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[Big_CG]

07 E90 97k miles. Sport package.

My steering wheel wobbles between 50-60 mph. Thats it.

New brake rotors
New front tires, road force balanced.
4 wheel alignment.

What else to check?

[Big_CG]

Also, these are conti dws. 12mm spacers in front.

[Eat.Sleep.Race]

Hmm sounds like you got all the things covered that would cause it.. Spacers hub centric? And also did you check wheel bearings and control arm bushings etc,?

[Big_CG]

Yep bms hub centric spacers. Not sure about control arm bushings...How to check?

[Big_CG]

Wheel bearings are good though

[Eat.Sleep.Race]

jack the car up one side at a time (front) and lock the steering wheel, see if you wheel goes side to side or has any play, bushings on my brothers 325i caused his to shake badly. My cheap front tires i have (brand new) made my car shake.. SO have to get better tires for the front at least.

[Big_CG]

Jacked up the driver side today. I couldnt really check for play, as when I pushed the front driver wheel, it just turned the steering wheel and other wheel also. How can I lock the steering wheel?

I looked at the control arms though, no apparent fluid leaks.

[Big_CG]

Is it possible that the rear wheels being off balance would cause this?

[Gary@TireRack]

Do they vibrate with the spacers removed?

[Delta0311]

Could be a slightly bent rim or lower control arm bushings. Of course if you have spacers I would remove them first and see how car runs.

[Big_CG]

Would road force balance detect bent rims? Any chance that something in the rear could cause this?

[Big_CG]

I've removed the front spacers last week, didn't seem to help

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by el_capitan

Would road force balance detect bent rims? Any chance that something in the rear could cause this?

If your rims are fine and your rotors are good then most likely it is the bushings.

[asus389]

Thrust arm bushing cause this in some cases. You can usually tell by looking at them. There will be black fluid that looks like oil leaking. Or if you are driving slowly and you jab the brakes your front wheel will move back and forth in the wheel well. Other symptoms are steering shimmy in the 50-60 mph range and steering shaking when braking lightly at higher speeds.

Mine went at like 66k. So its a common item for this suspension design.

Other than that, check if it happens without the spacers. Check for bent wheels (although i'd wager they would have caught them when balancing the tires if that was the case).

[Ph0zenstone]

I had a similar issue...I rotated front tires to the rear and vice versa and that stopped the vibration. Must be a small bend that still balances fine but still enough to feel

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by phozenstone

I had a similar issue...I rotated front tires to the rear and vice versa and that stopped the vibration. Must be a small bend that still balances fine but still enough to feel

You can't rotate with staggered rims.

Originally Posted by Delta0311

You can't rotate with staggered rims.

Sure you can...especially if it's the stock setup.

[VMRWheels]

If you take your wheels and tires in to get Road Force Balanced, the balancing machine can be used to perform a lateral and radial rim runout, and ultimately detect any bends in the wheels. I would see what your Road Force numbers are at, and go from there.

[slupie]

Originally Posted by asus389

Thrust arm bushing cause this in some cases. You can usually tell by looking at them. There will be black fluid that looks like oil leaking. Or if you are driving slowly and you jab the brakes your front wheel will move back and forth in the wheel well. Other symptoms are steering shimmy in the 50-60 mph range and steering shaking when braking lightly at higher speeds.

Mine went at like 66k. So its a common item for this suspension design.

Other than that, check if it happens without the spacers. Check for bent wheels (although i'd wager they would have caught them when balancing the tires if that was the case).

I vote for thrust arm bushings. My E91 is starting to develop the shimmy at 87K miles, I'll be lloking into the front end, springs and struts/shocks in the next few months. Common issue in BMW's for many years. E39's were very prone to wheel shimmy between 50-60 mph due to worn out thrust arm bushings.

Get your frond end checked out.

[Big_CG]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

Sure you can...especially if it's the stock setup.

I can rotate the 255 35 18 to the front to drive and try to rule out a bent wheel?

I had one road force balance checked, it was .024 with only .25" on the wheel. The tech said it was within tolerance and wouldnt suggest messing with it as its unlikely to get better.

Ill take the other one off and have it rebalanced- although it just had a new tire installed and was road force balanced, they didnt mention any bend. It has about 2 ounces on it now for weights

1. YES!!
2. .024 is about 24 lbs of road force. Most would consider that to be the absolute maximum before replacing the tire, wheel, or both on most vehicles. I've found that anything more than 9 lbs of road force produces shimmy/hop/vibration/etc. on my E90. Some makes/models are just more sensitive to road force than others which is why our cars seem to be ao effected by more than single digit road force numbers. I somewhat agree with the tech though. Sometimes trying to force match the tire/wheel assembly ends up making it worse. Only way to know for sure is to try it. Regardless, either the tire or wheel will more than likely end up having to be replaced/fixed anyway though. Initiating the force match process will absolutely let you know whether this is a tire, wheel, or both issue though.
3. For the most part, the amount of weight it takes to balance a wheel isn't that important. The figure you need to be worried about at the end of the day is road force.

[Agentphish]

Originally Posted by asus389

Thrust arm bushing cause this in some cases. You can usually tell by looking at them. There will be black fluid that looks like oil leaking. Or if you are driving slowly and you jab the brakes your front wheel will move back and forth in the wheel well. Other symptoms are steering shimmy in the 50-60 mph range and steering shaking when braking lightly at higher speeds.

Mine went at like 66k. So its a common item for this suspension design.

Other than that, check if it happens without the spacers. Check for bent wheels (although i'd wager they would have caught them when balancing the tires if that was the case).

I am dealing with a slight shimmy and humming issue right now between 50 and 70mph. I have new wheels/tires/pads/rotors all within the last 6 months and the hum was there before but I had always assumed it was due to the bent front stock wheel I had...replacing the wheel didn't resolve it though.

I took a long ride with a trusted BMW tech from my local dealer and while he wasn't 100% sure he was thinking its my right front wheel bearing based on where he and I assume the hum is coming from and based on the fact that the right front wheel was the bent one. So whatever caused that bend (before I owned the car) could have potentially f'd up the bearing/hub.

He and I have both looked at the bushings and all of them look, visually, to be in good shape, no leaks or cracks. But do you think it's possible they're just starting to wear and that's what's causing it?