BimmerGuyFL

I am a current owner of a 2005 BMW 330i that I leased brand new in Jan of 2005. I noticed since I had my car that it had a tendency to pull or drift to the right if I kept the steering wheel centered on all roads. to keep the car going straight on a flat none crowned road I have to hold the steering wheel at a noticeable angle to the left and still makes my car feel unstable. At around 5,000 miles in June I toke my 330i in to have the alignment checked. The dealership did an alignment and charged me 129 bucks. I left the dealership and it felt like they didn't touch my car. I toke it back ASAP and they tried another alignment with a slight better luck but still kept pulling but not as bad. I let it go for that moment because I didn't have the time to keep going back to the dealer everyday due to work. I finally got the chance to take the car back in October and have the check my alignment; again they said I needed one. They did my alignment and charged me 45 dollars since it had been 3 or 4 months since the last time. As soon as I left the dealership my car pulled badly again to the right. I turned around and my service advisor asked for me to bring it in again in a few days, I agreed and brought it back within a few days. They checked the alignment and the tech said it was tracking straight as an arrow. I drive it with my service advisor and we both noticed the quick pulling. The Tech found a new 2006 E46 330Ci with the same size wheels and tires as my 330i to check if it was my tires. Tried that way and still same results. Again they tried to align my car but even they admitted that the car does not track straight and does pull. My service advisor gave me the number to BMW customer relations and told me to give them a call to see what they can do for me. I am still waiting for BMWNA to call me back after I talked to them and explained what has been going on. The nice young lady said she would call me back in 3 to 5 days. Where do I go from here? I am totally bummed about my BMW. I have had a 1995 525i with no alignment problems. As well in our family we had a 2002 525i, 2003 325i and a current 2005 530i with no alignment problems except this 2005 BMW 330i. Let?s see what BMW of North America tells me in a few days. I will keep everyone posted.

Iceman

I have experienced something very similar.
My car seems to pull to the left...

But it doesn't do it allways!

The thing is, ActiveSteering corrects the steering and it's changing the ratio to the positive and negative. So, if the street is not exactly (!!!!!!!!!) even your steering is correcting the uneven pavement and your car is pulling to one side.
Most streets are uneven!
I was able to find streets where the car pulls to the left, to the right, and on some streets it stays straight! Also, the lane you are in has to be a straight lane... So, to find out if your car is having a problem or if it is just the AS overreacting, you have to find an EVEN road with a STRAIGHT lane! That's pretty tough...

BimmerGuyFL

unfortunatly the problem is with my 2005 330i which is the E46 model and it does not have active steering or the sport package. everything is BMW OEM. Car has never been in any accident or been hit and never has hit a curb or pothole etc etc etc. I have found flat flat roads with no crowns on leans just straight flat roads and every road i have been on it still pulls to the right. what i mean for pulling is the steering is centered and the car jusrt drifts to the right. To keep the car going straight I need to hold the wheel at an angle somewhere around 11 O'Clock.
I really hope BMWNA buys back my car and gives me a new one because there is def something defective or wrong with my 330i.

Iceman

Wow. So that definately doesn't sound right then. Sorry to hear about it...

cobradav

If after all these alignments and re-alignments you still have a noticeable pull and your BMW reps do see it as well I believe u are a candidate for a replacement. I had thought that a misalignment and driving 5000 miles had ruined one or more of your tires, but you disproved that as they switched tire/wheels from another similar car. You should also be able to jump into any other similar car, drive over the same roads that demonstrated the pulling in your car and see that any of the test vehicles do not. Again making sure that urs is at fault. Push for replacement as BMW does not have a handle on this. Sounds more like a bent frame or bad suspension component that is contributing to this problem and BMW (Fields I presume) cannot find the root cause. But in this case that might be best all around and just replace your car and get this one outta here. Good luck.

BimmerGuyFL

I had contacted a Lemon law layer and he got back with me. He said he doesn't think this case would be good to take because he strongly believes BMW will not buy or replace my car. he did say he could most likely have them see my car as if it was defective. he explained it as a T-Shirt in a store that had a hole and they market down that T-Shirt from 15 bucks to 10 bucks or so. I told him to forget about it and I would deal with BMWNA which now they still have not called and I left "THE NICE LADY" a message today. tomorrow morning I am taking my car in to a place in orlando Florida called Nix and Black and a lot of fellow BMW friends that have M3's take there cars there for alignments and steerings of center and swear upon this man that he is the best at doing alignments. Best friend and BMW tech friend also drove my car today and they both said it is the alignment. I have heard also FIELDS BMW does not know how to do alignments on BMW's to well. I will post tomorrow and let everyone know if this fixes my problem. WISH ME LUCK cause I sure still love my E46 330i.

katheikia

Good Luck, I hope it all works out for you!!!

Scooby M Cinco

There does seem to be a lemony scent to your story. I would defer to the experts you have contacted though. Keep us up to date, and good luck.

Centurion

I hope this Nix and Black place gets it right.
Then you can bring the car back to the dealership, have the same SA drive it, then demand a percentage of your $129 + $45 back for a piss-poor job.

Good luck.

BimmerGuyFL

I decided to not have anyone else touch my car so BMW NA can not say someone else messed it up etc etc etc, get my point? I talked with BMW NA today and they did reply to my post on roadfly.org. The Persons name I spoke with on the phone was Greg and he was very professional and nice, he seemed like he did understand and cared with my cars problem. He also said he has a 325i with the sport package and his car does not have this problem. last thing he said is that someone sometime soon will call me back and most likely will get a BMW tech to come out to orlando FL and check my car out.