Steering wheel shaking.

[LVP]

Here is the passenger (right) strut tower without the camber tweaked.


Here you can see the adjustment on the drivers (left) side. The stubby nub (exposed rust spot) is removed and the strut shifted. You can see the exposed slot under the nut.


Positive camber = not good

[bcredliner]

Always a good idea to have tires road force balanced but if you only have shaking when you are accelerating and braking and not at any cruising speed I would be checking the front suspension.

[mrcarter20]

Have to wait until Monday to get everything done again. They do road force balance but apparently you have to request it. Should've know since this is the only shop in town that does alignments on BMWs otherwise I'd have to go to the dealer in Minneapolis or an Indy shop in Fargo, ND. This town is really behind the times

What's the difference between 275/35/20s & 275/40/20s though? I know it's a 1.5-2 inch difference in height but is there a performance difference between the two?

The ECS spacers are bolt ons also


2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by mrcarter20

What's the difference between 275/35/20s & 275/40/20s though? I know it's a 1.5-2 inch difference in height but is there a performance difference between the two? Besides your speedo being off and 4 mismatched tires there is a ton of difference between a set of OE tire size 275/40/20 and your mismatched 275/35/20 that is not road force balanced

The ECS spacers are bolt ons also
WRONG. ECS does NOT make bolt on DRA style spacers as that is owned by H&R. They come with longer lug bolts, instead of first bolting on to the hub, and then using your stock lug bolts to install the wheels onto the new spacer. Your ECS spacers are a huge contribution to the problem. I posted both styles below to show you.

2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

Here are H&R DRA spacers which don't have reported problems from using the spacers that just use longer lug bolts, see the bolts they come with, those "bolt on" the spacer to the hub and then you put your wheel on and just use stock bolts that thread into the spacer.




You're using these ECS spacers which are probably contributing to the vibrations, especially on the front, because they are using longer bolts and arent a wheel centric spacer.

[mrcarter20]

Ahh okay. Thanks for the input. I'll order the 20mm H&R spacers then. Funny how I couldn't find that size spacer when I ordered the 30mm. That's why I went with the ecs tuning ones.


2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

[Ricky Bobby]

IIRC the DRA style only comes in 25mm and 30mm, so you may need to put 25mm up front instead of the 20 you have now. Just go on ECS website and be sure the spacers you get are DRA's

You can sell the ECS spacers on ebay, but before you do all that, definitely get the wheels road force balanced. Do it WITHOUT the spacers on, so you can verify the wheels are balanced true. Then afterwards, put the spacers back on. If you don't have vibes with the spacers, but once you put them on you do, then you know its 100% the spacers

Are those wheels hub centric (OE) or are they reps? If they are reps you need a hub centric ring, but I dont know if we went over that or not

[mrcarter20]

Yeah the wheels are OE and I was gonna get these spacers

http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-52...FYQ_aQodqMQI5A

I can run 25mm up front without rubbing?


2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by mrcarter20

What's the difference between 275/35/20s & 275/40/20s though? I know it's a 1.5-2 inch difference in height but is there a performance difference between the two?

from the 'wheel and tyre bible':

2113 rolling circumference on the 35s and 2196mm for the 40s. that's almost a 4% difference in size and indicated 70 = 73mph.

my car's speedo is off 3% low so maybe my next set of tires i'll bump up a cm on the width, same ratio and get my speedo in sync with actual speed.

when the PO bumped up from 235/65 to 255/60 it turns out that's the perfect upgrade to not mess with circumference; 0.07% difference; never seen it any closer; 70mph = 69.95mph (too bad it was off to start with).

What i'm considering is keeping my 255/60/17 with the already mounted winter tires for winter and getting some 275/50/18 set for summer (nearly identical rolling circumference, wouldn't even need spacers)

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by mrcarter20

Yeah the wheels are OE and I was gonna get these spacers

H&R 20mm Wheel Spacers with Wheel Bolts - BMW E53 X5, E83 X3, E65 (Pair) - Turner Motorsport

I can run 25mm up front without rubbing?


2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

Those from Turner look like DRA style spacers, I would confirm with them though, but they look right to me.

[mrcarter20]

Took the X to the shop today to get the specs redone and spacers removed. Plus got the wheels road forced balanced.



On the way home I noticed that I'm getting shaking during cruising speeds as well as braking and accelerating. And it's worse than before I bought it in. Ordering the H&R spacers today for the fronts.

Any more advice?



2002 BMW X5 E53 3.0i

"If you ain't first, you're last"

It all starts AFTER you paid the X off.......

Nothing is ever easy with a BMW.....but extremely worth it when it's done.....correctly