Directional vibration and wavy surface on one diagonal (P1S, 272h)

Hi everyone,

My P1S has recently started producing a low vibrating when printing one specific diagonal direction. At the same time, the printed surface becomes wavy/ripply, but only on features produced along that diagonal.

The issue is most visible on layer 2 (and sometimes layer 4) when printing at 0.2 mm layer height. Other directions and later layers look normal. The effect is repeatable and always aligned with the same diagonal.

I’ve already tried the following without improvement:

  • Full printer maintenance and cleaning
  • Retensioning belts using the official Bambu procedure
  • Tightening XY idler pulley screws
  • Changing nozzle temperature
  • Adjusting extrusion / flow settings
  • Re-running full calibration (including vibration calibration)

Most similar posts I’ve found point toward over-extrusion, Z-height, or volumetric flow limits, but none of those changes affect the issue. Since it is direction-specific, those explanations don’t seem to fit well, and many similar threads appear to end without a clear resolution.

The printer has only about 272 hours of use, after one, so this feels unusually early for a mechanical issue. I have also exclusively only printed PLA and PETG, nothing exotic. Currently the issue is occuring when I print with 2 different Bambu Lab PLA’s

I exclusively print with bambu lab filament, and use their standard settings, only making slight adjustments, when I see bed adhesion issues or other easy fixes.

Has anyone seen a similar diagonal-specific vibration / surface ripple on the P1 series and actually found a root cause or fix? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

My current hypothesis is that something is wrong with the either the gantry, belt/belt path, idler pulley assembly.

My next steps would be to try and exchange the idler pulley assembly on the back, switching the left one to the right and vice versa, to see if the problem shifts to the other diagonal. But if this does not solve the issue, then I am running out of ideas.

Bambu lab support have been contacted and I am awaiting an answer from them.


Video where the sound is visible and the diagonal: https://youtu.be/QHONsSdHHS4

Try tensioning your belts as shown in this video. There may be a slight mis-alignment of the pulleys causing the belt to ride on the lip of the idler pulley.

1 Like

I have already tensioned the screws and checked for belt misalignment. But the issue is completely unchanged unfortunately.

Strange Problem, do you have any kind of warping on your print/first layer?

I have the P1S as well for over a year now but I experienced only the common VFAs on the X-Axis. These are noticeable when you print a 5cmx5cmx5cm cube with silk PLA for example.

Yeah it is not a very common problem. There is virtually no information about it and when I find a thread/post that looks exactly like my issue, there is no clear solution, and comment section just seems to die out without an answer.

Hello! Im stuck with the exact same issue. Did you find any clear troubleshooting for it? thank you very much