Lower Control Arm +
 

I had no problem with my steering wheel shaking until I bought new tires, then BAM! The wheel shaking issue reared its ugly head. :dunno:

After bringing it back, they re-balanced and re-aligned, with no luck. It made it slightly better, but still very noticeable from 40-45mph on up.

I then bring it to the dealer and they too re-balance the wheels with apparently no luck. $240 later, they told me that I need lower control arms, bushings and tension arm bushings for a grand total of just under $2k. And of course now the shake is twice as bad.

So I was about to bring it to D'Agostino's who is a foreign car garage in Stamford CT (who I've never used) to see what they thought, but now I'm thinking that I'm just going to spend another $150-$200 for somebody to look at it and quite possibly tell me the same thing.

I guess my question is...do you guys think I should just bite the bullet and get it done? I'd order the parts myself for about $450 total and have somebody do the work (NOT the dealer). Probably end up costing me a thousand bucks.

The thing I can't get past is that everything was fine until I bought new tires, so how could new tires cause a need for this work??? It's a 2006 4.8is with 72k miles. Any opinions/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Mate I have the same drama. Getting mine back today from the shop after a water pump and alternator install. Mine happens up around the 110 km/h (70 mph).

In my eyes new tyres shouldn't make a difference, not on an X5 anyway, as you have not changed the rolling circumference etc like on a 4wd with over size tyres.

On other cars (I haven't checked the X5), a lower control arm change is an easy DIY job.

Some others on here will be all over it I'm sure.

Thanks Milsy. I was hoping there would be more views on this since I understand that it's a typical issue with the X5. It's just how it came about that irritates and confuses me. It's not as if I have money to throw away, but I guess I'll just go ahead and order the parts. At 72k miles, I guess it can't hurt either way....but if I do spend the money and the problem persists, I'll lose my ever-lovin' mind!! :explode:

If I were you, I would begin by replacing the tension struts or just the bushings in the tension struts if you have a taste for that approach.

Out of curiosity, what brand of tires did you take off and what brand are the ones you put back on?

This doesn't make sense. If the shaking started after you replaced the tires, then it must be the tires. My guess is that even after you replace the suspension components the shaking will still be there, perhaps a bit less noticable. These things typically wear much longer than 72K miles.

i had the same problem......bought tires..i have 06 4.4...old wheels 255/50/19...285/40/19....and got new wheels at..275/45/20....315/35/20.....and notice the same thing...and i thought the same thing what you thought @ricky27.......and finally started doing one step at a time....did the balancing through diff shop...and it fix the issue of shaking.......so far nothing else wrong now..completely straight run...

Yeah I think you are right there, there should be no reason for the CAs etc to start playing up now, must be the tyres and/or alignment.

I’ve seen this problem quite a few times (not on X5's though) and it’s usually caused by either a defect in the tyre, or tyres that don’t have very good manufacturing quality control.
Modern wheel balancing machines can achieve some amazing things in that you can balance a tyre with all sorts of issues.
One of the common problems with some cheap tyres is that many are not actually round, and while you can balance these perfectly, they cause all sorts of strange vibrations and harmonics at various speeds.
Another potential problem is that the tread may not be running true; that is, it has a wobble from side to side as the tyre rotates. Again, tyres with this problem can also be balanced but you will also suffer from odd vibrations as various speeds.

When ever you get a new set of tyres pay attention to how much weight is needed to balance each wheel. A wheel that has significantly more weight than the others sometimes indicates a manufacturing issue with the tyre.

Check this out if you do go that way. I have looked on some prado and jeep forums as that is what I used to have and I'm guess it may be the CA bushes, due to symptoms on other cars. But as I said, the CA change is not an issue, however I hope its just the balancing etc.

http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...trol-arms.html

Has to be a defective tires... I would have the shop replace all 4 with new