k44ent

My car had and issue with the steering being off centre to the left, took it in for an alignment which was done free of charge (8000miles from you 6 months old). The car was quite a bit out and has not been kerbed. The steering seems to be to the right now but only a little, although I think the road camber has something to do with this as in England most roads fall to the left so you end up steering slightly right to maintain a straight line, still not 100% happy to be honest, could do with driving another E60. I have a print out of the KDS report but am not sure how to read it.

CajunE60

I have this problem too, the wheel slightly off to the right. I appreciate the conversation and info. If anyone has an update, please let us know. Thanks,

k44ent

Am off to a different dealer this week for the service manager to have a look. After a conversation over the phone it seems that the 5 series is very sensitive to camber so maybe its normal. Does your car pull (follow the road camber) if so you will have to steer a little to the high point of the road to keep the vehicle straight. Anyway will report back what the dealer says.

k44ent

Is it possible to get the steering wheel to be dead on even with the road camber changes??

CajunE60

I checked my tire pressure and found the left rear low by 1.5 pounds and the other tires off by between 1 and .5 pounds. Once I set the tires to the correct pressure, it did not cure the problem but it helped a lot and makes the problem too insignificant to go to the dealer (at least currently). Maybe it is physcological...who knows. I live in a state with poorly maintained roads.
The FTM monitor I believe is set at a 4 pound threshold and it checks only relative pressure only so it is not advisable to rely on it for best tire pressure compliance.
My guess is that between the active steering (quicker than normal below 75 mph) and the sport package (wide tires), the car is more sensitive to road camber, tire pressure and anything else affecting wheel alignment.

blackbird6SPD

Ohhh, here we go again folks. I have had otons of problems with BMW Alligments and the steering wheels being off center. When these are assembled in Germany, the wheel allignments are not performed on any of the cars. They all come pre set dort off. Most of these cars that you will drive out of the store, will have either a wheel allignment or centered steering wheel problems. I have had 8 BMW's over the past 7 years and almost every one of them had one of these problems.
I have also found that the dealer will NOT do a proper alligment on these cars, only because they don't properly measure, weigh and don't have the right equipment for your car. Hunter Machine is NOT a proper machine for your BMW. The proper equipment is the Beissbarth Machine, which is a German machine and a german software which will make your BMW 110% Perfect. Believe me when i say that. I have experienced that before. I currently have problems with both, (allignment and an off center steering wheel).
The shop that i was using before is no longer in business and they used to charge about $250/allignment, but the car was comming out of an allignment a totaly different vehicle. If anyone knows a shop with a Beissbarth machine in the West Palm Beach Area, please let me know A.S.A.P
Sorry to dissapoint you folks, but this BMW might just be my last one. It really does take all of the pleasure away when driving these cars woth an off centered wheel or a bad allignment. The worst of all, is that the dealers actually make it worse then better by performing allignments on these cars.
Post your thoughts or replies.

BMWJIMT

Mine was slightly off centre after having steering column replaced to fix a noise problem ( scraping sound when turning ). I took it back as the noise was still there & I told them about the off centre issue.
It came back with the steering wheel out of alignment, but the other way !. And the noise is still there.
Its booked in again next week. Third time lucky I hope.

PoleApart

When I told a friend that I have active steer he mentioned that another friend took an active steer beemer for a test drive. With the car stationary with the wheels turned he switched off the engine and with it off turned the steering wheel to the straight ahead position. When he switched the engine on again the steering wheel was straight but the wheels were still turned.

This could be total bullshit, urban myth, etc. I am definitely not going to be the one who will be verifying it on my car

CVTBenhogan

Its not good business on BMW's part.

CVT Benhogan

PoleApart

What is so specific about a BMW alignment (active steering cars aside)?

In the Miata playing with suspension geometry does wonders for the handling and there is a lot of data on the web how to set it up to have oversteer, understeer, sharp turn in, etc. and for real fine tuning of the handling it was always recommended to weigh the car with weights to mimic the driver or driver and passengers being in the car depending on how one usually drives. In my and others' experience any problems were 99% down to operator laziness or ineptitude rather than the machines being used. This was in situations where castor, camber and toe were being adjusted simultaneously and one impacted the other and not a simple steering wheel alignment. I can't believe that if it was such a challenge that BMW would leave it down to the apprentice at the service department rather than set it up at the factory.

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Przemek Vonau