nardeezy@yahoo.

I've had my car at the dealership twice to address a typical highway vibration issue (slight steering wheel shimmy). Everything is smooth until I get into the 60-80mph range (varying acceleration/deceleration and stabilization). All 4 wheels/tires were road force balanced. A couple of the wheels were off by 10-15g. I went for a test drive with the shop foreman this afternoon and everything seemed better. However, when I was driving home this evening, the vibration appeared to be the same before I had the dealer look at the vehicle. The shop foreman performed a visual inspection while on the rack and could not find any issues. Any thoughts, is it the tire pressure, road temperature, do I just need new front tires, worn bushing(s), wheel bearing(s), ball joints, etc.?

BenJ

Wouldnt hurt to check your bushings and hubs. It is also possible that some of your wheel weights fell off.

DAGREEKNYC

what type of tires and rims ? I have soft compound nitto invo's and i realized that u feel a vibration until the tires heat up .

BelaMeca

How old are the tires,how often do you drive the car?
My problem was solved by buying new tires.

DFW01E55

Check your transmission and motor mounts.
I had the same symptoms and a new tranny mount fixed it.

Shadow5501

Does it vibrate after 10 minutes on the highway? I've had a couple of cars, including the E55, where the tires will slightly flatspot while sitting. When first on the highway you get a vibration that feels like a tire or two is just a bit out of balance. But after a few minutes it fades away and the car is as smooth as expected.

nardeezy@yahoo.

I have the stock 18" AMG wheels all around. The front tires are the OEM sized Contonental SportContact2 and the rears are the OEM sized Continental SportCOntact3 (replaced during CPO process). From my observation, the vibration doesn't appear to be temperature dependant. BTW, the tires were at 40psi and I have re-adjusted to 36psi, not change in result.

nardeezy@yahoo.

Not sure how old the front tires are (Continental SportContact2) but the rears are brand new (Continental SportContact3). The dealer replaced the rear as needed per the CPO process.

nardeezy@yahoo.

I haven't observed that.

nardeezy@yahoo.

The dealer had the car for an entire day and they said they checked everything they could. How can I check the mounts?

nardeezy@yahoo.

Not sure how old the fronts are but the tread is still good. The rears are supposedly new. The car is driven about twice a week and mostly on the freeway.

DFW01E55

Open the hood and have someone torque the engine while in drive with the brake on.

If it's a motor mount, the engine will try to jump out of the bay.

Tranny mount, put it on jackstands and crawl under there, look for oil spots near the bolt that secures the tranny to the crossmember that the tranny rests on. Make sure the bolt hasn't backed out too. (At least that's how it was on my CL55.)

nardeezy@yahoo.

"torque the engine while in drive with the brake on", you mean power brake? This sounds dangerous, so do it slightly right? WHat do you mean by jump out? I would assume that you could visually see the engine slightly torque axially if someone were power braking with the hood open? How significant should it look?

Vanditz

Sorry nardeezy u have to deal with this. This is exactly what drove me nuts with my old jaguar xf and caused me to get out of my lease a year early. Luckily so far my 08 e63 has been smooth. They could never get it straightened out with my jag

nardeezy@yahoo.

The Jag is a different issue. I had my fair share of vibrations issues in the past with different vehicles and vehicle setups and I've have learned alot. First off, the vibration I am detecting is very subjective. Others may think it's smooth. Given the experience I've had in the past, I'm just really sensitive toward any vibration now. However, the fact that most (if not all) W211 owners that have had this issue in the past as "solvable" is a good thing. Because I am new to the E63 I'm just trying to get technical feedback. I'm confident that it will get solved.

motorkas

I would say that if your getting vibration through the steering wheel (and the suspension and various mounts have been eliminated from the equation)- the problem is most likely with your front wheels/tires. I've never been a fan of mismatched tires. My first step would be to replace the fronts (you can still keep the II's for flats in the future).

nardeezy@yahoo.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I have enough information to go back to the dealer (again, 3rd time) for a troubleshoot and repair.

Anyone know how much it costs to replace the motor mount(s) and transmission mount(s)?

DFW01E55

Yes power brake, it's only dangerous if you let off the brake!
If it moves up and left more than an inch, trouble, it could move as much as 3 to 4 inches. You'll know it when you see it.
Parts 125, labor the same.

DAGREEKNYC

this makes sense

StevesE63

I had the same issue with my '09 E63 from new. I took it to the dealer for road force balance & they said it was within spec. However, an honest tire technician will admit that you will feel steering shimmy on a car like this at anything over 10 psi of road force. The specs let them go to around 27 psi before they fail. If your readings were between 10 & 27, you will feel it. Your only solution is to either try to get the dealer to re-index the tires on the wheels to reduce the road force, or buy new tires with the understanding that if they are unacceptable that they will take them back or replace.

In my situation, the new Conti 3 tires just needed a few thousand miles to break in. At 5k, they smoothed out.

Hope this helps, as I sympathize with your plight.

nardeezy@yahoo.

You have a very good point! You mean weight (g) rather than pressure (psi) right? The shop foreman and I had a brief discussion about this. Basically, the tolerance for acceptance that the road force balancing machine may not be tight enough for our application or to compensate for other factors thus resulting in a slight vibration/shimmy. This slight level of vibration/shimmy is subjective depending on the driver. It just so happens that I am very sensitive to vibration. The dealer may not balance the wheels to anything less than what the balancing machine tolerance specifications are. By request, a really good tire shop that uses the latest equipment and highly skilled technicians could get the balance as close to 0g as possible.

27300man

About $900

BelaMeca

also,
road force balance is good to only 75 mph.

StevesE63

The road force is not actually the same as balance. A tire/wheel can be in perfect balance but still vibrate due to out of round or variances in sidewall stiffness. A regular balance machine cannot detect such issues. A road force machine has a roller placed against the tread at typical load pressures that an auto would place on the tire (1000-1500 lbs.) & then the tire/wheel rotates on the assembly. The outer roller measures variations of roundness & stiffness & reads out in PSI. Over 10 PSI variation in any point of the tire circumference will result in slightly noticable shimmy & over 27 PSI is usually out of spec. The machine will also indicate if it is feasable to re-index the tire on the wheel to reduce the reading. Most wheels are slightly out of round & by placing the high spot of the tire opposite of the high spot of the wheel, sometimes the effect of the imperfections of each can be cancelled out by such.

This process requires patience on the part of the tire technician &, of course, proper training on how to use the machine. Given the minimum wage quality employees at most tire shops, a qualified technician is hard to luck into. I would only trust the dealer on an MB, but then you are at their mercy. They are not tire experts & want to send you out with any readings under MB specs. just to get rid of you.

I am also ultra sensitive to steering shimmy & have fought this problem on many cars over the years. Most of the time, the only cure is new tires & then I've had several sets installed to find a good match.

I've also had a couple cars over the years ('03 BMW 745i & '05 Lexus SC430 to name a few) that I never did get a satisfactory shimmy free drive out of that I finally sold as a result of such.

Good luck with this issue. It sure can be frustrating.