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Swaying in 80mph

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Old Mar 13, 2006 | 08:24 PM
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Hi -
I have a 530i and I drive it to work every day. On interstate 10, when I drive at ~80mph, I could sense the whole vehicle swaying inside the lane. I thought it was due to air pressure in the tires and confirmed they are right.. however, I wanted to know if its something else that would make an e60 sway.. its not too much but still I could feel it. would it be because of wind. I dont see any mention of high speed wind around the area where I feel this.

Should I talk to my dealer about this. Any suggestions would be helpful.


Thanks in advance
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Old Mar 13, 2006 | 08:55 PM
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I believe it's the pavement. Some road surfaces were scraped and they have lines along the tracks which cause your tires to follow and sway. If you pay attention to the surface, you can see these lines. Try a smoother road to see if you still feel the same swaying effect.
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Old Mar 13, 2006 | 10:19 PM
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what lane were you in?
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 01:30 AM
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Sounds like it could be tramlineing - where grooves in the road are created by heavy vehicles, and your wheels are guided into these grooves, hence the swaying feeling you get....
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 02:19 AM
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Originally Posted by converted2bmw' post='254590' date='Mar 14 2006, 10:30 AM
Sounds like it could be tramlineing - where grooves in the road are created by heavy vehicles, and your wheels are guided into these grooves, hence the swaying feeling you get....
If you were in the slow lane then it probably was tramlining. IMO BMW's seem particularly prone to this - I think it's the fact that the steering feedback is so good that you are very aware of the road service.

If you were in the overtaking / fast lanes then it was probably just wind, but I'd keep an eye on it.
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 04:45 AM
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The wider the tires, the more it tramlines. The sport package 275s can be bad in this regard. Worth it, but on rutted asphalt roads, it is quite pronounced.
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 12:54 PM
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We also had this problem 2006 525i, and Bmw dealer could not get this car to go straight it had a aligament problem which was in the shop 5 times without fixing the problems. Bmw has offer to buy back the car, waiting to get new car.
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 01:19 PM
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Would you please provide some more info on your 2006 525i aligament issue? I have a 2006 525i with the aligament problem as well, and have visited the dealer twice trying to fix the problem. They even changed 3 of 4 tires for this car the first time. After 3 month, the problem shows up again. I am considering to request BMW to buy back the car if the problem persists as you described. But how could I get to that point? Would you light me up? Thanks!

Originally Posted by tomaros11' post='254878' date='Mar 14 2006, 03:54 PM
We also had this problem 2006 525i, and Bmw dealer could not get this car to go straight it had a aligament problem which was in the shop 5 times without fixing the problems. Bmw has offer to buy back the car, waiting to get new car.
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 01:33 PM
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What tires are you driving?

My first E60 had 245/45/17 Non RFT and they were perfect, later I changed to 245/40/18 (Front) and 275/35/18 (Rear) also non RFT and hardly any tramlining.

My second E60 was on delivery 18" Dunlop RFT's for a week and I was ready to have the car re-aligned, the tramlining was that bad. I changed to the non RFT's when they arrived at the dealer and the tramlining was gone. This winter I changed to 17" RFT Dunlop winter tires and....tramlining was back.

The stiff sidewall and structure of the RFT's seem to have a huge impact!

See if your dealer has a demo or used car on non RFT's, ask to use those for some days and see what happens.
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Old Mar 14, 2006 | 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by iamanush' post='254526' date='Mar 14 2006, 12:24 AM
Hi -
I have a 530i and I drive it to work every day. On interstate 10, when I drive at ~80mph, I could sense the whole vehicle swaying inside the lane. I thought it was due to air pressure in the tires and confirmed they are right.. however, I wanted to know if its something else that would make an e60 sway.. its not too much but still I could feel it. would it be because of wind. I dont see any mention of high speed wind around the area where I feel this.

Should I talk to my dealer about this. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks in advance

I bet it was windy out.
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