2006 X5 - vibration when coasting or braking

[Dante2004]

2006 X5 4.8

It only seems to vibrate when I am coasting or braking. Rarely feel it under acceleration. You can feel it in the steering wheel but it tracks straight.

What really puzzles me is I took it into the shop lately and I didn't have this problem beforehand. It started as soon as I picked it up and its getting worse.

They inspected the brakes while it was in the shop, but didn't do any repairs to the brakes. They fixed other stuff (water pump, belts, oil change, etc.) It's just odd that this problem started when I got it back.

Could they have screwed something up with the brakes when they did the inspection?

I also hear a squeak from the left rear tire area that changes with speed. Can't say if this is new or not because you can only hear it with the window down and I normally have the windows up...just noticed this.

Any ideas?

[romeokc10]

Sounds like my 2002 4.6is, I get a left to right vibration/wobble in the steering wheel between 60-70 MPH, just started about two months ago,I too have a weird wheel squeak, can't tell which wheel though. I went and had my wheels road forced balanced and had the alignment checked, still there.

[Dante2004]

Wobble left to right...that is a good explanation of what I am getting. It almost seems like the wheel is vibrating from the shudder in the vehicles, as opposed to the typical steering wheel shake when your tires need alignment.

It also seems to come and go. Not with road conditions...but with time. Gets worse the longer I drive, but doesn't ALWAYS get worse. I drive 95% of my driving on the same roads so I've got a pretty good feel for where the bumpy spots are. The shuddder or virbration issue doesn't seem to correspond to the bad areas in the road...

When the vehicle was in the shop I asked them to look at the brakes. They said I had some rust build up on the rotos and that might be causing the squeek I that I hear. They said that I could try to make a few hard stops and see if that "clears off the rotors" because it didn't seem very deep. Perhaps they did this and let the vehicle sit with hot rotors and they warped?

[romeokc10]

Yeah I was thinking I might have a sticky brake caliper, I've done a rough temperature check of the brakes after a highway drive, didn't notice a difference between the left and right. I installed new pads and rotors in 2011, don't have any rust build up, I live in California...lol!

[srmmmm]

Most likely warped rotors, remote chance that the vibration may be from a bad flex coupling on the front driveshaft.

[epdarks]

My money is on bad thrust arms/ball joints in the front. Just had to replace one of mine.

Lift the wheel off of the ground and push on the left/right side (pretend you are trying to turn the wheel left/right). Shake back and forth. If there is any play, then you need these replaced.

http://www.xoutpost.com/classifieds/...tml#post950153

[Dante2004]

Took it to a brake shop today and they said the rotors need to be replaced. Of course they will just jump to conclusions and fix everything...and therefore it "needs" all new rotors and pads.

They said the "left front axle" was bad too. My problem is I don't have the time/place to work on it myself so I pretty much have to take their word for it and bend over at some point.

:-(

[epdarks]

Your rotors would have to be reallyyyy warped to get vibration while coasting. Warped rotors are pretty easy to diagnose. At a faster speed, hit the brakes and you'll get more vibration compared to going slow, just slowly ride the brakes and you may get a lunging/lurching feeling. I guess my point is that warped rotors will vibrate based on speed/brake pedal pressure, where as bad bushings/ball joints may not.

Take it to a break shop, and you'll need brakes. Take it to an engine shop and you'll need a new motor. See the trend?

You need to find a good independent BMW repair shop that you can trust. Should be plenty in Chicago area.

[epdarks]

Originally Posted by epdarks

My money is on bad thrust arms/ball joints in the front. Just had to replace one of mine.

Lift the wheel off of the ground and push on the left/right side (pretend you are trying to turn the wheel left/right). Shake back and forth. If there is any play, then you need these replaced.

http://www.xoutpost.com/classifieds/...tml#post950153

I might have these parts mixed up. Now I'm confused.

What you need are the "rear" front control arms.

Part numbers:
31126760276
31126760275

[Dante2004]

Finally got a garage to give a straight answer and now it's fixed. Turned out to be the control arms.

They confirmed that my rotors may have a SLIGHT warp issue, but certainly good to go for now. They replaced the control arms and the issue went away.