SheriffDep

My recent purchase of a 08 E63 with 75k on it runs awesome and drives great. All appears good. Passing speed under power and normal running is all normal. The vehicle has michelin PSS on it and I only drove it 2 times before leaving town for 3 weeks. The cold weather set in and temps under 50 degrees, so when under heavy power in 2nd I thought the tires were slightly spinning (NO TRAC LIGHT). Even at 60 miles on hour flooring it seemed like a tad bit of spinning. I am running 35psi in the rear stock size. I had planned on swapping tires due to the cold and not wanting to wear out the PSS just cause it was cold.

Today it was 70 degrees. Several times I stomped it and the wobbling rear end was still there, and no traction light. Didn't do a 1st gear from a stop, but did do a 20mile an hour kick down several times. What it feels like is one tire is getting the torque, 1/2 sec later the other rear tire is getting the torque. So the back end is pushing forward from one side then the other. Hopefully that explains it. So might it be the LSD is malfunctioning?? Or could my car poss have more power than stock (feels slightly faster and peppier than my old 07 E63). Just not sure but it feels not normal. Maybe I should take off the Traction control and try it again. Kinda hard to test consistently due to smaller town and since the resonator is off its noticably loud. But interested in some advice. Thanks

dchl21

pss is no good in the cold bro...they are summers... if u had any performance winters like preilli sottozeros or Dunlop wintersport 3d. you will hook easy.

Hulk

Check for flat spots on the tires also

cnterline

Make sure your rear end is set up correctly slight toe out under hard accel will do that,also make sure your on a flat surface ,I've been on a road with slight crown and have experienced that.

HeissRod

Are you lowered? I'm lowered via STAR + bending the rear bracket & my car did that all the time before installing the KMAC bushings. That wobble is now gone. It's either a rear toe or camber issue.

Worth the wait

Check tire pressure as well.

SheriffDep

Yes completely understand, however today it was 70 degrees and that testing was after 2 hours of driving, so tires should have been warm enough?

All tires are about 7/32 and are or seem perfectly worn so far.

The roads were flat, but.... to check toe and camber I guess I need to go to a good alignment shop? When sitting still rear wheel appear to tilt in towards the top and little more than I am used too.

From what I know the car is not lowered, however i have noticed the rear sitting on sport 1 or 2 pretty darn low on the tires. About perfectly fills up the well , which my 07 the tires sat a few inches above. So no but how do I check that part out??

As stated above, rear tires are at 34-35psi. Is that what I should be running. Tires moving about from side to side on the side walls could exactly be what I am experiencing. My 07 had Hankook Ventus V12's which had extremely hard side walls that did not flex, so that might be the difference right there, but there was a 4 month time frame between the two 63's.

Thanks guys, I usually try and help others but this time wanted experience to help me. LOL

I know there are a few threads dealing with DIY for Lips and Diffusers, but do you guys think a comprehensive W211 DIY for both , with removal of bumpers would be nice to have in one thread. They will be done right for sure. Plus I will do for the forum and complete Paint Correction write up for this Black car. That way people have a much easier time doing the process themselves. Thanks

Worth the wait

Sorry fAiled to see you mentioned pressure.

I think those write ups would get a lot of use....doooo it

Good luck getting her sorted!

Enigma94

I think the PSS's have a pretty firm sidewall so I doubt that's it. My guess is something is off in the alignment and it's causing your issue. The alignment can get whacked out pretty easy with these cars because of the air suspension and it going up and down a lot if you change damper settings a lot or use the raise car button.

Find a good alignment shop and have things checked out before going further with anything else, should be the easiest and cheapest test.

HeissRod

Agreed. Get you rear alignment checked.

SheriffDep

Will do, I have a good INDY that can do it, but its a pain. He is so busy, that you have to drop the car off, (they sit outside, ) and if he can get to it that day he does, if not it waits till he can. But we will see and I will report back to this thread on the results. Thanks for all the help, and write ups will be end of next week. Car goes into a friends shop for ---- repainting the hood (rock chips), front bumper, side skirts fading and then to install the pieces due to parts being off the car. Oh, and painting the calipers and flushing the system too.

GregMB

I feel your pain.....

I've had two sets of PSS's on my E55 so far.... and I fought with rear end wiggle constantly.

The things that seemed to help were:

1. Increase tire pressure closer to 40psi
2. Constant alignment checks


For whatever reason, the PSS seems to move around a lot with what I'd consider "normal" tire pressures (34 - 36psi). Adding a few extra pounds of air seemed to stiffen them up and get rid of some of the wagging.

I also struggled with alignment issues. I have a set of aftermarket toe-links and when the heims started to rust/seize it caused all sorts of oddball handling behaviors. The car became downright dangerous to drive and would get REALLY loose in the corners and felt completely unstable in any kind of transient maneuver.

Last summer I tried to buy my 3rd set of PSS's (I only get about 6000 miles per set) and they were on national backorder for about 2 months. My rears were at the cords, so I really couldn't wait that long.

I went with a Bridgestone Potenza S-04 instead (275 width). They are WIDE!!!! I thought the PSS's were wide, but the Bridgestones are even wider for a given section width. They actually rub a slight bit on the fenders with my 9.5" wide wheels. I used to run the older S-02s on my 911 and really liked them.... and I have to say the the S-04 seems to be a really nice tire for the E55. It grips hard and is a lot less sensitive to tire pressures... they seem to be lasting a bit longer as well. I'm not sure if I'll get 10,000 miles out of them (probably not) but they DO seem like a better wearing tire, despite being really grippy.

They are also about $100/tire cheaper than the Michelins.



Toe Out/ Toe In issues are going to destroy your tires in a hurry (like a few thousand miles).... even more than excessive negative camber will. I have spent a small fortune on tires, while I was trying to sort-out my alignment issues.

-G

SheriffDep

Alright, Tires are at 40 psi and it appears to be a lot better. Going out to do some standing runs and see for sure. But appears better. Not that that is a final answer to the issue, but alignment is set up for next week. Thanks for the help guys.

aeroman

Its the tire sidewalls wobbling.

HeissRod

Nope

aeroman

You bet your *** it is. I spent a lot of money figuring that out. That's why inflating the tires is helping.

SheriffDep

Alright, did two full stop from 1st gear standing runs to 80, with traction on. Tires grabbed decent and the wobbling stopped, however it did sway some. Will do a little more testing tomorrow while running errands and report back, but 40psi helped tremendously. I do think the alignment needs something the rear rims seem to angle in at the top more than what I remember. Also I am noticing that there is not any change in height when switching from normal, sport 1 and sport 2. Rasing it does but not the others. I was used to normal then the car lowered some to Sport 1 then stayed the same but tightened up the dampers so I need to look into that maybe also. Thanks for all the help and ideas.

Enigma94

What were they inflated to previously to bumping them up to 40?

HeissRod

I run 42psi on Michelin PSS, per the specs inside the filler door. I still got the wobble he is describing, pretty bad. KMAC bushings and a good alignment eliminated it 100%.

GregMB

To be clear, I think there are a couple factors at play with the OP....

Low tire pressure (for the PSS) AND bad alignment values.

Every time my car gets a little bit of rear toe out, the rear end will do a gentle, slow "sway" on hard pulls from a dig. If the toe out is really bad, the sway gets a lot quicker and more violent (and terrifying).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if you get the alignment spec perfect, you might still feel a little sway because of lower than optimal tire pressures.

Heissrod, please publish your alignment specs.... And I'll publish mine. I think that would be interesting to compare.


-G

HeissRod

GregMB

Here's mine from last month.....



Interesting coincidence to see that you had a lot of rear toe out on the left side. One of my toe-links had a jam nut work loose and my toe setting went bad. (toe out).

With the new alignment, I'm back to a slight bit of rear toe-in and with the S-O4s the car launches HARD and straight. No drama.



-G

HeissRod

Don't pay attention to the Before values at all. The KMAC bushings were installed on a lift, the alignment eyeballed, then tightened down enough to move it over to the alignment rack on the other side of the shop. Those values are not what I drove in with. If you look in my thread where I installed the front bushings only, you can see my previous rear values.

SheriffDep

Ok Guys figured something out and might just be an issue causing the problems.

NOT SEARCHED YET: But..... Suspension is off. There was a timeframe of 3 weeks where I was out of town right after purchasing so memory might be from that time.


Airmatic--- I thought I had noticed the car moving up and down normally per setting. But NOW----- Car will raise the the highest setting and lower back down no problems. Again thats the high setting. Now for Normal, s1 and s2 the car rear end only will settle down, and the drivers side slightly lower than the passenger side. The fronts are even but sitting at the Normal level. Doesn't move.

This is likely the problem but now to diagnose. No funny noises and does work, the damper settings seem to work correctly from feel between Normal S1 and S2. But its just the height. I bought this used, 75k miles, had PSS on it, and K&N's. So have no clue to anything else.

Any resets for the Aromatic??? I guess I also need to check for washers or lowering links, but the front is high or stays at the normal setting so don't think its a mod issue.

Pics of how it sits here in a bit.

GregMB

Definitely don't waste time on the alignment until you have the ride height the way you like it.... The toe changes quite a bit between a high or low suspension setting.

I gave up on "C" suspension setting (comfort) because it uses the dynamic ride adjustment at ~68mph and lowers the car another 20mm or so... Whatever you "think" your alignment settings are at static ride height will change at highway speeds.

I keep the car in "S1" sport-1 mode. There is NO dynamic ride adjustment in S1 or S2 so you've got a better chance of consistent alignment at any speed.

-G