Help - Wobbly Steering at speed

R

RX-78

Active member
 Liverpool
Hi guys,I wonder if you could help.

Just picked up my first zed from dealer in London. Very happy with the car and ecstatic about the looks :D

Had a slight concern on the way home though - when driving at speed, say 70mph+ ish, the sterring becomes all wobbly and the feed back becomes very soft. The car becomes slightly difficult to controll because of this, and putting on the sport mode makes no difference. The steering feels fine at lower speed with good feed back and stability.

Am I being a bit stupid as this is the first proper sports car I've owned or is this a known problem?
 
Take it back and get it sorted, was it a main dealer?

Look at the obvious such as wheel balance etc. I find mine feels light at high speed in a straight line and know others on here have posted the same.

Think it is better now with non RFT's
 
Thanks! Unfortunately my supplying dealer is in London and I've just done a 4 hour trip to take the zed back home. Dont really know if my local BMW will sort it out as they are a different chain.

One saving grace is AUC warrenty I suppose :) Hope they wont complain about having to look at a car just a day out of dealership from another francise.....
 
The car should feel very secure and easy to control. The only time this is not the case is if you pick up a rut in the road such as the inside lane on some motorways.

Your local dealer is likely to be happy to take the car out for a quick drive to check it out but you would probably be happier trying another car for comparison.
 
Is it just tramlining - theyre known to do this on the standard Bridgestone RE050 Runflats. Have a search on this...

1st Google Result for Tramlining: (Love the way theres a pic of a Z4 on this page!! :roll: :poke: )
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=47
 
Thanks for the advice guys! I was wondering if it was tramlining - and I certainly got a bit of that on some roads.

But this kinda feels different - as if the steering was becoming less engaging and feed back/response very soft. And only seems to be a problem (or may be I just notice it more) at higher speed. Difficult to explain as I'm a newbie...

Will give the supplier a call and see what he says I think - might take up beaver's advice for peace of mind :)
 
if it's from a main dealer you have AUC warranty so your local dealer has to help, i bought my car from a dealer over 100 miles away even though my dealer is only 1/2 a mile away, and my previous car was also not bought from them. At the end of the day they get paid for warranty work so they wont care where the car came from.
 
srhutch is right on this, @ 60 - 70 mph .. sounds like a wheel balancing issue, which isn't a major prob.
If it's something else, either way it's a AUC - YOUR local UK dealer has to get involved :wink:
 
Aye, I think you guys are right! Spoke to my supplying dealer who said it's because of rear wheel drive and its normal etc. He may be right but somehow I dont think it is.

Will take it to my local dealer and see what they say - will keep you updated.

Thanks again for all ya help :)
 
Aye, I was a little disappointed with the way it felt at speed but glad to know thats not normality - will get it sorted I think.

It handles really well around corners at low (as in 40ish) speed. I've not felt so safe in my previous car (Mini) and nor did my missus:oops: but the zed feels like it will never slip out!
 
Just an update: Booked the car for local dealer to be looked at next week - the reception girl said no prob, just mention it to the service manager (as the car is booked for cup holder repair) butI'm sure they'll try and fob me off when I get there :x

Reading on some USA sites, Z4's steering rack seems to have prob in hot weather - not that M6 gets unusually sunny on Mondays - but some of the guys seems to be describing some of what I was experiencing. But they sounded like oler (pre-face lift) models so not sure if it is the same....
 
If it helps then you are about to embark on trying to cure a very difficult problem and probably partly linked to there being inherent steering faults ont he Z4 front set up (only cured when the new model was launched)

I would describe it as between 60 and 80 there is a slight input to the steering which you as a driver correct giving the senstaion almost of the car wobling slowly left to right.

Mine developed this about 9 months ago and it's proved impossible to cure completely. The change to non RFT's modification of the tyre pressures and a different geo set up and significantly reduced, but not eliminated it. Poly bushes on the front have not noticably furhter helped.

The problem is nothing to do with rear wheel drive and equally it's not tramlining where the stiff sidewall of the rft tyre combined with wide tread and low profile makes it want to follow grooves and ruts, in particular HGV tyre lines on dual and motorway.

Since I'm out of warranty I have not tried a new column where there are rumours that the motor or sensitivity of the column is faulty.

Of course get them to test wheel balance, trueness of wheels and geo set up but be prepared for it not being cured by that.

Good luck, don't be fobbed off and let me know how you get on.
 
Thanks for the detailed info CJ! It sounds a little depressing having just bought it this week though. If I knew this was a prob, I would have insisted on extended test drive on motorway.

What you are describing above sounds very much like what I felt - its as though I'm struggling to keep the car in a straight line.

Thankfully its AUC so I should be able to get it sorted without costing too much. I'm happy with everything else so hope it gets sorted!
 
This is the main thing that stuck out for me when I drove the Z4M. How much better the steering was at speed.
The Nissan 370Z I drove at the weekend was even better than that! :thumbsup:

It is something on the standard Z4 that does feel a little alarming at first, but you do get used to it. I had a habit of always driving around with one hand on the wheel (I know, I know!!) in the MINI's I had but that was OK, even at speed because the steering directness and input was so precise on the MINI. If I tried that in my Z4 at speed, I'd be off into a hedge!!

I did find it was no problem in the 370Z though. Very MINI like in it's steering.
 
Breaker, Thanks for that :thumbsup: I drive with one hand too and as my last car was Mini, may be I was expecting same handling or better.

I was going at about 50mph today and from around there I'd be too scared to drive one hand I think.....
 
I've got to get into this discussion. I've owned my '96 Z4 3.0i for about three years. After my first tire change I noticed this problem. That also happened to coincide with a loose tower strut that was corrected by the dealer (I hope I'm right in saying tower strut. I'm not the mechanical type but I think that's what I remember it being). I gave it a few weeks and went back telling them that the car was just unsafe at high speed. It should feel stuck to the road and now I feel like I am constantly pulling or pushing it. I feel like there is a lag between the tires and my steering wheel. They kept it for the day and said that they replaced "something" (sorry, don't remember). It felt a little better but the car still felt wrong.

I took it back a few weeks later and asked for a mechanic to drive with me. I told him that I knew the car. I knew what it felt like and it was much better than it currently is. I explained that it was fun to drive and now it is work to drive. After a few minutes on the freeway he told me that it felt right to him but that he'd go back and look at it. As you can imagine, it was no different when I picked it up.

This goes back 9 months now. I'd like to take it to another dealer who isn't much farther down the road but I want to make sure that I can explain the problem in way that gets it corrected. CJ10jeeper seems to have hit the nail on the head. I would really prefer not to buy another set of tires since they are relatively new and considering the car felt fine with that tire on it for two years prior. As I re-read his post I think that it was bushing that they said they had replaced so I agree that isn't it either. I'm also reading the motor sensitivity being fault... Where can I read more about this? Do you think that could be why the tires and steering wheel feel out of sync? Hmmm... that might be the next place for me to begin my fight. I've still got warranty and I know this isn't right but when the mechanic says "feels fine" I don't know where else to go other than to say "no it doesn't". But now they look at me like chicken little screaming about the falling sky.

Any other suggestions of what is causing this feeling. Obviously I am not the only one. (oh, and it's not tramlining. I get that. This isn't my first sportscar. I know the feel. I understand grooves in the road. I remember how this car once felt.)
 
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