[bender rodriguez]

I installed Meyle HD control arms on my 328i sport 09 and now I am getting vibration around 70 miles. I had the car aligned and the front two tires road force balanced. Which changed the vibration from 60 miles to around 70ish. I don't know what to do..I can't afford to just start replacing tires and crap without knowing what the hell is causing it.

Shops seem willing to take your money but if it doesn't fix it they just try the next thing :/

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by bender rodriguez

I installed Meyle HD control arms on my 328i sport 09 and now I am getting vibration around 70 miles. I had the car aligned and the front two tires road force balanced. Which changed the vibration from 60 miles to around 70ish. I don't know what to do..I can't afford to just start replacing tires and crap without knowing what the hell is causing it.

Shops seem willing to take your money but if it doesn't fix it they just try the next thing :/

Hmm there isn't all that much to screw up with control arms, either they're bolted in properly or they aren't. The Mehle arms aren't too stiff so it shouldn't be an NVH issue.

Did you make any other changes at the time? Assuming this vibration in the wheel was not present prior to swapping arms?

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

Hmm there isn't all that much to screw up with control arms, either they're bolted in properly or they aren't. The Mehle arms aren't too stiff so it shouldn't be an NVH issue.

Did you make any other changes at the time? Assuming this vibration in the wheel was not present prior to swapping arms?

I made no changes. One odd thing tho after my car had sat about a week the first time I drove it again the wheel was vibrating at a low speed for the first few minutes of the ride. Then seem to have went away and I was like damn better replace those leaking control arms. Did that and now its vibrating on the highway.

Maybe I a damaged the control arms? One of the damn control arm boots spun on me when I installed it. Didn't rip it but it looks a bit scuffed up.

Over tighten the bolts maybe??? I gutentight them.. Besides the vibration it drives great

[nikitino25]

Originally Posted by bender rodriguez

I made no changes. One odd thing tho after my car had sat about a week the first time I drove it again the wheel was vibrating at a low speed for the first few minutes of the ride. Then seem to have went away and I was like damn better replace those leaking control arms. Did that and now its vibrating on the highway.

Maybe I a damaged the control arms? One of the damn control arm boots spun on me when I installed it. Didn't rip it but it looks a bit scuffed up.

Over tighten the bolts maybe??? I gutentight them.. Besides the vibration it drives great

Are you talking about control arms or tie rods? Control arms don't have boots, just bushings. If you're talking about control arms, did you tighten them to spec while the suspension was loaded i.e. with the car on the ground or the hub jacked up to ride height?

[cvc 22349a]

Did you torque the control arm bolts with vehicle weight on the wheels?

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by nikitino25

Are you talking about control arms or tie rods? Control arms don't have boots, just bushings. If you're talking about control arms, did you tighten them to spec while the suspension was loaded i.e. with the car on the ground or the hub jacked up to ride height?

I did tighten them while the suspension was loaded but I didn't use a torque wrench. Had 2 mechanics tell me 120 pounds was just really tight and I didn't need to use a torque wrench.

[Casca]

Originally Posted by nikitino25

Are you talking about control arms or tie rods? Control arms don't have boots, just bushings. If you're talking about control arms, did you tighten them to spec while the suspension was loaded i.e. with the car on the ground or the hub jacked up to ride height?

Ball joint for both and bushing on the wishbone have boots. I had it come loose on one of my TRW M3 arms, had to remove it from the car, reseat it and reinstall the arm.

One odd thing tho after my car had sat about a week the first time I drove it again the wheel was vibrating at a low speed for the first few minutes of the ride. Then seem to have went away and I was like damn better replace those leaking control arms. Did that and now its vibrating on the highway.

Are you saying you had this problem before putting in the arms, but now it's worse after putting the arms on?

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Casca

Ball joint for both and bushing on the wishbone have boots. I had it come loose on one of my TRW M3 arms, had to remove it from the car, reseat it and reinstall the arm.



Are you saying you had this problem before putting in the arms, but now it's worse after putting the arms on?

I had the problem one day for five minutes and it was different.. The wheel shook bad and forth at a low speed. Didi it for the first five minutes of the drive then went away. I figure it was the control arm bushings getting worse. I replaced the control arms next day..

Now the car steering wheel shakes at around 70.. It is so light you can hardly notice it. I was just about to take it to this bmw shop today but then I read reviews saying. Classic luxury car place finds 5k of repairs that needs to be done or your car will explode.

One of the things I read about the Meyle HD arms were that need a really good balance and perfect tires. I dunno if I should go ahead and get new tires or what. I still have a decent amount of tread.

I really need a good tire/suspension shop to diagnose this problem but they don't seem to exist. They are either all tire or all suspension..

You need to find a shop that knows how to *properly* use a road force balancer. You said it was already RF balanced, but what were the final readings? I have found that anything above 9 lbs of road force creates vibration in a wheel/tire assembly on this car.

After rebalancing you noticed that the vibration shifted from 60 to 70 mph, etc. That's because the tire "runout" shifted and effected a different stage of harmonics:
http://www.gsp9700.com/technical/5098t/5098t.htm

I chased a similar issue for the longest time. I had to go through 7 different tires in order to find a set of four that actually produced no vibration (9 lbs of road force, or under).

When your car sat for a while, then you drove it again, that was probably just a temporary "flat spot" issue. I get that sometimes after letting my car sit just overnight (but that's because these Continentals are $h!t tires).

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

You need to find a shop that knows how to *properly* use a road force balancer. You said it was already RF balanced, but what were the final readings? I have found that anything above 9 lbs of road force creates vibration in a wheel/tire assembly on this car.

After rebalancing you noticed that the vibration shifted from 60 to 70 mph, etc. That's because the tire "runout" shifted and effected a different stage of harmonics:
http://www.gsp9700.com/technical/5098t/5098t.htm

I chased a similar issue for the longest time. I had to go through 7 different tires in order to find a set of four that actually produced no vibration (9 lbs of road force, or under).

When your car sat for a while, then you drove it again, that was probably just a temporary "flat spot" issue. I get that sometimes after letting my car sit just overnight (but that's because these Continentals are $h!t tires).

I have pretty crappy tires on here too.. They are Eagle GoodYear GTs that are unrated tire. After reading some reviews some people said they had problems going out of round. They are 2 years old and 25k miles on them. They aren't rated but prob their end life is about 35k..

Yeah firestone didn't give me any readings. I asked what the results were and they said it was "technically" balacned. I said wut and they just said they are fine. I am guessing they couldn't get the number or whatever low enough. I am just going to buy new tires. Some of the better tireshops charge 30 dollars per tire to balance that I could be putting toward new tires that should fix the problem

I think I am going to get some Michelin - Pilot® Sport A/S 3 at costco.. I hear their tire shops do a good job. I dunno if they have road force tho.

[bender rodriguez]

I dunno.. Just got new tires and it is still doing it. Afraid if I take it to a shop they will just say it is a control arms if I tell them I replaced them.

I screwed up and had costco do it and they have no road force machine. So it looks like I will have to have another shop mount new tires and return to costco.. If they will take a return.

[jjellyneck]

My car has done the same thing since I bought it used 20K miles ago. I changed wheels and tires. Then with the new wheels I added Michelin PS2. Had the wheels/tires rebalanced a few times, and each balancing tech (3 completely different shops) would get slightly different readings--one wheel would be off balance by 1/2 ounce here or there. Visually while spinning, the wheels looked to be straight.
Had new M3 control arms/wishbones installed as well. The installer said he torqued with care resting on the ground.

It generally seemed better, but never right. It is a very small but noticeable high vibration shake starting at about 70 mph.

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by jjellyneck

My car has done the same thing since I bought it used 20K miles ago. I changed wheels and tires. Then with the new wheels I added Michelin PS2. Had the wheels/tires rebalanced a few times, and each balancing tech (3 completely different shops) would get slightly different readings--one wheel would be off balance by 1/2 ounce here or there. Visually while spinning, the wheels looked to be straight.
Had new M3 control arms/wishbones installed as well. The installer said he torqued with care resting on the ground.

It generally seemed better, but never right. It is a very small but noticeable high vibration shake starting at about 70 mph.

Exactly and it drives me insane.. I don't have money to throw at problems they don't fix. I am curious did any of these places drive it and notice what you are talking about? Did they say they notice it but can't find anything wrong??

[mankytron]

Does the car brake smooth..is there any vibration under braking? Also did you say they checked for bent wheels?

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by mankytron

Does the car brake smooth..is there any vibration under braking? Also did you say they checked for bent wheels?

I had the front 2 rims road force balanced. They told me the machine would tell them if anything was bent. I dunno how true that is..Maybe I got a crappy road force number and they were just like good enough. They never gave me my paperwork for some freaking reason.

But I am on my 3rd balance. Second balance for the new set of tires and I took it to a mechanic. Not just a tire alignment shop. Told them what was up and they think it is a balance issue also

[NjPrince]

Warped rotors?

You're going to keep chasing your tail until you get the actual road force numbers...as mentioned, a "passing" road force score is really high (something like 21 lbs) on most machines.

Find a non-chain tire shop with a hunter machine, call them, and find out if they're capable of using the machine as intended:
http://www.gsp9700.com/search/findgsp9700.cfm

[jjellyneck]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

You're going to keep chasing your tail until you get the actual road force numbers...as mentioned, a "passing" road force score is really high (something like 21 lbs) on most machines.

Find a non-chain tire shop with a hunter machine, call them, and find out if they're capable of using the machine as intended:
http://www.gsp9700.com/search/findgsp9700.cfm

I think this is key ^. Each operator at each shop got a slightly different balance. One shop did nothing and shrugged...they were overloaded with customers at the time, so poor service.
I need to get the road force numbers from the machine, thank you!

[bender rodriguez]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

You're going to keep chasing your tail until you get the actual road force numbers...as mentioned, a "passing" road force score is really high (something like 21 lbs) on most machines.

Find a non-chain tire shop with a hunter machine, call them, and find out if they're capable of using the machine as intended:
http://www.gsp9700.com/search/findgsp9700.cfm

So I got them balanced again. This shop didn't have a hunter machine but they rotated the front tires to the back balanced and the car drives great. However, this means one or both of those wheels or tires that were up front had something wrong with them. They couldn't tell me if the tires were causing the problem or the wheels.

See my reply in the Wheels/Tires section...you got too many threads going on that describe the same issue.

[jjellyneck]

Originally Posted by bender rodriguez

Exactly and it drives me insane.. I don't have money to throw at problems they don't fix. I am curious did any of these places drive it and notice what you are talking about? Did they say they notice it but can't find anything wrong??

None of them actually drove it. Heck the roads are so consistently rough here...they would have to also slightly exceed the speed limit and take it for a 30 mile drive. Nah.