[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by Houranimd49

Mine would wander until I did an alignment.

I tried an alignment, didn’t do anything for me. I’m doing control arms on Tuesday and hopefully that will take care of it.

[smokinu454]

Well I had all new upper and lower front control arms installed on the car. I figured at 90k it couldn't hurt. I still need to have the alignment done, its scheduled at the dealer on Monday. For now the car feels tighter but still feels like it takes a lot of micro corrections to the steering wheel to keep it in my lane. I'm sure the alignment will help but at this point I don't feel overly confident that this has fixed my issue. Thoughts on what to look at next if it still wanders after the alignment?

[B-Buster]

Did they use OEM arms or Lemforder? Did they torque them to spec, with load on them? Otherwise those bushings will wear out very quickly.

Get alignment done and drive a few 100 miles before further judgements. Tires take a while to adapt to new settings, people overlook that often.

As mentioned before, did you check the rear axle?

[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by B-Buster

Did they use OEM arms or Lemforder? Did they torque them to spec, with load on them? Otherwise those bushings will wear out very quickly.

Get alignment done and drive a few 100 miles before further judgements. Tires take a while to adapt to new settings, people overlook that often.

As mentioned before, did you check the rear axle?

They did use lemforder control arms. I wasn’t back there to watch them but they are a reputable shop that only works on bmw some I’m putting some faith in them that they installed them correctly. I’m scheduled to get the alignment done at the dealer on Monday. I will ask them to give everything a good shake down while it’s on the rack. I did have the car on jacks today and couldn’t find any play in the rear end. The only thing I noticed was a crack in the bushing that the rear differential mounts to up high on the axle carrier.

[Conserve]

Originally Posted by smokinu454

I did have the car on jacks today and couldn’t find any play in the rear end. The only thing I noticed was a crack in the bushing that the rear differential mounts to up high on the axle carrier.

That is weak point for F10. Worn out bushing(s) will results in damaging rear Guibo if bushing not replaced. Item #8 are usually fine, culprit is item #11

[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by Conserve

That is weak point for F10. Worn out bushing(s) will results in damaging rear Guibo if bushing not replaced. Item #8 are usually fine, culprit is item #11

Well I’ll add it to the list! Definitely a job! Definitely needs to be done, I wish I would have checked out the flex disc while I had it in the air. Doesn’t seem like either would contribute to the wandering / loose feeing right?

[Conserve]

Originally Posted by smokinu454

Well I’ll add it to the list! Definitely a job! Definitely needs to be done, I wish I would have checked out the flex disc while I had it in the air. Doesn’t seem like either would contribute to the wandering / loose feeing right?

No it should not. Don't feel bad. I had mine on jack stand at least 4 time and never checked that bushing because I did not know.....

[smokinu454]

Well the alignment is done. Drove the car 60 miles home. It does feel better but still not nearly as planted as my last S0704 suspension f10 did. Three questions.

1. Could anything tire related cause this even though tires all match, have equal 5/32” tread, and have no visible damage? They are about 2.5 years old.

2. Is there anything that would cause this that would feel worse when the car is cold as opposed to having been on the road for half an hour?

3. Is it possible that I’m just used to the S0704 suspension being firmer and lower and I just need to pull the trigger on coilovers lol?

[B-Buster]

Tires need more than 60 miles to adjust to the new settings.

Normal suspension will never veel as planted as the 704 m-sport as that comes also with thicker anti-roll bars.

Does your car have Dynamic Drive / Adaptive Drive? If so, the anti-roll bar is loose when driving straight. I do notice a difference on bad roads, if I put mine in sport so the bars front and back are firmed up it tracks much better.

[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by B-Buster

Tires need more than 60 miles to adjust to the new settings.

Normal suspension will never veel as planted as the 704 m-sport as that comes also with thicker anti-roll bars.

Does your car have Dynamic Drive / Adaptive Drive? If so, the anti-roll bar is loose when driving straight. I do notice a difference on bad roads, if I put mine in sport so the bars front and back are firmed up it tracks much better.

I’m at around 80miles now and it seems to be settling in a little more. Hopefully after i put another 400 on it this weekend it will feel like it should. My car is not adaptive, just the standard suspension. Looks like a set of coilovers are in my future lol. I may also start looking into possibly upgrading the anti roll bar. Would the stiffer anti roll bar be worthwhile even before the coilovers?

[B-Buster]

That comes down to personal preference. The thicker anti roll bars will help with the sportiness, while being not so great for comfort. It's probably a mix of upgrades that get you where you will feel happy with the driving dynamics.

Personally since adding the F01 arms and installing the insert for the diff bushing the handling is much improved. I do have Adaptive Drive and in comfort / normal it does wander when the road is bad, in sport that's 90% gone.

Yet my E63 with much less new components does track much nicer. I guess there is a part within the electronic steering that will make it never act like a good old hydraulic setup.

[smokinu454]

I ordered a 30mm front anti sway bar. I am also going to order coilovers but am still deciding on what to get. I honestly was pretty happy with my old S0704 suspension so I dont think I need anything too crazy. I am leaning towards the ST x coilovers and plan on setting them as high as I can (.8" drop in the rear and 1.0" drop in the front). I was thinking KWV1 but from what I've read the ST x are the same thing aside from being galvanized instead of stainless. We dont get much for snow and I usually drive my truck if we do.

[smokinu454]

Well it isn’t fixed. Not sure why but it seems to wander when I start driving but by the time I’ve drive. Around half an hour it seems to tighten up. Not sure if it’s the roads or what. Ideas?

[ChiltiCoatl89]

Originally Posted by smokinu454

Well it isn’t fixed. Not sure why but it seems to wander when I start driving but by the time I’ve drive. Around half an hour it seems to tighten up. Not sure if it’s the roads or what. Ideas?

has the car ever been in any frontal crash accidents?

[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by ChiltiCoatl89

has the car ever been in any frontal crash accidents?

One on carfax that says was minor and the vehicle was still driveable. I figure it wasn’t too bad since all of the control arms I pulled off of the front were original.

[smokinu454]

I think I may be on to something. I had the car aligned on 3-4-24 after I did the front control arms. I later did the rear control arms so i had it aligned again on 3-20-24. I knew the rear end would be way off but I did not touch the front end. I was shocked to see that the before front end alignment on 3-20 did not even come close to matching the alignment that they set on 3-4. Seems to me like this would say that something is loose in the steering. I am going to start with outer tie rod ends since they are cheap. If outer tie rod ends dont fix it, i will let them diagnose it but what else could it be other than the actual steering rack? Thoughts? Check out the alignment pics and let me know what you guys think.

[B-Buster]

Why replace before the actual issue is found?

The Toe difference can be there because the steering wheel was just a bit off from center. Not a reason to throw new tie rod ends to it unless you can feel them having play in it.

Somewhat interesting is that on the 1st allignment the camber F-R was positive and at the 2nd one is the same. You cannot adjust the camber, the upper arms and the lower arms dicate this position. A difference so small can also be the way the allignment sensor is mounted to the wheel.
It does show that they send you on your way with the right wheel having out-of-spec camber, so the settings were not completely optimal. BMW sells correction arms with either a bit more or less camber to be able to correct that. You can get these ones also from Lemförder. Meyle has one with adjustable camber but that's a brand I don't want on my car.

I also ordered one for the front right wheel a few years ago as that one had a bit less camber in comparisation to the left wheel. On LHD you don't want the right wheel to have a tad more compared to left as most roads are sloped to the right.

[smokinu454]

Originally Posted by B-Buster

Why replace before the actual issue is found?

The Toe difference can be there because the steering wheel was just a bit off from center. Not a reason to throw new tie rod ends to it unless you can feel them having play in it.

Somewhat interesting is that on the 1st allignment the camber F-R was positive and at the 2nd one is the same. You cannot adjust the camber, the upper arms and the lower arms dicate this position. A difference so small can also be the way the allignment sensor is mounted to the wheel.
It does show that they send you on your way with the right wheel having out-of-spec camber, so the settings were not completely optimal. BMW sells correction arms with either a bit more or less camber to be able to correct that. You can get these ones also from Lemförder. Meyle has one with adjustable camber but that's a brand I don't want on my car.

I also ordered one for the front right wheel a few years ago as that one had a bit less camber in comparisation to the left wheel. On LHD you don't want the right wheel to have a tad more compared to left as most roads are sloped to the right.

So I can’t see any play but when I grab either front wheel at 3 and 9 and try to twist abruptly, I hear a metallic pop sound. I can’t tell if it’s a tie rod end or in the rack itself. I figure at 93k miles most of the suspension would benefit from a refresh anyways. I’m planning to do the tie rod and ends as soon as they get here. If I let it down and it still pops I will try to adjust the tension on the rack.

The camber on that front corner was only there after the new front control arms were put on so I just assumed one was a tiny bit out of spec. I may get a set of adjustable uppers in the future to remedy that.

I sort of thought about the steering wheel being off center but even if you straightened the wheel it seems the numbers would still be off from the previous alignment by a bit. I could be wrong about that though.

[smokinu454]

Well it went to the dealer today and they couldn’t find any issues so I’m once again at a loss. Wondering if I would benefit from having them align the car again but have them go as far toed in as they can while staying within factory spec. I’ve read that more toe in can reduce wandering and improve straight line stability. Thought?

[windowmaker]

I'm having a similar issue with wandering on 550i after I replaced my differential bushings with the powerflex purple ones. When I get on/off the gas at highway speeds there is an unusual shift/clunk and the steering kind of darts. I've gotten in one situation in the wet where this initiated a slip on the highway and almost went into the barrier. I had to counter steer to save it. Had no such behavior before changing to these bushings.

[smokinu454]

The car is currently in having the entire steering rack replaced plus new tie rods/ends installed. I will post back next week and update the thread if that fixes the issue.

[smokinu454]

Update: Car is still very unsteady/not planted/twitchy on the highway, feels like there is constantly a cross wind.

My local indy has no advice. The local dealer said they thought it was the steering rack but couldnt say for sure. We replaced the steering rack, and did alignment #5 , not the problem.

So far I have replaced all front control arms, sway bar, sway bar links, tie rods, tie rod ends, entire steering rack, all rear control arms except the large lower arms. I have also installed another entire set of wheels and tires.

I've had the car on jacks more time than I can count and still cannot find anything loose.

Im about at the end of my rope with it.