Help: BMW shimmies during High-speed driving

Wallie05 · Mar 30, 2004

Wow, I haven't posted on here in a long time. Can someone help me out?

Recently, I've noticed that when I drive at high speeds (80+) my car 'shimmies' a little back and forth. Now, it's not the body on top of the frame, it's pretty much the whole car; a slight shaking. You can see the empty passenger seat jiggle a bit as well. At speeds around 120MPH+, the car remains relatively stable, but the reverberating is increased. Does anyone have any ideas why this might be?

My car does drive straight without steering correction, so I don't think it is the alighnment, but my actual steering wheel does lean a little to the right, even while driving straight. So any clues?

Thanks

Tom · Mar 30, 2004

Have you had your tires check and rebalanced?

aNoodle · Mar 30, 2004

Since you think it's not the alignment...my guess would be an imbalanced wheel. Check your tire pressure before having it checked out.

MrElussive · Mar 30, 2004

The one of the tires/rims might be off-balance.

MrElussive · Mar 30, 2004

OMG yo you two beat me to the punch by like a matter of seconds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom · Mar 30, 2004

MrElussive said:

hehe...well I guess the answer is unanimous.

Wallie05 · Mar 31, 2004

Alright, thanks for the replies. But what do you guys mean by an inbalanced wheel? You mean the tire might not be on it properly?

e30fr3@k · Mar 31, 2004

Wallie05 said:

it means the tire (rubber part) isn't resting correctly on the wheel (metal part).

bmwrocks · Mar 31, 2004

Wallie05 said:

No, what they mean is you need to get your wheels/tires balanced professionally at a reputable tire place or the delaership. That is the process when they spin your wheel on a machine (off the vehicle) then apply weights to the rim at the points and amounts the machine tells them to. Wheels can also be balanced on the vehicle for very tough balancing situations. The shimmies you describe are very often due to wheels/tires needing balancing.

I am not trying to talk down to you, just thought by your response you might not know of this procedure.

Kirby · Mar 31, 2004

You can troubleshoot what BMWRocks pointed out. Look at your wheels, you should se a small grayish weight clipped on somewhere around the rim where it meets the tire. Normally you would see one on each wheel. You might be able to see that one is missing.

It's needed because the tire and/or wheel are not perfectly shaped. This causes an ounce or two of extra weight on one side of the tire. The clip on weight "counterbalances" that extra rubber.

Question to the group: I have always seen the weights on the outside of the wheel - anybody ever see them on the inside? Why not put them there just to hide them????

Wallie05 · Mar 31, 2004

WOW KIRBY!! Damn, you hit the nail on the head! I looked at my wheels after reading your post, and sure enough, my right-rear wheel was missing the weight! The wheel is slightly scratched on the outer rim in one spot; I remember rubbing it against a curb a few months ago as I was parallel parking. It must have fell off when the wheel scratched against the curb. Amazing.

Thanks bmwrocks also. No offense taken. I appreciate your candid comments. I will take my car to the dealer to have the weight replaced and have the wheels/tires balanced as you recommend.

Oh, one more thing. How much you think a dealer would charge for something like this? Could I take to a tirerack shop or something like that?

Thanks again for all the inputs.

Ghost · Mar 31, 2004

Mark, a reputable tire shop should be able to fix the problem, it shouldn't be expensive at all.
Kirby, Just Tires put the weights on the inside of my wheels and you’re right it looks so much better.

MyHarley · Mar 31, 2004

My weights are always inside the wheel..........if outside, what keeps them on.......I have lost weights with them being inside the wheel.........am I missing something??

bmwrocks · Apr 1, 2004

MyHarley said:

My wheels on both my BMWs have the weights that lay on the inside (not the inside edge, mind you) of the wheels. I think this is because the edges are rounded and cannot hold standard edge-mounted weights?

So mine have these flat, strip-type weights.

Is this what you are talking about MyHarley?

Also, does anyone know how they determine where to place these, as some of mine are close to the outside edge, and others are more towards the center of the wheel?

olcrazy1 · Apr 1, 2004

not sur eif someone already stated this, but...

If shimmy is in the steering wheel it is the front tires, if it is in the seat it is the rears.
If the weights are all on the back side of the rim, it is called a "static" balance, it is for nicer wheels that people do not want weights ont he out side of the wheel; however, it is not at accurate as a true balance when you have weights on both the inner lip and the outer lip. When balancing both sides you get a true balnce that Zero's out on the second spin. I just had my wheels balanced (330i) and I was able ti fix weights to both lips no problem.

MrElussive · Apr 1, 2004

Sometimes, when you get a flat tire, they will actually add a weight to your rim to re-balance the rim and tire. Some rims cannot take a weight on the outside of the wheel due to its design (such as my car), so they put it on the inside. Obviously, it is harder to install the weights on the inside of the wheels so it is more common for them to be on the outside.

Blue · Apr 1, 2004

if the problem is not a missing weight or otherwise improperly balanced wheel, you may have an out-of-round rim. If you bang into a pothole or curb, you can tweak your rim. It may be imperceptable to your eye, but still out-of-round. My buddy's 540 had a bent rim that was fixed by a specialty shop.

jrt67ss350 · Apr 1, 2004

Kirby said:

To answer your question and to reiterate what olcrazy said, a shop that does good work should place weights where needed on both the inner and outer lips of the rim. Additionally, it is very possible that a properly balanced rim may have more than one weight on it. Last time I had my wheels balanced on my BMW, they placed weights both on the outside lip and on the inside lip. This not only balances the wheel circumference-wise but also laterally. You get a true, uniform balance across the width of the wheel. Think of it this way - imagine that the tire rubber was a little thinner in a particular spot of the sidewall on the inboard side of the tire. The best way to balance out that spot would be to place a weight on the inside lip of the rim at that spot. If you placed the weight needed to balance out this spot on the outside lip, then the outside part of the tire at that point would be too heavy. The same would happen if you told the shop to put all of your weights on the inside lip, but there was a light spot on the outboard sidewall.

holycowe · Apr 1, 2004

Well, I have exact same problem after changed the rear tires to 245-40-17 (225-45-17 in front).
Especially at high speed (80 and up) it shimmy like hell, I even felt it very danger.
This morning I droped it at the dealership and after he drive test it, he said he can feel it at 40 mph. They told me the thrust (something) bushings need to be changed and rebalance the front wheels.

After I read this thread, I think the problem gotta be the balance stuff, I don't know if it necessery to change the bushings. Since my car is still under fac. warranty, go ahead and change the bushings and I'll pay for the balancing ($42.00). He said it's a big job, takes about 3 hours. I'll pick it up in 2 more hours.

Kirby · Apr 1, 2004

Thanks for all the info regarding the location of the weights. I learned a bunch! Distributing it does make sense if you want a perfect balance, just never thought about it. All these years I only ever saw weights on the outside, maybe I had them on the inside and never noticed. Now I am going to check the Bimmer and look for inside weights.

Regarding the type of weights discussed above, from what I know there are 2 types - clip on for the more standard rims/balance jobs, and stick on for "custom" rims.

Help: BMW shimmies during High-speed driving

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