Vibration.....Argh
 

Ok, this is another thread about thrust arms among the thousands on here, but I have thrown so much money and blood, sweat, and tears on my X lately I just want to make sure that this is the cause. Some of you have probably already seen my bad luck thread but wanted to tag this thread new to focus on this issue. I bought my X5 4.8is back in August (05 with 80k miles). I noticed it had vibrations when I bought it, but I saw where it was inspected by BMW and they said it needed new front tires and front brakes. Also found in the PPI the one of the driver's side motor bracket was broken which was another source of vibration. I replaced the front tires first and it did help but did not go away. Last month I was driving it and noticed a really bad vibration under acceleration. Looked under and saw that the two inner boots on both front axles were torn. Looked like the driver's side axle had some play too. So I replaced them with GKN axles. While I had them out I decided to tackle the motor mounts and that bad bracket (that was fun, had to drop the entire subframe :rolleyes:). Also replaced the front brakes with Stoptech drilled rotors (rears were drilled too from PO so I just decided to match) and EBC red stuff pads.

After that the X5 was much smoother but this is the issues I am having now:

-After 50 mph I am getting significant vibration. It appears to mellow out a little past 75 mph. It's bad enough I can see my passenger seat vibrating like someone stuck a quarter in it. :yikes: I did notice while my wife was driving home last night that I could feel the vibration in the floor and in the seat even worse than I did the driver's seat. You feel it in the steering wheel but doesn't really shake it (it does some at 50 mph but that goes away but you still feel a vibration.)

-Once I noticed when I was testing it under high speed hard braking that the steering wheel shook violently, it felt like the steering column wasn't attached. But haven't really been able to repeat that every time.

-Coming home today, I could turn the steering wheel slightly in both directions and could feel a slight popping.

-I did get underneath the car and wiggled the thrust arm, and it did have some play in it, but since it's a rubber bushing, won't it flex a little anyways?

So could all these issues be caused by the thrust arm bushings? When I got the PPI done, the tech thought they looked newer and had been replaced recently, but it seems a lot of the symptoms I have correspond to bad bushings. I also went and got all 4 tires re-balanced today but that did not seem to help. I am just curious if all of this could be caused by bad bushings or if I need to look at other items as well. I guess I just need to replace them and see. Just tired of throwing money at it especially since I am having transmission troubles as well. :(

I just went through the same sort of thing with an '05 4.8is. Take a look through my thread. Actually turned up a not-so-obvious solution.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...oot-shake.html

I feel your pain....been through the same issues.

Since your brakes and tires are fairly fresh and the thrust arm bushings appear ok...have you had an alignment done recently? If not, get it in for one and see how far its out of spec?

Good Luck!

Hey Mike, something to note after rereading your post (it really sounds like it's going to be your transfer case). You might want to attempt resetting the transfer case adaptations, driving for a couple days, then pulling codes again.

Mine never threw a code until after we attempted a fluid flush and fill on the transfer case. After that, they reset the adaptations and a few days later it had thrown a code, 5F3A, which is "Transfer Case Internal". The indy had visually seen the vibration from the transfer case, and this kind of confirmed that we were headed in the right direction.

Perhaps resetting the adaptations and checking codes again will bring it up.

Thanks. I have read your thread. I actually plan on getting the transmission fluid service done this weekend along with changing the transfer case fluid. I'll get him to reset the adaption then. That better not be the issue or I'll be trading it in or setting it on fire. :angryfire

Could you feel the vibration in the steering wheel and notice any issues as you turned quickly back and forth? Just by feel alone it seems to be an issue with steering/suspension but I don't really know for sure.

And I have not done an alignment yet. I was hoping to get everything I needed changed out before I did one.

There should be no movement (defined as slop) in the thrust arms.

Well, I can point you to an eBay seller that will save you about 50% on the transfer case, which helped me quite a bit.

The vibration definitely made it to the wheel, but it was never really a steering type vibration, it was just that it was so violent that I eventually felt it throughout the vehicle.

You said you did both your front CV axles? My indy basically said that the transfer case took care of 90% of the shake, but he was still feeling a light vibe in the wheel and the CV axle took care of that.

I never turned quickly back and forth. It was just shaking violently no matter what I did. I didn't even pick it up between the transfer case and CV axle replacement, but the indy did say that he was still feeling that 10% when he turned quickly in one direction.

Ok thanks. As I said I could get some movement out of them, so I'll start there and report back if that fixed the issue or not. Just wasn't sure if bad bushings could cause all this vibration just under normal driving circumstances (driving straight on a smooth road).

Ok thanks. I'll contact if that is the case, hopefully not though. I did change the axles out, which I was even getting a worse vibration before, especially on acceleration, and the new axles helped. I keeping taking steps to make it better, just seems some where masked before and I keep discovering new issues. :(

What my indy thinks is that the transfer case went bad, which in turn damaged the rear drive shaft (which was also replaced) and the front CV axle (also replaced). This also lines up with what you're saying - you're replacing axle parts, etc. and making a little headway, but the violent shake still exists.

The transfer case I bought didn't have a core charge, so I took it and dropped it off at my other indy to have him crack it open, see what went wrong, and perhaps rebuild it to either hold onto or sell. I dropped it off with him last week, as a spare time project, haven't heard anything back yet.