Folks - I'm a new owner of a 2007 Z4 3.0si coupe and mostly pleased. But ... though the wheels were balanced and a four-wheel alignment done, when driving yesterday on the Interstate, every now and then it felt like the steering was fighting me. At different times, going between 60-75, if I let go of the wheel, sometimes it would drift right and sometimes it would drift left. Not one right after the other, but with time in between. Could this be a suspension problem or a "hiccup" in the electric steering? This squirrelly ness bothers me; I assume it's not normal. Any thoughts? Thanks, David
It is the electric steering over compensating...
Does it feel like its trying to follow the grooves in the road? These cars have an issue with trammeling and mine has done it since I got it back in 2006. Ditching the RFT's helps, and it got A LOT better recently after i replaced my control arms, FCABs, and RTABs.
How many miles? Has the suspension ever been refreshed? If not there are a lot of wear items there - shocks/struts/ control arm bushings, trailing arm bushings, and if it's got runflats on it, for the love of God, get rid of them immediately and replace with quality, conventional tires. As mentioned earlier, runflats are famous for causing "tramlining" on these cars, which causes the tires to try to follow grooves in grooved pavement, or other road imperfections.
'08 Z4 M Coupé LM08602
'19 Golf R
From what I've been reading (mine is doing a minor version of the same thing) that problem could be a DSC related error which is usually caused by wheel speed sensors being off; either from the sensor going bad, or from reading the wheel speed incorrectly from corrosion/damage on the ABS rings.
The squirrelly feeling going left and right is a classic symptom of worn FACBs (front arm control bushings) and is a common problem with the E85/86 Z4s. It's not that involved of a repair so you should have it checked out. Note that if the FACBs are the problem, you will need to have your alignment redone.
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