3. Hmmm. Not many. Beats a U-joint with 2 point drive, but short of the 6 or 8 in some. If I had a vibration, I would at least look into it. Could be wrong, but worth a look. The question is if the corrrect answer is in-phase or out of phase. Different things vibrate with different solutions. In phase, the drive shaft changes speed. Out of phase, the change is transferred to the wheel. Different mass, different resonances. There cold be a difference right to left that aggravates it as well. Just another theory.

The manufacturing tolerances are so good these days, there has to be some explanation. Random does not make sense.

I am not dropped and I have no vibration so it is up to someone with the problem to take this further.

 

No one has investigated this further? I wish someone would before I grab some NM's.

 

my car did it in first and 2nd until i switched rims with a few mm lower offset. looks like there is slight contact on the drivers side strut at lower speeds and once above 50 mph the tire grows taller and thinner and the vibration stops.

 

Thanks Graham,
That should be easy for folks to check, as there should be tell-tale rub marks.
If it is this easy, fantastic. Those with vibration, go pull a wheel and look. If this is all it is, $90 for a set of 5mm spacers is a sure fix! Please. I am waffling on a set of springs myself.

 

It's not a tire rub issue. I know a large number of vibration cars all running proper offsets.

It's really not something to worry too much about.

 

Maybe i had a out of round wheel tire setup at first, oem was a 17x7 et 48 with a 205/45/17 then without raising ride height and switching to a 17x7.5 43 et with a 215/45/17 cured my issues .

The vibration could only be detected in the drivers footwell .

 

And you were having the rubbing problem with the first set but not the second set? That doesn't seem to make sense as a rubbing issue. The second set is 1mm closer to the strut than the oem wheels, and you had noticeably larger tires installed on them as well...seems like if the first set rubbed, the second set would rub.

 

ssr offered the type c wheel in 43 et and for tire rack a 42 et .

maybe mine are a 42 et .

had a slight contact mark on the tire and rubber dust on the strut .

 

"noticeable in drivers foot-well" OK. A hint it will be noticeable in your wallet before their time! I hope I am lucky, putting some H&R's on order. I suspect there is more than one thing going on here.

 

I have NM's on my Clubman. Just installed last week. I notice a VERY VERY (and I mean very very!!) slight vibration at times at hwy speeds.......... but it may just be the crappy runflats. My alignment was put back to factory specs pretty much dead on.

 

OK........... I now officially have this issue as well. Under acceleration, it's noticable around 3K RPM. It's very slight but it's definitely there. Very minor but also annoying knowing something doesn't seem right. Weird........ NM springs drop about an 1" which really is nothing. Never had this sort of issue with any other Beemer........... or any other car I've had. Not entirely happy about this..............

 

Two threads on this issue. No one seems to know what the root cause is. Some have it, some do not.

Just had a thought. We are looking only at ride height. Has anyone looked at the effect of camber combined? Could the people with vibration be running more negative camber? Some limit in the outer CV, not the inner. I have not had one apart. Anyone with adjustable camber, crank it way over and see if you get vibration. Or if you have lowered and have vibration, crank in big positive camber for a test and see what happens.

 

Theoretically if it's just the CV binding due to the angle after lowering, negative camber would remove some of the binding and possibly cure the vibration.

I just added a bunch of front camber recently. Unfortunately I can't say if it helped vibration or not because I never had the vibration to start with.

I still maintain that it's not really a big issue. It's a minor annoyance at most. I know people who have had the vibration for years without any problems. It's just a very subtle vibration in a certain RPM range.

 

Quite right. Wrong way. So same question. Someone with the problem and camber plates go positive and see if it gets worse, more negative and see if it is better. If negative camber will cure it, then we have it made!

I maintain it is an issue for me. It is my daily driver and I expect more than some. This is the 21st century. I had a lot more sense of humor with my Morgan, TVR, MG, and Triumph, but they were all designed between 32 and 47. We should know better by now.

 

How about a survey?
Drop, camber, and how severe the vibration. Maybe some statics will help!

 

Cooper Clubman

Drop: 6"
Camber: Initially the max amount of negative camber allowed by the slotted towers which is about 1 degree. Now I'm running a bit more...around -2.
Vibration: None
Transmission: 6 speed

My old R50 Cooper

Drop: 4"
Camber: -2.5
Vibration: None for 45k miles
Transmission CVT

 

running a 1.25 drop on coilovers and have a minor vibration in 1st and 2nd gear between 2000 rpm to 3000 rpm .should I raise the ride height ? do you think that the driveline may not be centered correctly ?

 

The point was to correlate CAMBER setting with drop and vibration. This is to give us a hint if the issue is in the outer CV.
I really don't know what you mean by drive-line not centered. I doubt it is. One of the techniques to combat torque steer is different stiffness, sometimes by different length, half-shafts. Very fre FWD cars are "centered". Or are you talking about thrust angle. which is a relationship between the rear and front virtual axles.

 

I am depressed. Only one respondent out of all the folks who have dropped their cars that gave both drop and camber setting. ( thank you R-S-D).

From this one posting of extreme drop, I could conclude that it is not just an alignment issue. There is something more interesting in the geometry variance. I wonder if wear, age, motor mounts, how hard one has hammered the CV's, or what mystery it could be. Sympathetic resonance between the axle and the exact spring/shock resonance? Do the folks with vibration run the OEM Delphi garbage shocks? I just hate to leave mysteries out there. They are just machines. It should be explainable.

 

R56 S

Drop: 1.25" NM springs w/Bilstein HD's
Camber: -.44
No vibration
Auto trans
Specs set to JCW suspension specs (with lowered ride height) according to manufacturer.

 

mjy81,

Very little camber. That would suggest it is NOT a outer CV issue.

Slight tangent. Before all the vibration got me scared off, I was flipping between H&R and NM springs. As you also have the HD's: I am most concerned with keeping my tires on the road. Not bouncing all over like it did stock. It is "just about right" stock springs and the HD's. How do the NM's & HDs compare to the stock? Are you on runflats?

 

When I first installed the NM's and HD's I was on runflats. Huge improvement in ride and handling even with the runflats. The NM's and HD's are much better over the Sport suspension I had on the car. The ride is firm but the initial impact on expansion joints or potholes is significantly improved over the Sport suspension. No more feeling the "oh crap" when you are in a curve and hit an expansion joint. The mini stays planted and absorbs the impact without unloading and "hopping". I think the biggest problem is the stock struts, they just can't really control the suspension movement as well as the HD's. I honestly couldn't be more pleased with this setup.

 

How about this......

When the front end is dropped, the driveline half shafts (correct terminology?!?!) to the wheels are now slightly too long and are not happy. Stock, are they not slightly angled down to the wheel??? Whence dropped, they become more horizontal and actually push out the wheel geometry = something binding. Should be worse as things heat up too......

...... I don't know. Just throwing it out there.

 

That's the case with slammed VW's. They often shorten the axles to limit binding when extremely lowered.

 

that makes just a set of springs really expensive then if you really want things back to spec!!!!