Picked up my Z4MC today - something doesn't feel right

G

glastoveteran

Active member
 Bristol
Hi all,

Collected my new Z4MC from Cooper Reading today at long last - photos to follow as I didn't have my camera with my and was dark when I got home - they will be on tomorrow!

It's all great but something doesn't feel quite right at motorway speeds, and I'm not sure whether it's just an M thing. This is going to be really hard to explain but but you can hear and feel a kind of vibration that kind of "pulses" or "throbs" about every second. There's a definite regular pattern to it that increases with speed. Sounds like maybe something is out of alignment. There's also more steering wheel wobble than on my 3.0 Coupe, and slight steering wheel judder when braking which I didn't notice on the test drive.

It's a BMW AUC so they have allegedly fully checked it over and maybe I'm just not used to the way an M drives...

Any thoughts, oh wise people?
 
Hi Glasto,

Glad you've finally got it ! :thumbsup:

I'd get it checked out. Mine is very smooth at cruising speed and no steering wheel judder under breaking either.

I've got to take mine in as well though. A couple of little niggles - not sure if its me but my engine is a bit "rattly" in the mid-range, smooth at low revs and peachy at the top end so could just be me. Also my brakes are making a loud groaning noise under heavy braking from speed although they are slowing the car down fine (think they are new pads and discs).

Good luck !

Steve
 
glastoveteran said:
you can hear and feel a kind of vibration that kind of "pulses" or "throbs" about every second.

There's a definite regular pattern to it that increases with speed.

There's also more steering wheel wobble.
Click to expand...

Maybe...

Flat spot on an alloy?
Wheel not balanced properly?
Warped brake disc?
 
Thanks guys for all the responses - I will give them a call this morning. No doubt I will need to take it back to them which is slightly annoying as they're an hour and a half down the M4. Oh well.

Sorry to hear yours isn't quite right either Steve - isn't the M a bit rattly by its nature though?
 
I had dodgy disks at 2k and got them replaced, proper shudder when say, decelerating from motorway speeds hard down a slip road to an island. :driving:

I'd say mikedav has it spot on with those options.

Alex - glad you finally have the car !
 
glastoveteran said:
Thanks guys for all the responses - I will give them a call this morning. No doubt I will need to take it back to them which is slightly annoying as they're an hour and a half down the M4. Oh well.

Sorry to hear yours isn't quite right either Steve - isn't the M a bit rattly by its nature though?
Click to expand...

Why not take to your local dealer, I have never taken my BMW's back to the supplying dealer for waranty/service work except the first which was from the local dealer.
 
srhutch said:
Why not take to your local dealer, I have never taken my BMW's back to the supplying dealer for waranty/service work except the first which was from the local dealer.
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You're absolutely right - I just initially thought that because it isn't necessarily something that would be covered under warranty and instead it was something that was already wrong with the car when I picked it up, another dealer may not honour it.

But it seems my local dealer will quite happily do anything required and get the supplying dealer to pay for it so all good.
 
Well after taking the car to my local Dick Lovett dealership a few weeks ago, they diagnosed that it needed new front discs and a new alloy as one was buckled. Instead of authorising the cost the supplying dealer (Cooper Reading) said they wanted the car back with them so if it did need what Dick Lovett had said, it would be cheaper for them to do it.

So the car is now back from them with said new alloy, new front discs and pads and a full alignment. :thumbsup:

It does now feel much, much better and I'm amazed that they supplied it as it was especially if they had road tested it - can't see how they would have failed to notice. But then again I did test drive it :oops:

There is still one "problem" though and I suspect it may be the tyres. At motorway speeds even though it's silky smooth there is still a droning noise that makes the car resonate. The tech at Dick Lovett said that was likely to be the tyres having worn in a saw-tooth pattern. That sound the likely cause? It's quite noisy and annoying, but not sure whether it's necessarily considered a fault...
 
glastoveteran said:
Well after taking the car to my local Dick Lovett dealership a few weeks ago, they diagnosed that it needed new front discs and a new alloy as one was buckled. Instead of authorising the cost the supplying dealer (Cooper Reading) said they wanted the car back with them so if it did need what Dick Lovett had said, it would be cheaper for them to do it.

So the car is now back from them with said new alloy, new front discs and pads and a full alignment. :thumbsup:

It does now feel much, much better and I'm amazed that they supplied it as it was especially if they had road tested it - can't see how they would have failed to notice. But then again I did test drive it :oops:

There is still one "problem" though and I suspect it may be the tyres. At motorway speeds even though it's silky smooth there is still a droning noise that makes the car resonate. The tech at Dick Lovett said that was likely to be the tyres having worn in a saw-tooth pattern. That sound the likely cause? It's quite noisy and annoying, but not sure whether it's necessarily considered a fault...
Click to expand...

Down to poor alignment I think. A poorly aligned tire is quite easy to detect. It wears on either side of the tire, squeals and makes other noises, vibrates at a high speed, and makes a saw-tooth-like pattern on the tire. Front tires that have more wear signs than rear tires are also an indication of misaligned wheels. So the Dick Lovett tech. may be right. The full alignment may have cured the cause but the symptons will remain as the tyres have worn abnormally. Hope this helps.
 
That does help Alan - thanks very much. So do you think now the alignment has been straightened out the tyres will wear more evenly and the noise will gradually go away? Or would a new set of tyres be the only solution?
 
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