Replace tires or rebalancing?

[ps2cho]

Continental ExtremeContact DWS. Late 2022 manufacture date. 43k miles on them.

At 43k miles they don’t owe me much but still have 5/32” tread (front tires on my 2016 535i).

Noticed some cyclical rolling noises from the front that started a few months ago. Seems to do it all the time turning or not and “sounds” tire-related like it’s flat spotting or something.

Would you all recommend I just replace the fronts (non-X drive) or have them rebalanced first? Thoughts?

 

[Marcozi]

Could be a wheel bearing. Find a reputable indie shop that specializes in bimmers at www.bimrs.org.

 

[skyactiv]

Try swapping the front wheels to the other side.

 

[CapriRacer]

Try swapping the tires front to rear. If the noise follows the tires or significantly changes, then you might have an alignment problem.

 

[SC Maintenance]

I will add that if your going to the trouble to balance, make sure you get a hunter road force balance. If they were flat spotting it would pick that up.

I agree - better to confirm the issue before throwing new tires at the problem.

 

[ps2cho]

Try swapping the tires front to rear. If the noise follows the tires or significantly changes, then you might have an alignment problem.

Cant -- rears are staggered...Rear tires I replaced last year.
No alignment issue, the tires are wearing very even.

 

[Kira]

FOI (For Our Information):
What are the sizes?

 

[ps2cho]

FOI (For Our Information):
What are the sizes?

• Front Tire Size: 245/40-19
• Rear Tire Size: 275/35-19

 

[CapriRacer]

Cant -- rears are staggered...Rear tires I replaced last year.
No alignment issue, the tires are wearing very even.

Maybe, maybe not. The first sign of an alignment problem is noise.

 

[ps2cho]

Maybe, maybe not. The first sign of an alignment problem is noise.

Personally never experienced this and have definitely had some older cars with bad alignments. The only way I could imagine this being bad enough is a completely torn bushing where its rattling in the bushing socket...Of which I have definitely none and have inspected all the control arms already. Bushings are still like brand new (75k miles on the odo)

I will look at the wheel bearings on both sides and see if theres any difference in noise when spinning them.

 

[Cujet]

If you can swap side to side, that might help, due to tread block wear.

 

[RedSpider]

There was a thread about this not too long ago regarding DSW06's. Seems to be a not-rare complaint. Mine were doing it for a while, but I havent noticed them doing it recently. I did have them balanced twice since then however. The first rebalance was great for a couple days, then I took it back after they started vibrating again. Its been a couple months and they've been perfect since. I only noticed the noise at lower speeds (under 40-ish).

 

[t1snwrbrdr12]

I had the same tires. Perfect wear patterns, no alignment issues, rotated religiously every 5k miles. They got noisy around 5 or 6/32 as well. I didn’t like them enough to purchase the same tires again, noise at the end of their life wasn’t the only reason but it was part of it as I usually run my tires to about 2/32 or so if the season they’re wearing that far down allows me to.

But balancing will not fix anything at this point. If they wore choppy (cupped) and it’s due to balance, they’d be significantly out of balance and you’d feel it driving. Rebalancing them isn’t going to fix it, especially since you can’t rotate them to the back where they can wear straighter without the stress of turns and pushing through cornering.

 

[f355spider]

I am having some similar issues on my 2001 BMW 540 M-Sport with Conti Extreme Contact DW. I also run staggered so I have replaced the rears a year ago, but these fronts are now 3+ years old and I had them recently rebalanced and the shop noticed they are a bit out of round. He said not uncommon...he said the only ones that are consistently round and stay that way is Michelin.

 

[ps2cho]

Got the 535i up today and spun both front wheels. Here is what they sound like. Both sides are basically identical metallic noise.
Does this appear normal for a RWD (no axles at the front here)? Or is this a good sign the bearings are beginning to show some wear and could be the noise discussed here?

Thoughts?

 

[BrendanC]

Got the 535i up today and spun both front wheels. Here is what they sound like. Both sides are basically identical metallic noise.
Does this appear normal for a RWD (no axles at the front here)? Or is this a good sign the bearings are beginning to show some wear and could be the noise discussed here?

Thoughts?

sounds like the back plate is rubbing on a rotor. also could be some metallic build up on the ABS tone wheel.

 

[ps2cho]

sounds like the back plate is rubbing on a rotor. also could be some metallic build up on the ABS tone wheel.

It’s on both sides the same so doubtful both are rubbing identically.
I took the wheel off and the back plate isn’t rubbing it’s all in perfect position

 

[bonjo]

I had a similar issues with road noise. Rear tyres were 1/2 worn only & visually in perfect condition but around 5Yo.
Had all the bearings checked, diff oil replaced with no success.
I took a gamble & changed the rear tyre. This cured the problem. Maybe they didn't like our anaemic british sun!
The tyres must have degraded once past 3yo.

 

[ps2cho]

I spent some more time today on it -- I think I may just have a flat spot. I spun the wheel and noticed theres a high/low spot against a flat background.

I checked against the rim and it doesn't appear its the rim itself doing it, so it appears its the tire. Tires were new at 31k and I have 76k now so its not exactly the end of the world even though the fronts still have ~5/32" left.

 

[ps2cho]

Just updating - new Conti DWS front tires resolved it, no more noises.