Ballistic

Hi Guys,

I have been driving my car for 2 or 3 months now and it keeps bugging me.

When driving in the city or country side roads, the steering wheel is very sensitive to the tracks in the road. When the white lines are on the road have just been redone and i drive over it with, i feel the steering wheel shake/vibrate.
On the freeway, even the slighest bit of wind or when passing a truck, i need both hands on the wheel to keep it straight. I am almost constantly making corrections to keep it in a straight line

I have not experienced any clunks or other type of play in the steering.
What do notice; I also drive VW Golf. When driving, if i let the steering wheel go, it always pulls itsself back to a straight line by itsself. My BMW does not do this. I always need to steer it back to a straight line myself. Is this normal?

Thanks for thinking with me.

Persuader

In regard to your comment re the Golf is that not because it is Front Wheel Drive.

CHR15

Sounds like a pretty accurate description of driving with Run Flats.

Took me a while to keep the thing between the lane markers.

jgt

Get that thing to an alignment shop and checked out.
My guess is some suspension component is worn out and/or the alignment is significantly out of spec.

tonyb635

My tires are worn and getting very close to needing to be replaced. I've noticed similar issues like you mention, but only after the tires began to wear down. I hear the compound changes in the tire as it does this... Also, most of our cars have wider tires than normal and mine are staggard. thsi has to play a big role as well since there in more tire to grab. Narrower tire I would think would have less of a pull. I know my old toyota truck doesn't have much at all and the tires aren't as wide. Just a thought...

Ricapar

I notice this on my drives as well. One of the major roads by my area isn't that well paved.. Lots of crappy patch-up jobs. If there's a sinking area/crack/patch that follows down a good length of highway, the steering does try to "follow" the crooked path of the cracks in the street.

Doesn't bother me much though.. It's gotten to be a normal/expected feeling to me.

jgt

This is not normal operation.

Ballistic

Thanks for all the info.

jgt, it does turn back a little bit when driving out of a corner, but not all the way. ill try to make a video.
In the Golf when driving on the highway, i can sometimes let the steering wheel go for upto 30 seconds before i need to correct. In my BMW, this is maybe 5 or 10 seconds tops.

The car has brand new Dunlop tires. They are not runflat tires. The allignment is a good point. I will have to get this checked.

Ricapar; yes my car does this excessively. Its very annoying because my Golf doesn't do this at all. But then again, that has only 195 tires or so, i am running 245 on the BMW.

infin8

+1

Front Lower Control Arm Bushings + Alignment should get you back to Ultimate Driving Machine par status! I had this done to my e60 2-3 weeks ago under warranty and its a night and day difference.

Ballistic

He guys,

Finally had the car alligned.
It improved maybe 10%.

The steering wheel is still not in control of the tires, more like the other way around. The wheels turn the steering wheel if the road is a little off.


We had some rougher weather the last couple of days, a reasonable amount of wind.
The higher i got my speed up, the worse it gets. At 100 to 120mph on a straight freeway, it was like i was driving on a race track. Both hands on the wheel constantly correcting to stay inside the lane.
Faster then 120mph would just get plain dangerous.

Any other thoughts? The steering mechanism maybe?