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[MythMaker]

I brought by 325i in for service, mainly for an oil change. The car has 19k miles on it and it has started making a very loud noise when driving.

The dealer said the tires were cupped and that is what was making the loud noise when driving and braking. However I have been checking the tire pressure pretty often (maybe once a month) and the fronts have always been around 30psi. Only one time when it got down to 20 degrees here the front were down to 25 psi and I immediately filled them up.

I had run flats on my old corvette, and they always wore the outsides first, mainly due to the way the alignment was setup on them, but they never made any loud noises like this.

I really have no clue what is going on. I am going to call BMW NA on Monday but was wondering if anyone else was having any problems like this and what the resolution was.

Thanks!

For the e90 post gang:
For the dealer: :mad:

[MythMaker]

oh and I have the 325i without sport package. So its the standard 16 inch rims.

[LEDZEP]

Hmmm.... boy here is a subject that will invite everyone with an opinion out of the woodwork. I used to think I knew the difference between cupping and feathering, but too many so-called experts use those terms interchangibly. Cupping (relying on my previous so-called knowledge here) is when the center portion of the tread is closer to the center of the wheel than the outter edges when viewed straight on. Like this: [top of tire] ) [center of tire]. Feathering is when the outter tread becomes unevenly worn, and the tread becomes angled in the direction of rotation (creates "points" toward the front of the tread). Either of these conditions will cause road noise and a rougher feel.

Cupping is generally attributed to improper tire pressure over a substantial period of time - i.e. underinflated tires habitually. Feathering is generally caused by the way the car was designed for suspension and alignment and is present when the tires are not frequently rotated (you'll notice only the fronts do this).

Here's the dilema... I had my tires rotated at 7,000 miles and afterwards I had a noticable shimmy re-appear (had it when the car was new and a good balance job took care of it). Now, in my little mind if the tires are properly balanced it shouldn't make any difference which corner of the car they are on, they should still be balanced. But I finally had to take a tech for a ride and have him rebalance the wheels to get rid of the shimmy (another fairly long story and I'll spare you). Now my car is just over 14,000 miles and I really would like to rotate the tires again because I am getting some significant feathering on the fronts (especially driver's side). But I'm paranoid that rotating will once again cause a shimmy in the steering and I will go completely insane and you will all hear about me on the evening news.

When I had a Mercedes and frequented a Benz forum, there was a resident member from the Tire Rack who would give great advice and education regarding tires and wheels - and was very knowledgable about the MB cars and their idiosyncracies. I really miss that here and wish we had someone like that.

Bottom line is that you shouldn't expect much from your dealer and you should expect nothing from BMW NA because the one thing that no car manufacturer includes under warranty is the tires. Also, dealerships don't usually do much tire work because people take their car to other places for tires, etc. so I don't consider them experts in that area. My advice would be to take your car to a highly reputable brand name tire store and ask them to look at your tires and make recommendations.

Hope that helps some... sorry for the long reply.

[MythMaker]

From what you describe, it sounds a lot more like feathering to me. The outside edges of the tire are worn in... slightly above the wear bar, while the middle of the tire had much more tread left.

Could this be caused so severly by improper factory alignment?

I believe it is just the nature of a sports car to wear in this manner, the problem isn't the wear so much as it is the loud noise under 50 when driving.

The manual doesn't recommend rotating the tires, but at this point that seems like the best thing to do. I understand obviously why you can't on a staggered setup, but it doesn't seem right not to recommend rotating them for the 16s with the 205s all the way around.

Anyone else's thoughts? If you haven't experienced it yet I am sure you will! Any one have a high mileage e90 not have this problem yet?

[e90driver]

My tires made some increased noise about 5k ago, the dealer rotated the tires. The noise was still there 4.5k miles later. I brought the car back and they did a complete balance and 4 wheel alignment just the other day. They said re-adjusted everything including camber, and they said the noise should go away within a few thousand miles. I now have about 13k on the car. The noise hasn’t gotten any worse, just never went away. So hopefully these new adjustments will make it go away.

[LEDZEP]

Run your hand along the outter tread of your front driver's side tire in a clockwise direction. You should feel a very rough surface, so much so that it will be difficult to move your hand along the tread. Then reverse and go counter-clockwise and you should feel a drastic difference. If so, your tire is feathered.

I have it on pretty good authority that BMWs always wear the front tires - and especially the driver side front - this way. According to the master BMW technician that I talked to about this it is common and has been for years. I think we may have to consider it a necessary price to pay for the finely tuned machines that we drive.

I keep putting it off, but one of these days may talk to an independant tire shop and get their thoughts and advice. If I do I will pass it along.

EDIT: The best way to describe feathering (and don't know why I didn't before) is that it makes your tire look like the blade on a circular saw, with the points of the teeth aiming toward the front of the car (direction of rotation).

[E30M3Driver]

Originally Posted by LEDZEP

Now, in my little mind if the tires are properly balanced it shouldn't make any difference which corner of the car they are on, they should still be balanced.

This is true sort of, but in reality, the whole assembly inclusive of the wheel and tire, brake rotor, hub etc. is a rotating mass. Sometimes the resulting balance of the whole mounted wheel assembly package will be off even with a wheel/tire perfectly balanced on its own. And it doesn't take much to make itself known. This is why BMW balances the tires mounted on the car-had this explained/shown on a Spartanburg factory tour. The whole car gets put on a rolling road and each wheel is then balanced taking into account the entire rotating mass assembly. So in theory, your balance will never be as good as it is coming from the factory.

There are places that can do on the car balancing, but then again, it is specific to the location on the car.

[e90driver]

I took my car in for service again because the tire noise was not going away. They put it back up on the alignment rack and said everything looked perfect. They said it would be several thousand miles before they start to wear even again. I have some feathering on my tires which is supposedly causing the noise. Ledzep will be happy to know the worst tire is my front drivers side . I’ve given it 2.5k from the first alignment and now I guess I’ll wait some more. Do you guys have any advice on how to get rid of the noise? I would replace the tires but I can’t bring myself to pay over $1000 for new tires when 6/10 of my tread is left. Plus, who’s to say that the new tires I slap on won’t feather as well and I’ll be in the same boat. Help!

[e90driver]

Are you guys still experiencing any abnormal tire wear or noise? I have had tires replaced, the vehicle aligned 2x and still pretty significant feathering. I ran my hands along the outside edge of a demo e90 and a few of the e90 loaner cars when at the dealership and some were as bad as mine, some a little better. I wish BMW would address this issue and offer a fix (ie. Camber plates or new alignment guidelines, whatever is needed). I guess it could be worse

[e90driver]

anyone? I'm kind of . Don't know really what to do about the situation.

[toughluck]

Bringing this thread back to life. I noticed something unusual concerning both my front tire treads. Well, a BMW technician checked out my car today and said both of my front tires are feathering (rough outer edges). My car has less than 5000 miles, and I check the tire pressure regularly. I did not hit anything since I bought my car that would warrant an alignment check.

I am thinking my Bridgestones are bad or the tires were not aligned correctly from the factory. I scheduled an appointment for my dealer to investigate this further. I was planning on balancing my tires soon, but the wear on my tires were getting worse. :mad:

I am not sure who is going to fit the bill.

[gos]

there's a new bulletin about it, i had all 4 tires replaced last week due to uneven wear in the front at 6500 miles

[hunt55]

I just had my car into the dealer yesterday to check the noise problem with the tires on a 325i E90 non sport. The tires are feathering after 21K miles. The dealer serviced the car at 17K and the tires were not a problem. The noise seemed to appear around 18K miles. I maintained the tire pressure religiously on the door frame and did not rotate so at least I was able to get to 17K with no known issue.

As noted in the above responses, the tires have more wear on the outside on the drivers front side and slight uneven wear on the passenger front. No issues with the rear tires. The tires have more than 1/2 tread left where there is normal wear, so they were holding up well.

I also discussed the tires with a bridgestone dealer, they said the tires feathered and it could be due to suspension issues are lack of rotation.

The dealer wanted to replace two fronts with bridgestones, balance and realign all four. Now, there is now way I will use bridgestones unless BMW and bridgestone wants to replace them or bridgestone fixes the obvious issues with RFTs.

Tire Rack has continentals in the 16" runflats for $104.00. I plan replace all four once I do some more research on the tires. At least I will end up with two perfect RFT spares.

As far as BMW and bridgestone, I plan to take the matter up with them. Like, LEDZEP, I do not expect much at least initially. I had one of the firestone tires that blew up, so it does not bother me to deal with BMW and bridgestone and I have plenty of time.

[Astro]

Elaborating on what LEDZEP said earlier in this thread, here's some good info on how to read tire wear.

[gos]

Originally Posted by Astro

Elaborating on what LEDZEP said earlier in this thread, here's some good info on how to read tire wear.

Mine was definitely cupping, not feathering. You could see the scalloping on the two front tire outer edges, exactly like the picture.

[ACELR8]

I am bringing in my 330i '06 (built in 4/2005) into the dealership for an oil change and my tires (or bearings, but sounds like it is the tires) are making a roaring noise from 10-60mph its very concerning.... I will let you know what my SA says. The tire pressure monitor has never indicated any pressure loss, but I haven't checked the pressure LATELY... mea culpa. http://www.e90post.com/forums/images/smilies/bonk.gif

Still the noise has gotten worse over the past 6 months, and I only have 16k miles. I especially hear it when I brake from 30mph to zero - GRINDING noisehttp://www.e90post.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif