Shop installed new front struts - Bilstein, control arm bushings and a tie rod (think it was driver side) there was no shake prior to this. They didn't feel they had the best balancing equip so I took to BMW for a balance and rotation. Feels exactly the same. I am stopping by the 1st shop today to discuss but they leaned me towards the balance - thoughts??
Seems odd that you didn't have the problem before and now you do. My feeling is that wheels can always use a balance since weights can fall off. But my money is that's not the problem unless maybe they didn't tighten the wheels. The best wheel balance I ever had was when they balanced on the car.
Possibilities I can think of - bad shock out of the box (seems unlikely, would be a rare occurrence, but might be possible), or, doing all that, I'd think it would need an alignment, particularly for the tie-rod replacement. Everything you swapped doesn't involve doing anything with the wheels besides removing & re-installing them, which, if they were in-balance before, shouldn't have changed anything - unless something happened while the car was in their hands, like hitting a big pothole on a test drive or something like that, although if a wheel or tire was hit badly enough to cause a problem, that would have already been seen by any techs doing the wheel balancing. Or, Steven's suggestion, loose lug bolts - hopefully unlikely, but possible.
Based on my own work and the more I think about it, I bet a bolt is loose on the kingpin. Doubt that any shop would admit it though.
Really appreciate the responses - Since BMW balanced I want a tech to go out with me and double check before I go back to the shop that did the front end work - I neglected to mention 1st shop supposedly did an alignment as well so this baby should be smooth as silk - I agree that wheels should have just been on and off - I will be really annoyed if I discovered a bent wheel. I'll chime back in with further investigation. Barbara
Yeah, that would be the kind of error any shop shouldn't have happen - Barbara, open your hood & shine a flashlight down and see if you can see the nuts on the tops of the bolts that come through the subframe from the control-arm ball-joints. Looking topside won't tell you much though, unless comparing side-to-side shows something obvious; kind of a nuisance to try to look at the underside with the car on the ground, you'd pretty much have to be hands 'n knees or lying down.
Isn't there a big "L" & "R" on them as part of the casting?? That would also be an unexpected mistake!
My aim is taking to dealer today and tech is going on test drive with me - will encourage to place on lift and check this stuff out. Appreciate all the input and will check back with progress. Thanks! Barbara
Dealer tech test drove - placed on lift and determined since front end work was done (didn't see anything wrong) things were tightened up and as they described the tires had been "chopped" and even though the Michelin Super Pilot Sports only have 20K on them...1st time with Michelins - Always had Bridgestone Turanza's getting close to 50K 3 times and 30K once. Going to replace out 2 front tires/wheels with friends BMW tires/wheels to see if vibration persists. Stay tuned
I think the term might be 'cupped'. I assume the car is still shaking? Swapping tires sounds like a plan.
