Steering wheel vibration

Colleagues,

I noticed some vibration in the steering wheel vibration passed 80mph, is this normal, same highway, I don't notice it in town driving?

I have a 2013 Coupe and have no issues as you describe. Does your car sit for extended periods. Flat spotting? Inflation pressures good? Take it to your dealer if it does not go away.

The 80mph shake is pretty famous on the M3. If its reallly bad get it checked out. It should go down around 90 though and totally gone closer to 100. Mannnnny owners experience it.

I get the same thing. It comes in around like 75ish and continues to about 85-90. I noticed that it doesn't shake when going around curves and on certain surfaces. Seems like this is a common "problem" M3 owners experience.

Mine just started this winter. Happens @80-84mph. Nothing on other speed parameters. Glad to hear its not just me. Figured I'd get balance and alignment when I change tires this year.

I had a shake in my steering wheel at around 75-MPH as well, but then I got my front wheels and tires "Roadforce Balanced" and it went away.

Nothing makes this more obvious than the special BMW Steering wheel with the big blur stripe at the top!

I got new front PSS tires recently and it mostly went away, but not completely.

I'll bet most of us (despite our best efforts) have some run-out in our front wheels due to impact with potholes and such. 18s and 19s are hard to keep perfectly round in the real world.

Didn't notice it once I got the car 3 months ago. Now I'm at 4k mls. Noticed it around 3k and started to become more evident after I parked the car for a week when I went on vaca.

In many cases, the vibration comes from bad wheel balancing. I had my wheels balanced twice after I got my Michelin PSSs at a local tire shop and the vibration (75-85mph) did not got away. Found a shop that does road force balancing and they got it right. No shaky steering wheel. The owner of the shop told me the suspension and steering setup are really sensitive to imperfections.

Also try remounting your wheels. Make sure to do the star trace torque down multiple times building up the torque as you go (vs. torquing only once or twice). This ensures a flush mount between the wheel and the hub.

I've made a thread to help everyone deal with this problem:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=695222

And, here's another thread where I've helped someone solve their problem:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=694632

mlhj83 wrote  

I've made a thread to help everyone deal with this problem:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=695222

And, here's another thread where I've helped someone solve their problem:

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=694632

Thank you as usual!

Great. I took my 13 M3 with 2600 miles on the interstate on a trip to New Orleans and over 75mph for the first time this past weekend and it vibrates. DAMN.

So, since the car is new, I should focus on the lug nut tourque and road force balance of front tires. Right?

Lowflight wrote

Great. I took my 13 M3 with 2600 miles on the interstate on a trip to New Orleans and over 75mph for the first time this past weekend and it vibrates. DAMN.

So, since the car is new, I should focus on the lug nut tourque and road force balance of front tires. Right?

It's a good start and it is a relatively cheap process.

You need to rebalance your wheels. Also check if you have a bent wheel on the inner barrel. This was my issue when I bent a wheel. It was the rear passenger wheel inner barrel caused vibration at 90 mph.

check for weights as well... one might be missing.

OP, what brand tires do you have?

I tried everything to get rid of my vibration. Road force balanced, balanced at different shops, etc. Always had the vibration around 75mph. Though my wheels had a bend, swapped my wheels, thought I had warped rotor(s).

Solution: I got rid of my Continentals and put on Pilot Super Sports - all is fine now.

It was the dang tires. As the contis wear, they get noisy and vibrate.

Note: I had all of my wheels checked, and all of them are tru.

Usually vibration through the steering wheel that gets worst with increasing speed is just because a wheel weight fell off or the wheel(s) are improperly balanced.

Wheel weights are just flat, rectangular, lead weights tire installers stick to the inside of your rim to balance out the weight distribution of the wheel after mounting a tire. The adhesive can be pretty weak, so its common for them to fall off.

Just take the car to any tire shop and have them rebalance your wheels, check all 4 wheels first to see if there are obvious signs that wheel weights came un-stuck of just one wheel. This way you wont have to pay for them to balance all 4 wheels.

Low cost tire shops are notoriously bad with balancing, so if the vibration continues afterward have another shop re-balance all 4 before you start getting worried.

Dont let them charge you much much to balance, it literally takes 5min per wheel if your good and the balancing machine tells you exactly what to do. $20/wheel is a lot

Ok, so riddle me this - Winter wheels (4 x 18" same width) with winter tires, vibe at 80. Swap to summer wheels, staggared setup, new tires, different brand, vibe at 80.

What to look at next? Vibe is only at 75-80, about 2mm shake (stupid blue strip!).

peeti wrote

Ok, so riddle me this - Winter wheels (4 x 18" same width) with winter tires, vibe at 80. Swap to summer wheels, staggared setup, new tires, different brand, vibe at 80.

What to look at next? Vibe is only at 75-80, about 2mm shake (stupid blue strip!).

Alignment, wheel bearings, steering linkage and bushings.

My tuppence.

In this order try these steps -

Take off the front wheels and clean the face of the hub and the inside if the wheel of all corrosion. Check for buckles / damage too. Refit and check for improvement.

Get wheels balanced if problem persists.

Get lazer allignment if problem persists.

Replace tyres.

It's V common. Best of luck.

Ken.

get rid of the tires

I have a '11 E90 that has vibration from 80-85. Took it to the track a few days ago and the vibration tails off from 90-130. Brand new Michelin PSS up front with a 4 wheel alignment