Front wheel shudder

[lemonslap]

Hello all,

Our X5M has recently started to shudder from the front wheels on first movement after being parked up on tight turn out of our driveway. Doesn’t do it again on the next turn during the same journey. I thought it was the tyres scrubbing on tarmac, however we were on a muddy field at the weekend and it did the same thing in reverse and the first movement forward. Transfer case issue do you think or front diff? Going to be a pain to get diagnosed as it only happens on that first movement.

[tfunk88]

I’d try recalibrating the transfer case clutches. Takes about a minute and usually solves all kinds of juddering problems. You’ll need a programmer capable of doing that or a shop that is capable.

[dentprotony@gmail.com]

Tcase fluid and calibration, if that doesn’t work then try removing front shaft to see if that might be your issue

[lemonslap]

I did the transfer case oil and recalibration 5k miles ago, strangely it didn’t do it today. No smoke without fire though! Looks like i’m going to be hitting up the extended warranty again shortly…

[tfunk88]

You did them or a shop? If a shop is def try recalibration again, just in case they skipped that step. It happens.

[lemonslap]

Thanks for the reply, I did it using my foxwell scan tool.

[tfunk88]

Ok, good, so you know it was done.

What tires are you running? Have you ever replaced just one axle vs both at the same time?

Also, is it a single shudder or multiple when it happens? Is it possible it’s something to do with the brakes?

I’d say front diff is pretty unlikely, and I’d think if it was the front diff it would do it regularly/continuously.

[lemonslap]

Standard 21” staggered setup with star marked Michelin super sports all replaced about 12k miles ago, although the fronts are starting to wear the outside 3” more than the inside. Bit of background: I’ve owned it for about 18 months, when I brought it unfortunately the previous owner had replaced the tyres for Pirelli p-zeros, these were causing a stutter on acceleration so I changed them out. This is why at the next service I did a oil change and adaption on the transfer case to make sure it was ok.

[tfunk88]

Thanks for the info.

Is it possible your shudder is the brake rotors breaking free of the pads “sticking” to them? Possibly the caliper isn’t fully retracting the pistons, perhaps. Or the parking brake if you use that?

[lemonslap]

Thanks for replying, It’s a strange one, don’t think it’s brake related. Odd one, if it keeps doing it will put into my local dealership to be looked at. Not a good few months, rear airbags, shark fin water leak, now having to get both sunroof panels replaced as they are letting in water and to top it off I changed the rear brake pads at the weekend and the paint started coming off in big chunks…

[tfunk88]

Yeah, the paint on the rear calipers is pretty bad

Sorry to hear you’re having all these issues! Let us know what you figure out!