F10-65 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 22 minutes ago, Steve84N said: After changing almost everything that spins I still had a vibration at motorway speeds. A newer propshaft, new brakes and wheel bearings all round all made incremental improvements. I did start with the obvious thing being the wheels and got them rebalanced, so I assumed it wasn't those as nobody said anything was off with them. However, I have previous experience with an e91 that had a buckled wheel and a second hand replacement was also out of round. Only a new set of wheels fixed my vibration through that car. It feels like a similar problem with my 535i. The rear left visibly wobbles when driven in the air on a ramp so must be buckled. Whilst on holiday in France last week one of my tyres wore through on the inside edge, I knew it was low but didn't think it was on the limit. I had to get a cheap replacement (100 euro Neolin Neosport) as an emergency stop gap but it prompted me to look at changing all four as the fronts had already been on the rear for a while so they were all worn on the inside. Clearly, it's a good opportunity to also change the wheels... I actually placed an order for some aftermarket wheels but had second thoughts the morning after and cancelled it. The 351M wheels above are very heavy at about 14.5kg each! They are 8.5J ET33 front and rear. I wanted to stay with 19" as 18" is too small for my 374mm front brakes and 20" looks good but the tyre sidewalls are a bit thin. I thought I'd explored all the other possible OEM wheels that might fit and not really found something suitable that I liked. Then I stumbled across some winter wheels for an F80 M3. Whilst the usual M3 wheels are a bit wide at 9J and 10J the winter 641M setup are 8.5J and 9J. The offset is ET27 front and ET29 rear, which translates to sitting 6mm further out on the front and 10.35mm further out on the rear. The wheels were being sold with barely used winter tyres size 255/35/19 all round. It's not quite right as the 5 series runs on a 40 profile but it's close enough that I'll use up the Dunlops first. The speedo now underreads by almost 4mph rather than the usual 2mph and it'll be slightly worse economy but I wouldn't get much money for the tyres. When they're done I'll fit 255/40/19 summer tyres all round, probably Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6. The 10mm smaller radius leaves a bigger arch gap and drops the car a bit, although it's only temporary. Finally, I have no vibration at speed! I believe the new wheels are usefully lighter too, possibly up to 2kg each. You can certainly feel it when handling them and being rotating mass it's the best kind to save on. Personally, I really like the design and you can see the big brakes more. I haven't seen any other F10/F11s on these so it's a bit unique whilst staying OEM. I don't like pokey wheels but these sit just right and don't look out of place. Unfortunately, I'm still tackling other problems. I've got a coolant leak that I think is the upper radiator hose as there's some residue on the alternator, so a new one is arriving next week and I'll see if that solves it. For now I can use it and topup the reservoir after each 100 miles or so. My idle has the odd hiccup where the revs drop and then recover so I'm thinking it could be a fuel supply issue. Being an early N55 I have the expensive high pressure fuel pump and it's known to fail. I don't have long crank times or trouble on the move so I'm hoping it's not that. Instead, I'm going to try replacing the low pressure fuel pump in the tank as it's much cheaper and if there isn't a good supply to the HPFP it could cause the hiccups. There's also possibly some hesitancy at lower revs on the move and some odd resonant grumbles around 2.5krpm. One day I'll get there with it all... I had the coolant leak too with the spray over the altenator. Watch this... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 (edited) @Steve84N After experimenting with a different colour of wheels on my Space Grey F11 I went back to OEM silver as I just think the car looks best on the 351M wheels but those look perfect - they look like a deluxe version of the 351Ms while still maintaining the factory look - lovely! The Michelin Pilot Sport 5 I bought is a nice looking tyre, the sidewalls have a cool black "fuzzy rubber" that looks great. However they have very small kerb protection which does not bother me as much as I thought it would but something to note for anyone considering them. Size is standard for the wheel, 245/40 19, and they don’t look as stretched on the sidewall as the Eagle F1s I had previously, I prefer the squarer look. Edited February 24 by Munzy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F10-65 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 25 minutes ago, Munzy said: @Steve84N After experimenting with a different colour of wheels on my Space Grey F11 I went back to OEM silver as I just think the car looks best on the 351M wheels but those look perfect - they look like a deluxe version of the 351Ms while still maintaining the factory look - lovely! The Michelin Pilot Sport 5 I bought is a nice looking tyre, the sidewalls have a cool black "fuzzy rubber" that looks great. However they have very small kerb protection which does not bother me as much as I thought it would but something to note for anyone considering them. Size is standard for the wheel, 245/40 19, and they don’t look as stretched on the sidewall as the Eagle F1s I had previously, I prefer the squarer look. Bit short on rim protection though... I couldn't trust myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Thanks @MunzyI agree about having tyres sit more squarely on the rim. My Pirelli PZ4 looks very stretched considering it's also a 245. There would be rim protection but it's pulled away from the rim. I like Michelin and they have exceptional tread life. However, I'm doing less miles now I'm not commuting and they'd get old before they got worn out. I also find they don't have as good feedback through the steering wheel as Goodyear. The colour is Hyper Silver on these new wheels, which is black base coat and silver on top. Hard to redo. It's what I was going to buy, albeit a darker version called Hyper Black, these Japan Racing ones. A 255 sits slightly differently on 8.5 and 9 but is acceptable on either. Top is 9 and bottom is 8.5. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 @F10-65I've had a look and I only seem to have vacuum lines in that area on my engine. The coolant hose is right in front of the alternator though. It must be a tiny hole as it's nowhere near as messy as that video and I did over 2,000 miles going from max to min in the reservoir. This shows the vacuum line going to the chargepipe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynet5 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Second time out with the bikes on the roof. all going well so far. And it’s amazing how far drivers stay behind you 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munzy Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 4 hours ago, Steve84N said: Thanks @MunzyI agree about having tyres sit more squarely on the rim. My Pirelli PZ4 looks very stretched considering it's also a 245. There would be rim protection but it's pulled away from the rim. I like Michelin and they have exceptional tread life. However, I'm doing less miles now I'm not commuting and they'd get old before they got worn out. I also find they don't have as good feedback through the steering wheel as Goodyear. The colour is Hyper Silver on these new wheels, which is black base coat and silver on top. Hard to redo. It's what I was going to buy, albeit a darker version called Hyper Black, these Japan Racing ones. A 255 sits slightly differently on 8.5 and 9 but is acceptable on either. Top is 9 and bottom is 8.5. That's a tasty F11 and the wheels are nice, but nice as they are they don't look OEM to me - your new ones do, which I prefer. Space Grey really is my favourite colour of 'wagon! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 @Munzyagreed on all points. 👍🏻 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyjawa Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 7 hours ago, Steve84N said: After changing almost everything that spins I still had a vibration at motorway speeds. A newer propshaft, new brakes and wheel bearings all round all made incremental improvements. I did start with the obvious thing being the wheels and got them rebalanced, so I assumed it wasn't those as nobody said anything was off with them. However, I have previous experience with an e91 that had a buckled wheel and a second hand replacement was also out of round. Only a new set of wheels fixed my vibration through that car. It feels like a similar problem with my 535i. The rear left visibly wobbles when driven in the air on a ramp so must be buckled. Whilst on holiday in France last week one of my tyres wore through on the inside edge, I knew it was low but didn't think it was on the limit. I had to get a cheap replacement (100 euro Neolin Neosport) as an emergency stop gap but it prompted me to look at changing all four as the fronts had already been on the rear for a while so they were all worn on the inside. Clearly, it's a good opportunity to also change the wheels... I actually placed an order for some aftermarket wheels but had second thoughts the morning after and cancelled it. The 351M wheels above are very heavy at about 14.5kg each! They are 8.5J ET33 front and rear. I wanted to stay with 19" as 18" is too small for my 374mm front brakes and 20" looks good but the tyre sidewalls are a bit thin. I thought I'd explored all the other possible OEM wheels that might fit and not really found something suitable that I liked. Then I stumbled across some winter wheels for an F80 M3. Whilst the usual M3 wheels are a bit wide at 9J and 10J the winter 641M setup are 8.5J and 9J. The offset is ET27 front and ET29 rear, which translates to sitting 6mm further out on the front and 10.35mm further out on the rear. The wheels were being sold with barely used winter tyres size 255/35/19 all round. It's not quite right as the 5 series runs on a 40 profile but it's close enough that I'll use up the Dunlops first. The speedo now underreads by almost 4mph rather than the usual 2mph and it'll be slightly worse economy but I wouldn't get much money for the tyres. When they're done I'll fit 255/40/19 summer tyres all round, probably Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6. The 10mm smaller radius leaves a bigger arch gap and drops the car a bit, although it's only temporary. Finally, I have no vibration at speed! I believe the new wheels are usefully lighter too, possibly up to 2kg each. You can certainly feel it when handling them and being rotating mass it's the best kind to save on. Personally, I really like the design and you can see the big brakes more. I haven't seen any other F10/F11s on these so it's a bit unique whilst staying OEM. I don't like pokey wheels but these sit just right and don't look out of place. Unfortunately, I'm still tackling other problems. I've got a coolant leak that I think is the upper radiator hose as there's some residue on the alternator, so a new one is arriving next week and I'll see if that solves it. For now I can use it and topup the reservoir after each 100 miles or so. My idle has the odd hiccup where the revs drop and then recover so I'm thinking it could be a fuel supply issue. Being an early N55 I have the expensive high pressure fuel pump and it's known to fail. I don't have long crank times or trouble on the move so I'm hoping it's not that. Instead, I'm going to try replacing the low pressure fuel pump in the tank as it's much cheaper and if there isn't a good supply to the HPFP it could cause the hiccups. There's also possibly some hesitancy at lower revs on the move and some odd resonant grumbles around 2.5krpm. One day I'll get there with it all.. They look really smart 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F10-65 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 On 02/02/2024 at 12:21, mullinsj08 said: Booked the car into the garage for 12th Feb to have a few bits done: - Install the Bilstein B12 Pro-Kit - Install PowerFlex bushes in all the front control arms - Replace front wheel bearings Hopefully, that should sort the vague steering and floatiness. I will create a thread closer to the time to document the journey. I'm not sure how long its been but how are those new bushes going? Did you buy new arms and swap the bushes or just have the bushes replaced in the existing arms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F10-65 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 7 hours ago, Steve84N said: Finally, I have no vibration at speed! I believe the new wheels are usefully lighter too, possibly up to 2kg each. You can certainly feel it when handling them and being rotating mass it's the best kind to save on. Personally, I really like the design and you can see the big brakes more. I haven't seen any other F10/F11s on these so it's a bit unique whilst staying OEM. I don't like pokey wheels but these sit just right and don't look out of place. Steve, Are you therefore laying the blame for the wobble firmly with the 351 alloys? It does seem every review of the F10/F11 always seems to slate the ride quality and now I'm guessing this is what they all refer to although they never actually pin point the dreaded wobble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 @F10-65 I believe there's one of my 351m wheels that's badly buckled, you could see it wobbling around when I drove the car on a lift. Of all the things I've done changing the wheels has made the biggest difference. Some of the other stuff definitely helped too, like the propshaft. That's probably why the wobble is so talked about and hard to track down, it's perhaps often more than just one thing. I have a mate with an F11 535d on 351m wheels and he also has a wobble. Said he could see at least two wheels buckled on the balancing machine. He's just had new front brakes and it helped a bit but not solved it, same experience as me. BMW wheels are well known to get knocked out of shape, particularly in certain models it seems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimsum Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 On 18/02/2024 at 21:16, Dimsum said: 19inch 302’s fitted and I’m chuffed with how they look. They really seem to fill the arches out nicely. Will add a photo at some point. I'm also impressed that there is no discernible difference in ride comfort compared to the old 18’s. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted February 24 Author Share Posted February 24 @Steve84N Let me know how you get on changing that hose. I was planning on replacing it when I did my oil filter housing gaskets but I could get (didn’t try that hard) one of the ends of the hose to pull off and decided to leave it for another time. I reckon it needs cutting out to get it out easily. It’s on my to do list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 (edited) Will do... How were you looking at it? Are you referring to the fact that to pull in one direction is pushing it into another connection? Could just cut the large pipe I guess. All the connections are either a clip to pull out or the clamp you can open with pliers that comes with a piece of plastic holding it open on the new one. I was planning to syringe out the reservoir, then release the lowest point of this hose and try to catch it in a container. Should reduce the mess right down and it's high up so won't lose all my coolant. Edited February 24 by Steve84N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullinsj08 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 1 hour ago, F10-65 said: I'm not sure how long its been but how are those new bushes going? Did you buy new arms and swap the bushes or just have the bushes replaced in the existing arms? @F10-65 It's been a week and a bit. The new bushes are holding up great! The front-end still feels solid. I bought new upper wishbones and brake reaction arms but re-used the existing lower wishbone as that was replaced only a few months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimsum Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 (edited) I’m looking for the best priced brake discs and, being pretty useless with mechanical matters, I wondered why there are different part numbers and prices for front left and front right discs? Also, does anyone know what brand of discs are used by the main dealers? They will charge me £600 all in for front discs, pads and sensors. Looking at these sorts of prices online, it seems there will be very little difference if I go through them… I’m looking at about £400 in parts and then I have to find someone to fit them. £600 doesn’t seem to bad or is it just me? Edited February 25 by Dimsum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F10-65 Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 2 minutes ago, Dimsum said: I’m looking for the best priced brake discs and, being pretty useless with mechanical matters, I wondered why there are different part numbers and prices for front left and front right discs? Also, does anyone know what brand of discs are used by the main dealers? They will charge me £600 all in for front discs, pads and sensors. Looking at these sorts of prices online, it seems there will be very little difference if I go through them… Put everything you need in your basket and wait a week or so. It wont take long for a discount to show up. Make sure you have the app on your phone and you're signed into both to share the basket 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 @Dimsum check prices tomorrow on Monday, often about the cheapest for the week. Handed discs are because the internal cooling vanes are curved, so only work properly in one direction. Most discs the vanes are straight, so it doesn't matter but they're less effective. It's a high end thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dimsum Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Thanks guys. You would think that both discs would be the same price then? Weird… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F10-65 Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 Not sure about left and right, mine has the same both sides but I would recommend the Brembo discs. Mine are the high carbon version and they are so good. Super low brake dust too. 09.C410.13 BREMBO TWO-PIECE DISCS LINE Brake disc Front Axle, 330x24mm, 5, internally vented, two-piece brake disc, Coated, High-carbon, with bolts/screws for BMW 5 Series ▷ AUTODOC price and review 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 20 hours ago, Dimsum said: Also, does anyone know what brand of discs are used by the main dealers? BMW manufacture many of their own brake discs in their factory alongside Motorad in Berlin. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 25/02/2024 at 20:40, F10-65 said: Not sure about left and right, mine has the same both sides but I would recommend the Brembo discs. Mine are the high carbon version and they are so good. Super low brake dust too. The bigger brake discs fitted as an option to some 530ds and standard on 535i/d are handed left and right for as @Steve84N said due to shape of cooling ribs. @Dimsum, you’ll not go wrong with genuine discs (and can be bought actually quite competitively from bmw) or any of the big brands. ATE, Jurid, Brembo etc etc. For pads, Galfer are OEM but again Textar are a good alternative. I fitted febi front discs and pads to my wife’s Kuga and they are still as sharp as they day I fitted them 18 months ago, so much so that I’ll fit them to the rear of my F10 if it ever stops raining. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 On 24/02/2024 at 21:40, Steve84N said: Will do... How were you looking at it? Are you referring to the fact that to pull in one direction is pushing it into another connection? Could just cut the large pipe I guess. All the connections are either a clip to pull out or the clamp you can open with pliers that comes with a piece of plastic holding it open on the new one. Yeah this one. The one with the tension clamp, I undid the clamp but couldn’t wrestle the hose off the plastic insert and was worried I’d break it. So I left it well alone as that wasn’t my concern that day and I’d wasted lots of time fighting with the inlet manifold earlier so patience has gone. As you rightly say, you pull off in one direction to push it on in the other direction so it’ll get cut to make more room to pull off that plastic connector without fear of breaking it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve84N Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 @Dimsum there's good prices on brakes on Autodoc today. £120 and £144 for the front Brembo discs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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