BMW Wheel Problems
When fitting 18 inch or above wheels to a BMW 5 series some vibration concerns could be encountered. When fitting any type of non standard alloy wheels which you can acquire from accessory shops, vibration may occur when you go over 60 miles per hour. Also this vibration might occur under braking, which may cause you to believe that a wheel balancing problem is out of the question. As this fault may happen when someone is traveling around the 50 – 60 MPH, people may assume it is just a balancing problem.
On personal experience I have had the tyres balanced and rebalanced several times with thinking there is a little improvement each time, but then the fault appeared to come back after a day or so. As the defect also occurred when the car was under braking, I was led to consider that the fault lay in the brake discs being warped and eventually had these changed when the MOT was due. Once the new discs and pads were fitted, the vibration trouble was still present.
It was said to me that the track control arms are commonly the problem that makes the car pull to the left when braking and no doubt the cause of the vibration. So I decided to replace both items. The following thing tried was checking to see if the wheels were buckled and I also changed the back for the front wheels and visa versa, but with no better results.
Now most of the after market BMW 5 series alloys you will find are suited to fit the BMW E39 model as well as the E34 model which means that the wheels should be the same and many suppliers will tell you they are the same. However a hub on the E34 model BM is much smaller than its newer sister, which means that even although there are plastic shims supplied with the wheels they are not suitable. Three different styles of aftermarket alloy wheels were tested on my E34 BMW including one set of BMW MV style type 1. The next set of wheels was some TSW style wheels and then some AC Schnitzer type which are ok on my now updated E39 model. Only when really fitting 18inch and above wheels did the problem arise.
Then by luck I was looking through EBay and I came across some metal shims which are designed especially for the BMW E34 to stop this vibration problem. After fitting these shims the vibration vanished. If you are experiencing the same woes, it may be worth you taking a look on eBay yourself to find some.