horseheadnebula
09-26-2006, 07:58 PM
Drove my friend's 535i and it had a couple of issues. Didn't get a chance to put it on jackstands and look around and he's itching to buy some replacement parts, so need some opinions to narrow it down... Here's the detail:
Before we go into this, I'll say the first thing we tried is swapping wheels between my car and his, and even trying his winter set of wheels, and it did not have any effect, short of that my 18s amplified his symptoms...
The whole car starts to shake/vibrate at about 48mph. The steering wheel does not move left/right (shimmy) when this happens, and the car remains to track straight. Perhaps it pulls a little to the right, but I'm not sure if this was due to the road or the car itself.
At lower speeds, there are no vibrations until a bump is hit, at which point either the left or the right wheel, whichever hit the bump, stars to vibrate or wobble. This can be stopped by lightly stepping on the brake, and the car will resume the smooth drive.
Also, at really slow speeds, under 10mph or so over rough terrain, the front right clunks. Not really like a worn sway link, but like maybe a bushing is missing somewhere, or something. Also if you turn the wheel to the right all the way and then kick the tire on the tread from straight on, you can hear a bang from somewhere toward the rearward half of the wheel well.
Lastly, when he makes a tight left turn, the front end seems to skip around every so often like something is broken, almost like a broken belt in the tire, but like I said, we tried various wheels and tires and this makes no difference.
So, is it typical thrust arm stuff? Not sure it is since the steering wheel does not shake/shimmy at all... but I'm out of ideas what to suggest to him, and he does not want to "waste money" on a mechanic.
Before we go into this, I'll say the first thing we tried is swapping wheels between my car and his, and even trying his winter set of wheels, and it did not have any effect, short of that my 18s amplified his symptoms...
The whole car starts to shake/vibrate at about 48mph. The steering wheel does not move left/right (shimmy) when this happens, and the car remains to track straight. Perhaps it pulls a little to the right, but I'm not sure if this was due to the road or the car itself.
At lower speeds, there are no vibrations until a bump is hit, at which point either the left or the right wheel, whichever hit the bump, stars to vibrate or wobble. This can be stopped by lightly stepping on the brake, and the car will resume the smooth drive.
Also, at really slow speeds, under 10mph or so over rough terrain, the front right clunks. Not really like a worn sway link, but like maybe a bushing is missing somewhere, or something. Also if you turn the wheel to the right all the way and then kick the tire on the tread from straight on, you can hear a bang from somewhere toward the rearward half of the wheel well.
Lastly, when he makes a tight left turn, the front end seems to skip around every so often like something is broken, almost like a broken belt in the tire, but like I said, we tried various wheels and tires and this makes no difference.
So, is it typical thrust arm stuff? Not sure it is since the steering wheel does not shake/shimmy at all... but I'm out of ideas what to suggest to him, and he does not want to "waste money" on a mechanic.