Floating, pull, tram line maybe?

[Firstbmw528]

E39 528i with new falken tires new non weighted alignment.

Brand new struts, bearing plates, front and rear control arms and ball joints. Complete overhaul. New rack and pinion. Flushed power steering.

As a note I do have a bent rim in the rear that causes a vibration from 70-75.

My car seems to float from side to side in the lane I feel like I constantly have to correct it. It feels at high speeds like the wind is blowing me around.

Is this an alignment issue? Or a possible rim issue? I haven’t had a chance to switch sides on the front rim.

Side note it seems my steering wheel is about an 1/8 inch from straight as well.

I’ve done searches but can’t seems to find many resolutions most had bad suspension components and as mine are all new that would be unlikely and frustrating.

[JimLev]

How's the rear ball joints? Have you ever checked or replaced them?

[philly98540]

Front is toed out too far or rear ball joints are the likely culprits.

[6spd540]

I had a similar symptom after refreshing all my steering linkage, the combination of all new tight bushings(normal for new) and idler bushing(I think this was main culprit but you don't have this on your racked car) made so the self centering didn't fully work so I was fighting to keep car straight for awhile. While things did move freely it was noticeable tighter. Spirited driving on windy roads seemed to improve it and after a few tanks or so it was back to normal.

Some tires tram line a lot more than others and if you having these issues on rain groved roads then it may be the new tires. The old directional Falken tires were the second worst I've ever ran mine for tram lining, since they've been long discontinued yours are likely different but could be just as bad or even worse.

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[geargrinder]

Steering wheel mis-align is a telltale warning sign.

Either you still have other parts failing / sloppy and the shop didn't catch them... and/or...
They are just poor/sloppy shop in general and didn't bother to get the wheel alignment right.
Would make me worry if they did other stuff right like putting the car on the ground before final torque etc.

Beyond that 6sp540's tips are good too, but it doesn't explain bad wheel alignment, just a potential source of the floating.

And you don't say what falkens you have but with a few exceptions they don't always have the best rep... if they were a budget falken tire... they might not be helping...

[Firstbmw528]

Thanks for the replies the rear ball joints are new.

I did the suspension refresh and did torque the bushings under load.

The steering wheel made me worried about how sloppy the alignment could have been as well.

Falken ziex ze950 are the tires.

Thanks for the suggestions I am fairly certain the alignment plays a huge role I just wanted to rule out my bent rim and other possibilities before I bought another alignment.

[777300ER]

Rear lower ball joints. Fought the same thing and they were the culprit.

[Firstbmw528]

Thanks for your experience that would be frustrating considering mine have less than 1000 miles.

[Firstbmw528]

Hopefully will be taking the car in to have the alignment checked this week. I don’t seem to have any strange wear on the tires.

The suspension components shouldn’t have any issues.

[Firstbmw528]

The steering wheel also doesn’t return to center very well either.

[sleuth255]

sounds like your alignment job was a POS.

[philly98540]

Likely toed out too much.

[Firstbmw528]

That’s what I’m thinking too as soon as I can I’m going to get it checked by another shop. Though tonight I notice there isn’t a way to put the steering wheel it goes straight I pretty much have to constantly adjust back and forth.

I also can’t seem to park it straight no matter what it’s at an angle.

So I plan on checking air pressures, getting an alignment check and switching sides in the front tires to try and isolate the issue

[StephenVA]

Everyone is on the right track in providing some insight and suggestions from far away. Any competent shop can resolve this issue as a STRAIGHT steering wheel is the min level of an alignment done correctly.
Excessive toe in will magnify this issue. As will worn bearings, worn bushings, rack, tie rod ends (replaced both right? Inner and outer on your rack?) etc. if all replaced, then you should be golden. As a new rack (not rebuilt -right?) should come with new inner and outer tie rod ends. There is an pinion adjustment on the rack that "could cause a too tight setting" not allowing the rack to return to straight. Again a good shop can set it.
Rear toe settings: close to the min setting will give you good tire wear while maintaining good handling. Love to see your final settings. They did provide it, yes?

Poor alignment shops will attempt to set the toe and let it go to make up for lack of skills to gain $$$$$.

Sub note, air pressure + - 2 psi may resolve the traming/tracking issues AFTER the alignment has been confirmed. Or it maybe it was always doing it due to rail road ruts in your area but the worn suspension parts hid the effects.
End of thoughts from far far away....

My crystal ball is getting weaker due to the diminishing sunlight.

Good luck and post your status and resolution so others may learn from your experiences.

[StephenVA]

The inability to park straight is the result of he optical issue with the wheel being out of correct orientation or local "Bay area issue" with the word STRAIGHT. Your car your choice.


OR the front and rear wheels are NOT pointed in the same direction. parallel issue called crabbing as the front and rear are off by a few degrees straight from each other.

This is an alignment failure or the car is too bent to align. Again see shop tech for answers.

[Firstbmw528]

Wow thanks for the wealth of info I will have to grab the spec sheet once I get my alignment check and yes inner and outer tie rods are new as well.

Sounds to me like I made a poor choice on the first shop.

[Firstbmw528]

IMG_0464.jpg IMG_0466.jpg

Before after

it definitely looks like I made a mistake with the first shop cant wait to hit the highway and test it out.

[Aussie528iT]

From my limited knowledge:
On the first sheet the RH front is toeing in and the LH front is toeing out.
To achieve this feat the tie rod lengths will be unequal - not good.
The total is about right but the steering wheel will be offset to the right when the steering is centred. (car not moving)
The rear toe settings are not equal and the thrust centre is tending to push the car right at the rear which will make it crab to the right which points the front of the car to the left.
To correct this tendency you need to steer to the right.

The second sheet still has the RH front toeing in and the LH front toeing out but not by as much as the first.

Specified weighted total front toe in is:
0 deg, +5 min, 0 sec +/- 10 min. (1 min is 1/60 deg)
On a 17" wheel with 235/45 tyre measured at 540 mm centres on the sidewall, its about 1mm. (1mm is approx. 0.040")
Unweighted add another 1 mm. (As the suspension is weighted down the toe in reduces slightly.)
BMW specify in the TIS that to stop wandering set total toe to toe out max limit ie: -5min.

The steering tie rod lengths have to be the same otherwise the toe out on turns will be wrong and tyre wear increases.
As you turn left, the LH front wheel travels through a smaller circumference circle than the RH front wheel.
To take this into account the LH toe in has to reduce and tend towards toe out to a small amount.

In the "good old days before airbags" it was too easy to reposition the steering wheel on the steering column so it pointed straight rather than spend some time getting the tie rod ends the same length.

Having said all this its not an exact science due to manufacturing tolerances, wear, minor bending/damage if you hit a large pothole etc.

Hope this helps
RonR

[Firstbmw528]

Wow that was quite a bit of information I will say I have barely driven it since the alignment but it feels worlds better.

Before I was constantly steering the car on my almost 40 mile commute it was exhausting

[geargrinder]

All makes sense. That first one was terrible! 3 tires wanting to going left, one rear wanting to go right... Yah that splains.

[JimLev]

Tell the first shop you want a refund.
FYI the rear camber is set to BMW spec, just so you know the insides of the tires are going to wear out way before the outside tread.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Just imagine how many other cars leave that shop crooked. Places like that oughtta be shut down. Like Jim says, make copies of that printout and bring it to the dingdong running that shop and show him what his crosseyed alignment boy is putting out.

[Firstbmw528]

Yea I plan to definitely give the shop feedback. I’m also interested to see if after the second shop balancing my wheels if my 70-75 vibration goes away.

Just so everyone knows this was an unweighted alignment.

The front left caster and camber isn’t a concern correct?

Does it point towards any bent body parts since all the suspension parts are new?

[geargrinder]

Re: unweighted,ideally if a shop is good then their machine would bring up 'unweighted' settings that account for the difference from factory weighted. I still prefer the proper weighting myself as it really put the car where your specific car sits, and can account for different specific weight loads - like if you and your wife and 3 kids each weigh 250lbs, vs a 100lb girl driving it solo all the time - instead of some "average loaded car" but for most people its probably fine (again as long as they are using a good machine with unweighted compensation).

However, from what I see those numbers, your new shop used are Factory OEM weighted specs unless their machine makes some invisible translation aka the numbers it's displaying aren't actually measured numbers but are "expected weighted". Honestly that is more of a proper fine tuning factor than a big deal tho. weighting most affects camber, so, Worst case you actually have slightly more neg camber driving around that it shows on the page. Meaning your fronts are going to be a bit more in spec, and the rears might be slightly excessive.

Re the remaining front variation, the camber in front isnt adjustable on stock E39's. Do you have mushroomed shocktowers? As reminded in a recent thread that can happen on these cars.

[Firstbmw528]

That thread is why I asked instead of just ignoring it what do the mushroom shock towers look like.

Strange coincidence I’m unsure if it is related my cruise control suddenly works as expected now.

My vibration at speed is barely noticeable as well seems my wheels were out of balance

Only problem with these great new developments is now I can hear the rattles and groans of my old car.