[530iDriver]

Originally Posted by Warp Ten

Good information on the need to have the steering wheel centered. I will talk with my guys at the dealership when I return from my trip and will raise this question to whomever did the alignment. As I had noted the steering wheel is still turned a little to the left even after the trip to the dealer. I remember the days when if you had this problem you just popped the steering wheel off and re-positioned on the splines (think old British cars)! No longer. Also good point on left vs. right turns. I have been focusing on right turns. As I noted, the steering wheel is turned a little to the left. If, when driving straight, I try to center it the cars drifts right. I wonder if this produces an extra emphasis on a right turn, making it be less self centering. Will try to pay attention on lefts as well. Lastly, I did not order any special steering so I have whatever came standard with the 540xi M Sport package. Thanks--Bob

Ask them to provide you a before and after alignment printout report from the BMW KDS System.

I have the dealer align my cars every couple of years and always request the printout for my records.

[maxpavlov]

I would like to add what seems to be a bit of re-confirmation to the initial story. It is important that an interested party takes time to read through as it may very well be that it is not the problem with the vehicle is being discussed by the author of this thread, but actually the feeling that a non-malfunctioning G30 feeds to a driver.

I've picked up my 2017 540iX G30 in August of 2017.
It seemed to steer perfectly as it was from the factory. Perfectly for 9 months exactly.
On my way to a country house, I hit a pothole with the right side, both front and rear wheels. The sound was just above normal bump on a pothole, so I started to worry if I have damaged something. Steering feel was the same.

Several weeks have passed.

One day it seemed for a moment that my car's rear right wheel has "slept" outwards to the right on a perfectly straight road. Then nothing noticeable appeared, but the precedent was set.

I went to a dealer to get the situation checked. They did the wheel alignment, checked if the rubber was damaged, etc. As an outcome, they said my rear shock absorber needs to be replaced by warranty and some alignment was fixed.

After two minutes of driving home, I instantly noticed - they've centered the wheel much to the right. It was indeed centered to the left a bit from the factory, and it felt correct and fantastic that way.

So I drove for two weeks and the only thing that was bothering me was the terribly mis-centered steering wheel.

I got the shock absorber (yes, only one as the other one's were fine at around 12.000 km.) replaced and the car started to feel softer. But still "straight" if I had the steering wheel centered to the right.

After two more weeks, I started to notice some strange steering feel. As if the car failed to go where I was leading it to, but just slightly. I called a dealer to ask to fix the wheel position. They insisted that we do the suspension check so I agreed. By their inspection - all was good, they aligned the wheel as I've shown them. I exactly remembered where the "center" was set.

The car drove perfectly for about 4 kilometers. Then, I started to observe the following:

- I was able to go straight if I only center the wheel a bit to the right from what it was set to be center-straight by the dealer on a KDS stand.
- When I was changing lanes on a road that has a slight or bigger tilt, the rear wheels seemed to end up misplaced. I had to apply additional steering effort to align the car where I wanted it within the tilted lane.

I went to the dealer again to get the alignment (that is what they've offered hearing out my complains). The car acted fine again for 4-5 kilometers of a way and I started to observe the described above and the additional feeling which I will try to express:

- It feels as if the car has lost the sharpness of its ability to steer.
- It feels like the car started to change its geometry depending on what maneuver I performed previously. One moment having the steering wheel positioned approximately 5 degrees to the left leads the car exactly "this much" to the left. In 500 meters of driving the same position of a steering wheel leads the car to the right! And so on. It seems like an electric steering rack controls my wheels unevenly, not in exact response to steering wheel positioning.

And the cherry on the cake:

I began to have a constant feeling that the car tends to drift to the right with its rear axle. As if it is holding strong on the left but when any force that can lead it to the right appears, it immediately is capable of shifting the car's rear axle position. This has an effect on a need to counter-steer to stabilize the car.

From a driver's perspective, it now seems that when the car actually drives straight, the body of the car is pointing slightly to the left, since the rear axle is shifted to the right.

Now you will ask "I was complaining about the ability of the steering wheel to go back to "straight" position after turning"?
I never even bothered that the steering wheels needs constant adjustment to be put to "straight" since I almost never knew where the actual "straight is" now after so many alignment attempts. But I do confirm the problems you describe are present. Its just nothing important when other "feelings" start to come into play.

My friends and the dealer personnel are confident - my car is perfectly fine and drives as it should. But when I compare it with a test drive one - it's night and day the way it steers and is able to go straight.

If you start to develop any of the above-described feelings, know this: most likely it's just how BMW designs its 5 series. Not the actual problem with the assembly or components.

[clee1982]

or are you saying it needs to be slightly to the realign to slightly left?

[maxpavlov]

@clee1982 My main problem is that at some point it feels like the rear axle have shifted to the right (it is even possible on the speed of 1km/h, on a very very slow movement on a relatively good road) and thus I need to counter-steer to proceed where I was headed a moment ago.

My main points for the author were:

1. A steering wheel is centered to a slightly left position from the factory. And eventually, he will know that this is the best position possible.
2. Since he is focusing on a car's ability to "get back to straight" most likely everything is okay with the car since real "bothering" may come later with the "feels" I've described above.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by clee1982

or are you saying it needs to be slightly to the realign to slightly left?

I'm not following why a steering wheel should be slightly off centre. No sense at all, if a chassis tracks straight and true. For me, the steering wheel should be on-centre while driving straight, and no pull (or drift) should be felt on a flat surface.

You should be able to let go of the wheel and the car will track straight, the steering wheel stay on-centre.

In my experience of almost 50-years, it is poor alignment calibration (or wear) which causes steering precision issues. Any error or wear is amplified on cambered surfaces.

[Warp Ten]

Originally Posted by maxpavlov

I would like to add what seems to be a bit of re-confirmation to the initial story. It is important that an interested party takes time to read through as it may very well be that it is not the problem with the vehicle is being discussed by the author of this thread, but actually the feeling that a non-malfunctioning G30 feeds to a driver.

I've picked up my 2017 540iX G30 in August of 2017.
It seemed to steer perfectly as it was from the factory. Perfectly for 9 months exactly.
On my way to a country house, I hit a pothole with the right side, both front and rear wheels. The sound was just above normal bump on a pothole, so I started to worry if I have damaged something. Steering feel was the same.

Several weeks have passed.

One day it seemed for a moment that my car's rear right wheel has "slept" outwards to the right on a perfectly straight road. Then nothing noticeable appeared, but the precedent was set.

I went to a dealer to get the situation checked. They did the wheel alignment, checked if the rubber was damaged, etc. As an outcome, they said my rear shock absorber needs to be replaced by warranty and some alignment was fixed.

After two minutes of driving home, I instantly noticed - they've centered the wheel much to the right. It was indeed centered to the left a bit from the factory, and it felt correct and fantastic that way.

So I drove for two weeks and the only thing that was bothering me was the terribly mis-centered steering wheel.

I got the shock absorber (yes, only one as the other one's were fine at around 12.000 km.) replaced and the car started to feel softer. But still "straight" if I had the steering wheel centered to the right.

After two more weeks, I started to notice some strange steering feel. As if the car failed to go where I was leading it to, but just slightly. I called a dealer to ask to fix the wheel position. They insisted that we do the suspension check so I agreed. By their inspection - all was good, they aligned the wheel as I've shown them. I exactly remembered where the "center" was set.

The car drove perfectly for about 4 kilometers. Then, I started to observe the following:

- I was able to go straight if I only center the wheel a bit to the right from what it was set to be center-straight by the dealer on a KDS stand.
- When I was changing lanes on a road that has a slight or bigger tilt, the rear wheels seemed to end up misplaced. I had to apply additional steering effort to align the car where I wanted it within the tilted lane.

I went to the dealer again to get the alignment (that is what they've offered hearing out my complains). The car acted fine again for 4-5 kilometers of a way and I started to observe the described above and the additional feeling which I will try to express:

- It feels as if the car has lost the sharpness of its ability to steer.
- It feels like the car started to change its geometry depending on what maneuver I performed previously. One moment having the steering wheel positioned approximately 5 degrees to the left leads the car exactly "this much" to the left. In 500 meters of driving the same position of a steering wheel leads the car to the right! And so on. It seems like an electric steering rack controls my wheels unevenly, not in exact response to steering wheel positioning.

And the cherry on the cake:

I began to have a constant feeling that the car tends to drift to the right with its rear axle. As if it is holding strong on the left but when any force that can lead it to the right appears, it immediately is capable of shifting the car's rear axle position. This has an effect on a need to counter-steer to stabilize the car.

From a driver's perspective, it now seems that when the car actually drives straight, the body of the car is pointing slightly to the left, since the rear axle is shifted to the right.

Now you will ask "I was complaining about the ability of the steering wheel to go back to "straight" position after turning"?
I never even bothered that the steering wheels needs constant adjustment to be put to "straight" since I almost never knew where the actual "straight is" now after so many alignment attempts. But I do confirm the problems you describe are present. Its just nothing important when other "feelings" start to come into play.

My friends and the dealer personnel are confident - my car is perfectly fine and drives as it should. But when I compare it with a test drive one - it's night and day the way it steers and is able to go straight.

If you start to develop any of the above-described feelings, know this: most likely it's just how BMW designs its 5 series. Not the actual problem with the assembly or components.

Thanks for that; a great description of a similar situation to my own. Always nice to find out you are not actually going crazy. I just returned from a 3,500 mile trip in the 540xi. Overall the car drove very well. The steering wheel is definitely aligned slightly to the left and I will check with the dealer about centering it better. On the issue of vague tracking, either I am just getting used to it or the car seems to be tracking a little better. It still has not got the self centering ability after a turn that I am used to from other cars, although I suppose I am getting used to that as well. The self centering is primarily a function of the caster setting which, as I discovered and noted in an earlier thread, is fixed on these cars and not adjustable.

I am starting to think that the problems I have may be more a function of the electric steering than anything else. I have always felt that there is limited feel and feedback from this type of steering, and I feel it is artificially weighted to provide a "sporty" feel to it. (I drive in Sport mode most of the time; steering is so artificially heavily weighted when in "Sport" mode that I have set my individual Sport settings to have steering at the "Comfort" level rather than "Sport." To me it is not the finest feature of this car. Strictly speculation but it seems like BMW just added some extra friction to the steering system (increased in Sport mode) that may impact the self centering and the vague feel when driving straight. I liked the steering on my E60 2010 535xi much better. I have not hit any potholes with the car and it only (now) has about 4,800 miles on it. The alignment was and is within spec as noted earlier. I will try to make a conscious effort to pay more attention to the self centering after turns to see if it is more pronounced on right vs left ones. Haven't done that yet.

The only other item that came up on the trip is that the lane change warning indicator would turn off occasionally on a random basis and the lane change wheel shaker would cease to function. Seemed like the blind spot detector would also turn off but once it seemed to work when the lane change indicator was off. Puzzling. Almost seems like a loose power connector. Since it is intermittent and random I am sure the dealer will find nothing wrong but I will try anyway. Most to the trip it worked fine. Will start a separate thread on that. --Bob

[Libtech75]

I have to agree with you. The car wanders unless you make an effort to keep on center. It's been a while since I've been in a BMW, the new M550I I just picked up is my first since a 2013 X3 that we had and that's a completely different animal.

My only recent comparison is the S6 I just got out of, and this M550 definitely does not keep center by itself well. Not a deal breaker but I do find it annoying that if I take my hand off the wheels for a millisecond it immediately starts to pull to one side. It's been like this since day one by the way, and it's the same on the stock 20" and my winter 19" so it's not the tires and it's not the wheels nor is it any type of alignment issue.

Originally Posted by Warp Ten

Since I picked up my 2019 540xi in November I have noticed that the steering is not very good at self centering. When I go around a corner it tends to keep turning when I let go of the wheel instead of self centering. When I am running straight and move the wheel slightly it tends to stay in that direction rather than self centering like my other cars always did. So I took it in to the dealer today for an alignment check assuming that the caster setting needed adjustment, maybe a little more positive setting to achieve better steering action (Most manufacturers set it between 1 degree and 3 degrees positive I have read). So I will find out what they tell me when I pick it up. But while I was there I went to talk with a couple of techs I know (I used to work there) and mentioned the problem. One tech said that the G30 has a fixed caster--no adjustment. If so I am not sure them can improve my situation. My Service adviser did not mention this, and I don't know if it is in fact true but I trust these guys so it may well be. Anyone else had an issue with the steering not self centering well? And if so what was the fix, if any? I will post my results when I get my car back.--Bob

[clee1982]

Are we talking about 2 different things? In my case (540) steering wheel center well in the it won't drift kind of way, but the after you have turned and waiting for steering to center itself back is quite "artificial" (compare to BMW from the 90s), I have to steer back a bit more myself

[AP]

Interesting as I personally find the steering better in respect staying straight compared to my previous f10 which despite a kids alignment always pulled slight to the left. My g30 in comparison just sits in the centre of the lane on motorways without much intervening.
Agree about feedback though that it's lacking and nowhere as good as the steering on my e39 530i.

I don't have an issue with mine self cantering either.

So other than lack of feel I feel it to be pretty good. Personally prefer the sport steering weighting even if it doesn't add to the feel just think the steering in the comfort mode to be way too light and just adds to that feeling of. Or knowing what the front wheels are doing.