts while ur at it (jack the car and see if there is any play with the wheels).
Im pretty sure I need shock mounts. Bushing is probably toast by now. I have 106k miles. The car does make loud noises over bumps.
I battled with the same shimmy for a while. It's there some days, but other days it's barely noticeable. Sometimes it will completely go away while I'm driving, smooth as glass at 85-90mph.

I've seen a direct correlation with me jacking up the car to investigate the problem versus saying f-it and leaving it alone. I haven't jacked up the front in over two months and like I said the vibration is very minimal now. In my case I'm pretty sure it's my old ass suspension worn down, although everything is still tight.(140k miles). When I lift up the car, I think it unsettles everything and causes problems. If I had to guess it's probably the spring mounts/shocks because I notice variations in the vibration when switching lanes or aggressively taking on ramps.

My solution is replacing everything when I hit 150k. I'm slowly buying all the parts now.
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      10-04-2019, 10:43 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Ajolives View Post

I've seen a direct correlation with me jacking up the car to investigate the problem versus saying f-it and leaving it alone. I haven't jacked up the front in over two months and like I said the vibration is very minimal now. In my case I'm pretty sure it's my old ass suspension worn down, although everything is still tight.(140k miles). When I lift up the car, I think it unsettles everything and causes problems. If I had to guess it's probably the spring mounts/shocks because I notice variations in the vibration when switching lanes or aggressively taking on ramps.

My solution is replacing everything when I hit 150k. I'm slowly buying all the parts now.
I just ordered a strut mount for my front right. My manager drove it and hes pretty confident. He knows cars better than a lot of people. He feels it in the front right so Im gonna try that!
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      10-04-2019, 10:55 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 954MM View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajolives View Post

I've seen a direct correlation with me jacking up the car to investigate the problem versus saying f-it and leaving it alone. I haven't jacked up the front in over two months and like I said the vibration is very minimal now. In my case I'm pretty sure it's my old ass suspension worn down, although everything is still tight.(140k miles). When I lift up the car, I think it unsettles everything and causes problems. If I had to guess it's probably the spring mounts/shocks because I notice variations in the vibration when switching lanes or aggressively taking on ramps.

My solution is replacing everything when I hit 150k. I'm slowly buying all the parts now.
I just ordered a strut mount for my front right. My manager drove it and hes pretty confident. He knows cars better than a lot of people. He feels it in the front right so Im gonna try that!
That's good to hear! I might pick some up in the interim. That vibration is annoying and much debated on the forums, it's about time someone put a nail in the coffin, haha.
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      10-04-2019, 10:57 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajolives View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by 954MM View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajolives View Post

I've seen a direct correlation with me jacking up the car to investigate the problem versus saying f-it and leaving it alone. I haven't jacked up the front in over two months and like I said the vibration is very minimal now. In my case I'm pretty sure it's my old ass suspension worn down, although everything is still tight.(140k miles). When I lift up the car, I think it unsettles everything and causes problems. If I had to guess it's probably the spring mounts/shocks because I notice variations in the vibration when switching lanes or aggressively taking on ramps.

My solution is replacing everything when I hit 150k. I'm slowly buying all the parts now.
I just ordered a strut mount for my front right. My manager drove it and hes pretty confident. He knows cars better than a lot of people. He feels it in the front right so Im gonna try that!
That's good to hear! I might pick some up in the interim. That vibration is annoying and much debated on the forums, it's about time someone put a nail in the coffin, haha.
Its pissed me off to the point of almost selling the car and getting a TRD Avalon 😂 If I had the money Id daily one. But I love this car too much to give up on it.
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      10-04-2019, 02:39 PM   #18
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Spacers will exacerbate underlining suspension issues correct?
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      10-04-2019, 03:19 PM   #19
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i know you said its been road force balanced, but what was the runout on each wheel?
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      10-05-2019, 05:41 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 954MM View Post
For the past 3 months I've been getting a vibration/shimmy in my steering wheel. I've done just about everything and can't figure it out. First thought was wheel balance which would be an obvious cause but that checked out. I even got new tires and new rotors and that somewhat helped but not really. I had my control arms and tie rods looked at today while I got an alignment and they said they looked solid The only thing I need to do now is try removing my front spacers. Idk if removing all would help but I'd give it a shot as well. I had 20mm spacers before and I downsized to an 18mm yesterday. Didn't change much except the car doesnt feel like a bulldog anymore which I like.

Idk if anybody has had a similar situation but if you have an advice or a solution, please let me know before I end up driving this thing into a wall out of frustration.
those spacer have to be center really good or you will have vibration I used 2 wheel perch they look like studs to prevent the spacer from moving when installing the wheels I had the same issue and that took care of it also check that the wheels to see if the bent good luck
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      10-05-2019, 08:09 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SFCM3 View Post
i know you said its been road force balanced, but what was the runout on each wheel?
A simple trick to check for runout is to temporarily overfill the tires to 40-45 psi. It will minimize any flat spots in the tire. If the vibration lessens truer it could be crap tires.
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      10-07-2019, 12:16 PM   #22
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I've had road force balancing from the best shop in town and still needed a rebalance to get rid of the 80mph shimmy, so that is a possibility as well.
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