losing hope... front end shimmy can't diagnose

[ucben105]

Okay i have owned the car for 3 years and in that time i have always had a front end shimmy. i am only 17 so my funds have been quite limited i have managed to put Bilstein sport shocks, eibach pro kit spring , a new rack a pinion, new rotors, new pads, new wheels, and tires. i think that sums up the suspension mods. when i got the car i had a shimmy but my dad looked at the tires and noticed that one had a broke band. i went and bought Konig Remember wheels and new tires. that didnt fix it so i went to a suspension guy and i don't know supposedly he was good( from rep...) he wound look at it and find something. i wound replace it not him so he wasnt makin money off of me or anything. finally i did all of that and it still wasn't fixed. the last thing he tried was jackin it up and rotaing the wheel close to the ground and he said my wheels were out of round. I bought them brand new off of ebay so i din't know who they came from. anyways i called a konig dealer and he said that as long as he had been selling konig wheels he had never heard of that problem from konig. i don't know what else to do. he said it might be something on the car causing the wheel to do that, but the suspension guy said all of them were like that not just the front. I wwatched him and they deffinetly had a wable in them. any help, hints, or ideas would be great thanks....

[Farbin Kaiber]

Go pay a reputable big name franchise tire shop to road force variation balance your wheels. This will verify if there is any "shimmy" related issue in your wheels and/or tires.

[ucben105]

well i have been through 2 sets of tires and a reputable tires shop has balanced the wheels both times and they have never said anything about them being out of balnace. could it be a control arm bushing or something.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Hub/bearing, CAB, ball joints on CA, etc. could be many things. Could you list what has been replaced by the "suspension" guy you spoke of?

[Brew]

Sounds like the wheels aren't centering on the hubs. Do you have hub centering rings?

[Farbin Kaiber]

^^^ Good point. Remembers centerbore is 73.1 for example. e30's are 57.1 IIRC.

[DrMcDave]

centering rings or control arms (ball joints, CABS) is really the only thing it would be if its not the wheels. Also make sure your wheels are overtightened. That caused a vibration in my sisters cabrio. Some a-hole with an impact wrench over tightened them. Took a lot of effort with my impact to get them off.

[a_thomasmr23]

a little OT but where would you get hub centering rings?

[twright]

You missed the most important post from Farbin Kaiber above. FORCE balancing of the tires/wheels. A regular balance won't find a bad wheel. A Road Force balance on the good Hunter balance machine will find a bad wheel.

But I think you've already found that you have a bad wheel/tire. If they wobble when you spin them, there is something wrong with them. Don't let an incompetent tire store talk you out of that conclusion.

[DrMcDave]

a little OT but where would you get hub centering rings?

tirerack

[ucben105]

wow i didnt know i had that many possibilities. first of all i am not sureif the wheels are centered or not it had plastic rings that fit in the center of the wheel, but that didn't make any difference. second i stated what i replaced so it could be some of the things u guys stated, and third u are right the tire clerk might not have known what he was talking about, but i didn't want to order wheels until i knew if they were bad.

[Brew]

Before you do anything else, you need to make sure you have the correct centering rings. If you have tools take one of the wheels off and see if the plastic ring alone fits tightly onto the hub of the car. If it does, make sure that it also fits tightly to the center bore of the wheel. This is crucial because BMWs have hubcentric wheels, meaning the wheel is centered on the spindle not by the lug bolts, but by the hub.

And definitely try another shop for your tire work. If there is noticeable out of round of the wheel and tire with it on the car, but not when its on the balancer, it should be a no-brainer that the wheel is not centering on the hub.

[ucben105]

thanks
i'll check it out

[ucben105]

okay i pulled my wheel off and looked at the centering ring, and i'mm not sure if it is right or not. i remember when i got the wheels the paper said they were good for ford probes. i did'nt put them on for almost a year. when i fianlly put them on it didn't make a difference. anyways how can i tell (measurments pics, etc...) i really wnat to get this fixed any help is great .

[Brew]

The centering ring should fit tightly on the hub of the car- the raised part in the center where the wheel mounts.
Also, if you've driven the car for a while with this vibration, there is a good chance that your tires are scalloped now, which will cause noise and possibly vibration.
If you have a vernier caliper, you can measure the inner and outer diameter of the centering ring to see if its correct. The inner diameter should be 57.1mm, not sure what the outer should be for your wheels, but you can measure.