Front wheel vibration 30mph+?

[warp9]

Hi. We have an 02 plate 330i Tourer. At speeds 30mph+ there is a consistent vibration from the front wheels. Our local garage (not a BMW specialist) said it was a balance issue and put some weights on the wheels to compensate (that was the explanation from the mrs and neither of us are particularly technical). This improved the situation, but has not cured it. Any ideas?

[warp9]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Possible. Is a local garage able to properly diagnose and fix this sort of thing, or should I take to someone who knows more about BMW's?

[john_p]

It's possible the wheel is buckled. A decent tyre fitter should be able to test the wheel/tyre combo and hopefully balance it out.

[8Tech]

As you will have the same size wheels and tyres front and rear, swap both the rears to the front and try it again because out of balance/buckled rears are far less noticeable. Make sure you get them balanced first.

I am assuming you have standard and not aftermarket wheels here.

A buckled wheel can be balanced but it cannot be balanced to stop it shaking, and neither can a distorted tyre, common with modern cheap tyres or run-flats that have been knocked.

At least swapping fronts to rears will narrow down the possibilities if it works.

8Tech.

[domster]

I had this on my 3 series e46 318 tourer last month.

The guys at bmworx in Aylesbury identified worn front suspension bushes (which I knew about) and this improved it, but the majority of the problem was a buckled wheel. It is moved to the back where it is far less noticeable and I'll replace the wheel at some point when I find one of the correct size/offset.

The front bushes can be replaced rather than a whole new wishbone being required, so not as expensive as you'd think; whole bill including some other smaller bits came to 300 GBP or so.

[obscene]

Have a look at the front suspension bushes, they fail quite often.