Wobbly E34

[Luckyone]

Can any of you help?

I fitted an LSD to my 89 535, but it bit back when I wasn’t expecting it, got VERY sideways & smacked the curb on the way back. It bent both the rare alloys on the near side & the rear trailing arm. So I used it as an excuse to get a new set of M5 18”s & fitted a second hand trailing arm.
The trouble is there is still something very wrong, the car shakes very badly from 45mph+ & feels strange – it will pull slightly to the left then stop & drive perfectly straight for a while then pull again. There doesn’t seem to be any play in the front near side suspension & the tracking checked out ok.

Any one got any ideas what to look for next, as I’m stuck driving around at 40mph whenever I use it!

[m-five]

Which series M5 wheels did you get - e34 or e39?

You could have done a lot more damage than just a damaged alloy and trailing arm.

I hit a kerb in my e35 M5 and had to replace the front suspension at a cost of £3k all in.

[Luckyone]

They are the e39 style - I didn't know there were ever 18"s available for the e34. They are however copies (the 4 were much cheaper than two new BMW 17"s) so I guess it's possible it's a problem with them. Although the curb seems the more likely reason.

£3000 I'd have been very happy if I'd got that for the car (when it drove ok). I guess that's all new parts & including the labour? Did you slide side ways into the curb or go up it?

[RazMan]

Mine has wobbled ever since I fitted a set of 17" wheels from a 540. It was fine on the old metric 15" wheels but tyres were getting so expensive I decided that the 17" ones would be the best bet (they look much better too)
It has a 55mph shimmy now - apparently the E34 is famous for this. I have tried balancing the wheels precisely, then putting the ones with less balance weight on the front of the car. The rears don't seem to affect things too much.
Also my front discs keep warping and I now suspect this is a contributing factor, and possibly caused by using cheap brake pads which heat up the discs too much.

[Marshy]

Front end shimmy is commonly control/thrust arms at the front - bushings go, generally reckoned to be better to just get new arms.

[Luckyone]

Hmm interesting, I have a friend who had a 530 V8 & he tried to 18" BBSs on it but it wobbled so much he had to go back to the originals, he was told it was the type of hubs fitted to the 530 & he would have been ok if it was a 535 as they have better hubs.
My 535 was always rock steady with the BMW Star Design(not available in the uk) 17”s on it. So I thought he had been given good advice. What model is yours RazMan?

Control/thrust arms - bushings eh? That sounds like it could be a possible solution, I guess it’s more than likely I damaged them when hitting the curb.

[Luckyone]

Oh & for brakes I changed to Black Diamond drilled & grooved discs with Green Stuff pads as mine had warped ones. They are excellent & been on for five years (one new set of pads) with on problems.

If you make sure the hub is totally clean, smooth (free from any rust), before putting the discs on you should be ok.

[m-five]

Luckyone said:

They are the e39 style - I didn't know there were ever 18"s available for the e34. They are however copies (the 4 were much cheaper than two new BMW 17"s) so I guess it's possible it's a problem with them. Although the curb seems the more likely reason. £3000 I'd have been very happy if I'd got that for the car (when it drove ok). I guess that's all new parts & including the labour? Did you slide side ways into the curb or go up it?

If they are made for an e39 and you have an e34 then I can solve the problem for you!

The hub centre diameter on the e39 is larger than on the e34 which causes the wheels to wobble - it's a common problem for some of us e34 M5 owners who buy these wheels which will 'fit all 5 series'.

You need to buy a hub-centric spacer from your local alloy wheel retailer - should only be a few quid.

BTW, these are the e34 M5 18" wheels....

[edc]

m-five, you mean spigot rings, right?

[800]

E34's are notorious for being sensitive to big wheels. Stick with the 16" BBS.

[m-five]

edc said:

m-five, you mean spigot rings, right?

If a spigot ring is what goes into the centre hole of an alloy wheel to make it fit properly, then yea!

[m-five]

800 said:

E34's are notorious for being sensitive to big wheels. Stick with the 16" BBS.

Or get a proper BMW set for your model.

Mine has 18" wheels and it's never had a problem except for a little tramlining now and then, which was cured by removing the Yokohama AVS Sports I had and going to Conti SportContact 2 and Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres instead.

[edc]

m-five said:

edc said: m-five, you mean spigot rings, right? If a spigot ring is what goes into the centre hole of an alloy wheel to make it fit properly, then yea!

Yes.

Hubcentric spacers are something different altogether.

Easy way to find out if you need them is simply to check the centre bore of the wheel the car is going onto and the wheel that has just come off. Also worth checking if the alloy in question needs taper or radius seat bolts.

[Luckyone]

Well I have to say thank you every one for so much help, you have been a lot more responsive than most have been for me on the Cerbera forum, one would have thought from the public conception of TVR vers BMW drivers it would have been the other way round!

I didn’t really want to use aftermarket wheels but I was swayed by the price. As I said I did have BMW 17”s which it ran beautifully on, but they were German imports & when tried to get one a couple of years ago I was told they didn’t exist! But on giving them the part no. they reluctantly got one imported for me but it was the usual £240 for one. So this time needing two I opted (wrongly it seams) to get 4 for less money…

BTW nice wheels m-five

[edc]

Aftermarket wheels explains it most likely. Check the centre bore and whether you need spigot rings. Also check the seat of the bolt (taper or radius) and whether you have the correct ones.