I have already posted this in the X3 forum as well but am hoping that someone out there has some experience with this. See below. Has anyone experienced a vibration with a manual tranny X3 under moderate acceleration? My drive shaft has been replaced and I still get a vibration 80% of the time with moderate to full acceleration or on an uphill climb even at highway speeds. BMW master tech says there is no vibration even though they replaced the driveshaft to correct this "no vibration: It seems just like a u-joint startting to go in the early stages. Been to the dealer 3 times and counting. Any ideas??
What's your tire condition? I have seen multiple times where X3s will exhibit a vibration or noise (driveline clicking) due to poor quality tires. If your tires are anything other than evenly worn oem tires I would recommend having them swapped with an x3 that does not have your same vibration. If it clears up, well, you'll need four new tires.
If you have a serious enough tire radius mismatch it could be the traction control kicking in which will feel like a vibration and it tends to do it only under a load like acceleration or climbing a grade. Though usually you have a visual indicator when it goes on. Chuck Chuck
Hello! To be honest, I drive an E46 330xi, and I have this problem too... It drives me crazy. I have a 6 speed manual, and while pulling up hill at slower speeds (~20-30mph), I have a slight vibration/shake in the car. It almost feels like a wheel is out of balance. I took it into a private shop (Zygmunt Motors) and they said that it was probably my tires. I replaced the fronts, as the rears were only 2 months old. While the problem has died down significantly, I can still notice it ever so slightly. It is a nuisance.
Hi all. I used to have an '01 330xi - traded it in last fall partly because of vibration that seemed just like this. Problem was getting slightly worse over time (we're talking months). Thing is, I did EVERYTHING and my indy shop finally decided it was in the transfer case. I had had my front diff fail and freeze the driveline, but after that all the front-end components were changed out over time. Problem occurred with both snow tire set and summer set, and it wasn't the rear driveline... Just a thought on something to check closely.
