steering weirdness

[DMZ4]

2008 3.0si had the lower control arms/bushings replaced by dealership. The car feels as if it is chasing ruts in the road. The dealership tells me I should replace my Batt as its old and failed its test. When I noted i would do it my self as i like optima Batteries. They told me I can as the battery needs to be logged in with the computer and the steering needs to be adjusted after. Does anyone know if this battery failing the test could cause the steering issues?

[GuidoK]

The battery doesnt need coding in the computer for the e8x z4 chassis (that feature first came with the e9x I believe).
As long as you can start the car I cant imagine that the electric steerign column has problems with the power supply. The alternator can provide enough power.
Optima batteries are great but they're not a straight fit in the battery box I believe as they have a different footprint which isnt 1:1 compatible with the z4's battery clamping system, so that'll probably need some modification.
You can get inserts in the batterybox to switch between 80A/70A/60A battery sizes (I believe H5/H6/H7 size)
For a new battery (with different size) you also have to take into account that the positive and negative pole are on the correct side. The leads to the battery in the z4 are not very flexible and swapping them around sounds easy but it isnt. The positive lead has a stiff assemby connected to it that contains an explosive charge.

If its all over the road after having done work to the undercarriage, it probably needs an alignment (perhaps it has been aligned before with the worn control arms)

[greg81]

My car was tramlining like crazy recently until replaced the track rods and did the tracking.

All sorted now

[williamdefender]

My tramlining on e60 / e90 and the e85 was all caused by the runflats. Goodyear eagles f1 fitted on all cars and problem gone , Totally transformed the drive .

[ph001]

They told me I can as the battery needs to be logged in with the computer and the steering needs to be adjusted after.

That’s pretty shockingly poor info from a dealer and either knows nothing about the car or is just trying to steal money off you by providing false info.

[DMZ4]

Wow thank you for the info. the dealer did a whole front end check and alignment when they changed the lower a arms. It reminds me of my wifes 83 jeep CJ we had to lower the pressure in the tires to around 30ish and the tracking stopped. (my wife just reminded me of this last night) I do have run flats but they are not matched. the front and the back are from 2 different manufactures. I had F1s on my 2010 Dodge Challenging Loved them! So I am going to go to the F1s as soon as i pay off the repairs. Thank you all so much! this is my first BMW and I am still learning all the in and outs of them.