tire shimmy in 2002 E39

HELP! Wheel/tire shimmy on 2002 E39; tried two sets of new tires and numerous road force tests, rebalancings etc. Seems worse when tires cold, and the shimmy makes the steering wheel shake. Any ideas?

Is it the same or worse when braking? Have you had any recent brake or front suspension work, if not, how many miles on it. Also, what brand of tires do you have?

Is it the same or worse when braking? Have you had any recent brake or front suspension work, if not, how many miles on it. Also, what brand of tires do you have?


No difference when braking - the shimmy only appears at 55mph and then disappears until I get to 75 mph or so. My tires also seem to lose their "balance" frequently - I'll balance them and a couple of weeks later one of them will be significantly out of balance again.

No recent brake or suspension work - I drive a lot - I have 85k miles on it. The dealer recently went over the suspension and said nothing was wrong.

I put BF Goodrich tires on about 4 months agao, and when the shimmy wouldn't go away, Discount Tire allowed me to switch to Kumho's. the BMW dealer says that the tires they get have less of an "out of round" problem, so I'm thinking about paying them a fortune to get four new Michelins to see if it is a tire problem, as they maintain.

Thanks for your help.

Here's one case where I'd agree with your dealer though you'd do best to purchase them elsewhere. BFG's and Kumo's are rather low on my list of 'quality', 'round', easy to balance tires.
Best to you and stay in touch.

I had a very similar issue with my Audi A6 2.7T. Tried new tires, Continental Contact Sports, no better. Tried balancing did not fix anything either.

Took to a tire shop, NTB, and they ran a diagnostic. The wheels were bent. You may get temporary relief by applying weights to balance tire, but wheel is still bent. The vibration you may be feeling is that the wheel is not rolling on a smooth service, over time, this effects the wear of the tire, sometimes causing vibration or a wheel that shimmys.

GOOD LUCK!

Sparky-
I have an 01 530 with 50K miles and had / have the same issue. Car has original Dunlop sport package summer rubber (235/45R17 I believe). I experience a mild to moderate shimmy in the steering wheel, specifically in colder weather (<50F) when I first drive after the car has been sitting overnight or longer. I'm somewhat of a layman, but I notice the issue disappears after driving (10-15 miles or so), when I presume the tires warm - if that's even possible.
Went to the dealership several times to fix the issue, after multiple failed attempts, they finally had a BMW NA rep look at the car and he determined that it was an 'issue' with the tires. They were supposed to have the car back so they could swap a set of like sized tires from a like car without the issue to verify - which never happened. The service mgr's words to me were "get a better set of tires", to which I replied "Better than the OE tires that came on the car?", however, it fell on deaf ears.
Haven't had the issue all summer, but just returned form a week long business trip where the car sat in 40-50F parking garage for a week, and the shimmy was there again as soon as I got on the highway and disappeared about 10-15 miles later...
I put winter wheels/tires on anyway and there's no shimmy with the blizzaks so I give up...
Not sure if this helps, but you're not alone.

You've just GOT TO LOVE some dealerships and BMW 'Service Rep's.'....I beleive these guys are reasigned 'bean counters'.................

If the tires and wheel are good then I would check the control and thrust arms. The E39 is a good car but very bad suspension reliability. they are so flimsy and tempermento.

The shimmy at 45-55 mph is a classic symtom of thrust arm.

Alex