Myneighbour’s elderly father (70’s – no offence intended to forum members of asimilar age!!
) has a BMW 840Ci – 4.4 litre which is the joy of his life. It has non-standard alloys with run flattyres. He doesn’t use it much – about 7.5k miles per year and now really onlydrives when he has to.
It used todrive as steady as a rock at any speed. A few months ago however, it began todevelop a problem vibration felt through the steering, but passengers also feelit. It starts at about 57mph and seems to disappear again at about 65mph. Thevibration has recently got much worse so now he dare not exceed 55mph.
About ninemonths ago, he had the wheels refurbished at a cost of about £200. It wasa just a paint job with baking in an oven. The rear wheels are wider than thefronts so the wheels cannot be rotated. At the same time as the wheelrefurb job was done, he had new rear tyres fitted. The fronts have been onsince he got the car. A small area on one of these is very slightly flattened.He’s has pointed this out whenever the car has been worked upon and has beentold they’re good for another 5K to 10K miles and maybe more. He checks thetyre pressures weekly to keep them properly inflated.
In October, when the vibrationbecame noticeable, he had the front wheels balance-checked. Theseemingly-expert guy who did the job showed him that when he leaned on along-handled torque wrench engaged in one of the front wheel nuts, the wheelmoved considerably. He said that this should not happen at all and heattributed the movement and the vibration to a failing bush in the steering.That suggestion seems to have been the best advice he's had thus far. However, that'bush' has not yet been identified.
Later inOctober, he had his local garage carry out a so-called ‘service’ - an oilchange and so on - and an MOT. As when he bought the car, they found a brokencoil spring. As on the previous occasion, they again got the wrong spring forit and had to reorder it. The car has a ‘sporty’ suspension and the springs areonly about half the height of the standard ones. he discussed the vibrationproblem but they could not find any bush. They wondered if he’d misunderstood‘bush’ and asked if it could be the track rod ends. Anyway, although they saidthe old ones were okay, he insisted on having the track rod ends replaced. Thevibration was still unchanged so he took the car back to them. They confirmedthat the vibration is as he described it. They had the wheels balanced againand the alignment checked. This time they said that one of the wheels wasdifficult to balance. But the vibration remained exactly the same. Theysuggested that the wrong tyres might be on the wheels.
I didsuggest to him that the wheels should perhaps be balanced on the car, though hefeels that as the symptoms have not changed through two wheel-balancingoperations, the fault must lie elsewhere.
While I knowthis is not Stag-related, it would be great to benefit from all the knowledgeout there. This chap is 76 and rathertimid when going to garages, as he is not that technical and is fearful ofbeing fleeced. Anyone have anysuggestions of what might be causing this vibration?
Cheers
Gord
) has a BMW 840Ci – 4.4 litre which is the joy of his life. It has non-standard alloys with run flattyres. He doesn’t use it much – about 7.5k miles per year and now really onlydrives when he has to.It used todrive as steady as a rock at any speed. A few months ago however, it began todevelop a problem vibration felt through the steering, but passengers also feelit. It starts at about 57mph and seems to disappear again at about 65mph. Thevibration has recently got much worse so now he dare not exceed 55mph.
About ninemonths ago, he had the wheels refurbished at a cost of about £200. It wasa just a paint job with baking in an oven. The rear wheels are wider than thefronts so the wheels cannot be rotated. At the same time as the wheelrefurb job was done, he had new rear tyres fitted. The fronts have been onsince he got the car. A small area on one of these is very slightly flattened.He’s has pointed this out whenever the car has been worked upon and has beentold they’re good for another 5K to 10K miles and maybe more. He checks thetyre pressures weekly to keep them properly inflated.
In October, when the vibrationbecame noticeable, he had the front wheels balance-checked. Theseemingly-expert guy who did the job showed him that when he leaned on along-handled torque wrench engaged in one of the front wheel nuts, the wheelmoved considerably. He said that this should not happen at all and heattributed the movement and the vibration to a failing bush in the steering.That suggestion seems to have been the best advice he's had thus far. However, that'bush' has not yet been identified.
Later inOctober, he had his local garage carry out a so-called ‘service’ - an oilchange and so on - and an MOT. As when he bought the car, they found a brokencoil spring. As on the previous occasion, they again got the wrong spring forit and had to reorder it. The car has a ‘sporty’ suspension and the springs areonly about half the height of the standard ones. he discussed the vibrationproblem but they could not find any bush. They wondered if he’d misunderstood‘bush’ and asked if it could be the track rod ends. Anyway, although they saidthe old ones were okay, he insisted on having the track rod ends replaced. Thevibration was still unchanged so he took the car back to them. They confirmedthat the vibration is as he described it. They had the wheels balanced againand the alignment checked. This time they said that one of the wheels wasdifficult to balance. But the vibration remained exactly the same. Theysuggested that the wrong tyres might be on the wheels.
I didsuggest to him that the wheels should perhaps be balanced on the car, though hefeels that as the symptoms have not changed through two wheel-balancingoperations, the fault must lie elsewhere.
While I knowthis is not Stag-related, it would be great to benefit from all the knowledgeout there. This chap is 76 and rathertimid when going to garages, as he is not that technical and is fearful ofbeing fleeced. Anyone have anysuggestions of what might be causing this vibration?
Cheers
Gord
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