[Anwar1995]

I don't know on which catagory should I post this thread on as the reason for this issue can be anything.

After buying my 2014 535i F10 and it spending months jumping from shop to shop to be fixed now its almost perfect with the small exception of this slight vibration. I feel it mostly on the steering wheel, seat and floor. It is high frequency vibration in which sometimes I feel my left foot getting some tingling sensation after driving for a long time. Its mostly at high speeds of 80mph/135kmph.

I tried balancing the tires multiple times with different machines/shops (I think 4 times till now) with varying results. Sometimes it gets slightly better but mostly it gets worse.

Some background on things that got fixed that I think can be related to this issue:
3 wheels where out of round and got fixed.
Got new set of tires BUT they are non runflats and they are NEXEN N'fera AU7s.
I have done front and rear alignment.
Thrust arm bushings has been replaced.
New brake pads front and rear with freshly skimmed disks.
I have the Metal Guibo/flex disk and it was inspected OK.
Trans oil and filter and diff oil has been replaced recently.
New trans and engine mounts installes.

According to the shop I take my car to (they are BMW/MINI specialized) the car is ok and no abnormal vibration is detected and everything underneath the car is super tight.

Any ideas?

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Anwar1995

After buying my 2014 535i F10 and it spending months jumping from shop to shop to be fixed now its almost perfect with the small exception of this slight vibration. I feel it mostly on the steering wheel, seat and floor. It is high frequency vibration in which sometimes I feel my left foot getting some tingling sensation after driving for a long time. Its mostly at high speeds of 80mph/135kmph.

I tried balancing the tires multiple times with different machines/shops (I think 4 times till now) with varying results. Sometimes it gets slightly better but mostly it gets worse.

...

Any ideas?

One area that is often missed is wheel mounting precision. If the tolerance between the hub spigot and wheel center is outside BMW's tolerance, there can be vibrations whatever else you do. Tolerance/clearance needs to be less than 0.15mm.

[7'er-addict]

While rust in between the hub can cause a vibration, I don't know if that's a prevalent issue on cars that have wheels already on them!

I could certainly check your guibo and center support bearing, guibo will give a higher frequency vibration, while the CSB will give a more harsh slower frequency vibration.


Although It sounds like we may have more than one vibration.

Your front end vibration, I would imagine are your thrust arm bushes. In my experience the first symptom is usually a slight steering wheel vibration, then a clunk, then vibration when braking.

I just changed a set on an F10, had play, but looked almost perfect. Visual inspection isn't always 100% on them.

Well, we did an E65 SWB V12 760i this week that you could definitely tell they were bad, had a literal chunk missing..but if you were at that point you would be having many more problems.

[SWFLf10]

Originally Posted by Anwar1995

I don't know on which catagory should I post this thread on as the reason for this issue can be anything.

After buying my 2014 535i F10 and it spending months jumping from shop to shop to be fixed now its almost perfect with the small exception of this slight vibration. I feel it mostly on the steering wheel, seat and floor. It is high frequency vibration in which sometimes I feel my left foot getting some tingling sensation after driving for a long time. Its mostly at high speeds of 80mph/135kmph.

I tried balancing the tires multiple times with different machines/shops (I think 4 times till now) with varying results. Sometimes it gets slightly better but mostly it gets worse.

Some background on things that got fixed that I think can be related to this issue:
3 wheels where out of round and got fixed.
Got new set of tires BUT they are non runflats and they are NEXEN N'fera AU7s.
I have done front and rear alignment.
Thrust arm bushings has been replaced.
New brake pads front and rear with freshly skimmed disks.
I have the Metal Guibo/flex disk and it was inspected OK.
Trans oil and filter and diff oil has been replaced recently.
New trans and engine mounts installes.

According to the shop I take my car to (they are BMW/MINI specialized) the car is ok and no abnormal vibration is detected and everything underneath the car is super tight.

Any ideas?

I believe there's another thread out there somewhere about this. I had a noticeable vibration that most shops said wasn't the balance until I found a real quality wheel guy in my area who was able to rebalance on his machine. Made it much much better. Then after replacing the front thrust arms and pretty much the rest of the suspension it got even better. New tires later on made the rest of the difference and is now almost not noticeable to me. A huge difference from the initial vibration when I first bought mine. Now I'm tracking down the same issue on my new to me 6 series.

[Anwar1995]

HighlandPete Is there a way to calculate this tolerance? or make sure that it is up to spec? here on my country I really doubt that they care or able to measure those sort of tolerances. However I have noticed some of my wheel bolts are worn-out a bit from the back of their heads (on the side that pushes against the rim) which might be able to create such tolerance?? I am not sure.

Thanks for the other guys comments, My guibo is ok and my central bearing is "almost perfect" as my shop described to me. even though I replaced my thrust arm bushings I will probably take a closer look at the installation and see if any red flags are there.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Anwar1995

HighlandPete Is there a way to calculate this tolerance? or make sure that it is up to spec? here on my country I really doubt that they care or able to measure those sort of tolerances. However I have noticed some of my wheel bolts are worn-out a bit from the back of their heads (on the side that pushes against the rim) which might be able to create such tolerance?? I am not sure.

Hang a wheel on a top lug bolt, (not too tight), to allow the wheel to sit on the top of the hub spigot. Using a feeler gauge, check the clearance of the spigot to wheel center, slide in at the bottom of the hub spigot.

Play at the wheel hub, greater than or equal to 0.15 mm, is outside the permissible tolerance.

BTW, the wheel is not centered on the lug bolts, the design is hub-centric mounting. Hence the critical maximum center bore tolerance.

[nedmon]

You said that 3 wheels had been straightened, Check the runout on the rims on each. If the wheels are not rotating true they will vibrate.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by nedmon

You said that 3 wheels had been straightened, Check the runout on the rims on each. If the wheels are not rotating true they will vibrate.

Good point, missed that important clue. Even well-balanced wheels can vibrate, on the road, if there is still some run-out.

[Opie55]

And just so you know, the industry standard (and BMW's published tolerance) for wheel runout before the wheel needs to be straightened is 30/1,000ths (thirty thousandths) of an inch. That is roughly the thickness of three playing cards. That standard applies to lateral (side-to-side) and radial (roundness) runout. Whoever straightened yours may have eyeballed them to a "looks pretty good" standard. If it were me, I'd find a place that straightens wheels and has a jig with dial indicators. Have them pull your tires and measure runout in thousandths for all four inner surfaces on all four wheels (16 total measurements) and have them tell you those numbers. If any exceed 30 thousandths by much, ask if they can get it better.

[Anwar1995]

Thanks everyone for your input.

When I made the thread I was away at work and I just came back home yesterday. As soon I arrived here I took the car for a relatively long drive and I had few observations that might give a clearer picture and help diagnose this issue better.

The vibration is NOT always present. It would come for few minutes and randomly dissapear for a maximum of 30 seconds (when it goes away the car drives silky smooth) and then comes back.
It would start very slightly around 60mph and reach maximum intensity at 80mph and fade out at 90mph.
At 80mph the vibration is felt the most on Throttle pedal and the steering wheel, then floor and on the seats I feel the vibration the least.
The longer I drive it the better it gets (as in the vibration gets less intensive) or so I imagine as maybe I get used it.

Eventhough I said it reaches maximum intensity at 80mph but it is not that severe. Best to imagine it as when no one is sitting on the passenger seat you can easily see its headrest vibrate and if you were wearing long loose sleeves the steering vibration would make them vibrate too.

My plan is to take it to my usual shop to verify everything was installed properly on some of the things that I replaced earlier on the suspension (inner and outer tie rods, thrust arm bushings and diff bolts and mounts) as well as check the hub to wheel tolerance.

Sorry if my english was abit off, its my second language.

[7'er-addict]

That does sound to me like the guibos and center support bearing.

Just did both to an E90 with the same complaint at the same speeds

[Anwar1995]

Update:

Turns out the main source of my vibration is TIRES!

Even though I installed new tires recently but it seems like it was either a bad batch or not original/resurfaced. I found out the hard way that here in my country we have a huge problem or getting old tires that have been re-treaded or reskined unofficially and most probably that was my case. I had NEXEN tires when I had the vibration and I bought them from a small shop near town. After the whole ordeal I went to contact the official supplier of NEXEN tires in my region to discuss the issue and they said they do NOT distribute tires to the shop that I bought from and they informed me about this scam that is on the rise here. Anyway I went to install new KUMHO tires only this time from the official supplier and the vibration was 95% gone! Note that NEXEN tires and KUMHO tires that I have used were both NON-runflat tires.

Now I am only left with a very very slight vibration only from 120-135kmph (75-85mph). Hopefully the search doesnt take long!

[SWFLf10]

Originally Posted by Anwar1995

Update:

Turns out the main source of my vibration is TIRES!

Even though I installed new tires recently but it seems like it was either a bad batch or not original/resurfaced. I found out the hard way that here in my country we have a huge problem or getting old tires that have been re-treaded or reskined unofficially and most probably that was my case. I had NEXEN tires when I had the vibration and I bought them from a small shop near town. After the whole ordeal I went to contact the official supplier of NEXEN tires in my region to discuss the issue and they said they do NOT distribute tires to the shop that I bought from and they informed me about this scam that is on the rise here. Anyway I went to install new KUMHO tires only this time from the official supplier and the vibration was 95% gone! Note that NEXEN tires and KUMHO tires that I have used were both NON-runflat tires.

Now I am only left with a very very slight vibration only from 120-135kmph (75-85mph). Hopefully the search doesnt take long!

Great to hear it was a simple fix! Unfortunately these cars seem to be picky about having perfect tires and perfect wheel balancing.

I was fighting trying to figure out the same issue on my 5 series, and a combination of suspension components, rebalancing at a different shop, and new tires made a night and day difference for me.

I’m now working on getting the vibration out of my 6 series. Getting tires today. Hoping that helps on this car.

Apparently the previous owner had bent wheels driving over rough roads, potholes, etc. and installed new tires on them without straightening them. According to both my usual tire guy and a BMW dealership, this caused the tires to go out of round. The issue was still present after i had the wheels straightened. So new tires will hopefully solve most of the vibration.