Steering Wheel Vibration

[RocketyMan]

Originally Posted by ThomHart

Having an intermittent problem with my steering and would welcome suggestions on resolution. Occasionally I get a vibration followed by a strong (one time unsafe) back and forth vibration on my steering wheel. Happens around 45 mph but if I slow down for a few minutes it goes away. Has happened maybe four times and have had it in to BMW twice and they cannot find anything wrong nor replicate; suspension is tight everywhere. Car has new tires and rebuilt CV shafts (by me) but I drove it about a 1,000 miles after this service before vibration started. Also has new rear lower control arms. Any thoughts? It's an '05 with about 250,000 miles, manual, well sorted. I've had it since almost new, bought as a CPO with 10,000 miles. Getting ready for my bimonthly SC to NJ home switch and wondering if I should take the other car. (That's a Porsche Cayenne GTS with a manual too. I prefer the X5 but my wife loves her Porsche.). Any thoughts or lines of investigation would be appreciated. I did not repeat the alignment or wheel balancing, that and a tire rotation are next.

Very stiff CV shafts can causing symptoms like this as interpreting a vibration. Usually when they are well lubed with the moly grease, they'll wear in place and begin to articulate smoothly. I've had this happen especially so with re-ground CV shafts installed. But the perceived vibration eventually went away after circa 500 miles.

In your case, I would get your wheels re-balanced since you mentioned a specific speed, therefore, I wouldn't necessary suspect your CV axles and new tires. I've have noticed before on a different vehicle with similar issue that eventually I needed to replace the tire because it had a ripped band or slightly bulged area. But it was a very old tire.

Maybe try rotating your rear axle tires with your front axle--granted you have the same size. See if that changes anything. Also when you are changing wheels around, VERIFY the flanges where the wheel mates up to the rotor is completely clean. Take a wire brush and make sure no excess buildup of any sort is causing the wheel to mis-align when bolting it up.

Just a few ideas...report back your findings.