Zed82

I need help with some vibrations through the wheel i´ve been experiencing on my E500. As a matter of fact i sold my last E39 BMW 528 because of the "shimmycurse" those cars are dragged with.

Tonight i changed the lower control arms (with the big bushing) and rotors/pads in the front. Before that i changed the lower ball joints.

Now i don´t have any problems while braking. Only when driving and even if i put the gear in N. No difference.

Concerning my wheels, i switched wheels with my dad, he owns a E320 CDI MY08 and my wheels have no shimmy on his car. His wheels vibrated on my car at around 70-80mph.

What could it be? Everything else is sound in the front, no play and no clunking. I haven´t looked on the rear end though, i only sense this in the wheel, nowhere else. The car hade a glycol contamination fix done by Mercedes som months ago. They changed the converter and the cooling system.

Zed82

Up we go!

Come on guys, i really need some help with this. I don´t want to sell the car just like i did with the beamer.

Is there any way to tighten the steering gear/rack?

MARK CUMMINS

Inspect the inner tie rods for play..if the wheels are balanced and wheel bearings,lower control arms,ball joints are ok

Zed82

I tried switching to my 17 inch winter wheels today and same problem there. Shimmy at about 60-70 mph, not as much as with my 18s (because of lighter wheels?) but still clearly noticeable and in the same speed.

Zed82

Anyone?

Benzer0matic

I would check the tie rods. Jack up the front end and push top to bottom as well as side to side to check for play.

roomor

Make sure the ball joints are okay --- if you look around the forum, many stories of premature failure - including my E500 @ 78K miles.

Zed82

The car is going back to the dealer to check up the drivetrain and if everything was assembled correctly after the glycol-fix.

I have changed the lower ball joints, the top ones don´t have any play.

justdonating

My 03 E500 did the same thing until I had the lower and top ball joints replaced.

rolex11

I have a 2007 E350 w/sport pkg.

From about 45mph to 65mph (at 55mph its the worst), if no one is sitting in the passengers seat, the seatback vibrates back and forth (sideways door to door) very fast. If I put my hand on it I can feel the it vibrate. The vibration is very subtle and very fast.

I am just wondering what you mean by "shimmy".

There is no vibration/shimmy in the steering wheel however, but I do notice that I can feel the small vibration in my seat ever so slightly as I drive.

I've never had good luck with balancing tires, so I've chalked it up to a wheel balance problem even though I just had new tires installed and they were balanced. It's so subtle, in fact it's hardly noticeable, but yet it bugs me.

Thinking maybe it's my suspension after reading this post.

Sportstick

Find a shop with a Hunter Road Force balancer and ask them to check the rear wheels. If needed, ask them to force match the wheels and tires.

BagMan

Can a rotor be unbalanced? I've been chasing down a rear vibration at highway speed. The dealer says that all suspension components are in good shape and in spec. Original wheels have been road force balanced several times, but the vibration remained. Replaced all wheels and tires - vibration remains.

The only thing left I can think of is an unbalanced brake rotor. Unless someone can enlighten me.

Zed82

I don't know really, you'll get different answers depending on who you ask. I could imagine an unbalanced rotor could cause vibration.

I am really sick of this right now, I thought that I would lose the problem by switching from BMW to MB but no... Are RWD cars more prone to this kind of issues? Never had a problem with my FWD cars.

BagMan

I had a shimmy with my last two cars which ended up being the reason I sold them. M45 (RWD) and Maxima (FWD)

I'm actually greatful the the vibration on the E is only in the back.

Zed82

Update on the matter.

I have now changed all the balljoints in the front end as well as the lower control arms. I have even changed the big bushings on the control arm where the lower ball joints are inserted. I did this because i read that these bushings were prone to failure on 2002 and 2003 models.

The car feels more balanced now but i still get a slight vibration at 100km/h sometimes. The worst part is the brake vibration. At lower speeds, the steering wheel rocks from side to side.

In higher speeds over 140km/h i can feel and hear a vibration in the whole car when braking. It goes "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"....

The front rotors are new as well as the pads.

jcat

OP, you're ignoring advice here. This type of problem especially after replacing control arms points directly to tie rods and/or wheel bearings.

I'd change the outers first if there's play. The inners usually don't go bad. Once that's done, get an alignment and make sure your rear toe is set to 0. Lots of european cars come from the factory with a little bit of rear toe and it can contribute to vibrations and what's described as 'side stepping' when you hit a series of small bumps at good speed.

Bag302, I'd try for an alignment somewhere other than the dealer, make sure it's a laser alignment machine and try the same thing.

Zed82

There is no play in neither the outer or inner tie rods. No play in the wheel bearings either.

jcat

what are the condition of your tires? what are your tire pressures? was the car ever in an accident that may have resulted in a slight frame bend that may have gone unnoticed? Wheel lugs torqued to spec?

Zed82

Tires are new since three weeks back. Pressure is ok.

No accident, the car was fine until a couple of months ago.

jcat

points back to wheel bearings and possibly the lug bolts not being torqued properly. Does it make any noise when it shimmys?

Zed82

Hmmm. I have rocked the wheel up and down and haven´t noticed any play in the bearings. There was a little play in right front bearing but my tech tightened it.

There´s only a sound while breaking from high speeds and it goes "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR", i can feel it through the car.

jcat

and that sound is probably just from the wobble when the load is transferred rear to front under braking.

Idk, still seems like bearings and or lugs to me. maybe a hub going bad? Idk we kind of eliminated everything that would make it shimmy outside of alignment.

Zed82

I´m going to try and change the front rotors once again to OEM. They are Brembo right now, one month old and already warped.

Mad Dawg 350

How are you driving the car to cause the rotors to warp after only 1 month??? I'm presuming the Brembo rotor were bought new when installed. Rotors should not warp in such a short period of time under normal driving/braking conditions.

Zed82

The new rotors were warped from the start. I thought that the shimmy during braking was because of failed big hydro bushings. I switched them out and the shimmy is still there.

The only thing left is warped rotors?

I have a slight shimmy left at about 60mph. Barely noticable though.