[H-10btr]

2006 330xi

I had new tires installed 1000 miles ago at Discount Tire. Alignment was completed immediately after at Les Schwab. First drive after tires/alignment I noticed the steering wheel shake at 60 and gets worse around 80-85 and smooths out around 90.

I took the car back and had the tires rechecked for balance. Road force balance completed again and there was no change. Wheels were checked for bends but they are all straight.

I took the car back to check the alignment job and everything was looked at, slightly adjusted and confirmed good. No change

I have messed with tire pressure but makes no difference.

Steering is tight and the suspension feels good with no clunks or noises.

Any ideas of where I should look next?

[lowrydr310]

What brand of tires?

I've been chasing a similar issue with my 330 for 2 years but eventually learned I have a tire that isn't perfectly round. Theres a noticeable low spot when just spinning the wheel with the car jacked off the ground. It's perfectly smooth under about 55MPH but starts to get worse the faster I go over that. It hasn't bothered me enough to throw out tires with a lot of tread left, but I will need new tires very soon. I had a pot hole destroy one of my front tires recently but unfortunately it wasn't the bad one. I just replaced with a cheap used tire to get e by a few months until the pot holes get patched.

Some of the people one this forum have reported similar symptoms which ended up being slightly stuck calipers. Next time I need to replace brakes I may rebuild the calipers (clean, polish, new seals.)

[H-10btr]

They are Bridgestone Weatherpeaks.

https://m.tirerack.com/tires/bridgestone-weatherpeak

I have taken them back to Discount Tire 3 times in the last 1000 miles to rebalance and look for issues with the tires due to the shake. I’m assuming they would have found a problem if there was one with the tires?

[H-10btr]

Update:

I moved the 2 front wheel/tire combos to the back and took it for a drive and the result was zero steering wheel shake up to 100mph.

Since the wheels that were on the front (now rear) were road force balanced multiple time and the wheels were checked for bends that could only mean a defective tire (or 2). Any one see holes in this theory?

[jsunma]

Originally Posted by H-10btr

Update:

I moved the 2 front wheel/tire combos to the back and took it for a drive and the result was zero steering wheel shake up to 100mph.

Since the wheels that were on the front (now rear) were road force balanced multiple time and the wheels were checked for bends that could only mean a defective tire (or 2). Any one see holes in this theory?

I was going to say, "defective tire". It happens rather frequently, but usually the tire shop catches the problem the first time the customer brings back the car for symptoms such as you've had. I use an independent tire shop (i.e., not one of the big chains such as Discount), and they've caught this issue for me more than once over the years.

[H-10btr]

So I believe it is a defective tire. Brought the car back to Discount Tire this morning and they dismounted a suspect tire and re mounted/balanced it. Also rebalanced a second tire. With those on the front the shaking was still as strong as ever. I brought the car home and spun all 4 tires on jack stands. One tire had a significant flat section on about a 1/4 of the tread. The other 3 wheels where as close to round I think tires can get. The wheel with the out of round tire on it had no variation as I spun it with a stationary flat head screw driver 1/8” from the edge.

I’m waiting for a call back from the manager of the store now. Hopefully they can make this right.

[H-10btr]

DT is gonna replace the tire for free. That should be the end of this episode. Will report back if I find out anything different.