Steering wheel wobble above 60. Struggling to find a fault.

[mickl]

Hi guys
I have just read this thread with interest.
I changed my front lollipop bushes before I set out on holiday to France. I noticed that my car was displaying this slight twitch in the steering.
I wasn't aware of this before.
I changed the bushes as a pair as one had been noted as having play on the last inspection.
The bushes I removed where genuine BMW filled with oil or some sort of fluid which I discovered while pulling the bushes with a three leg puller
The new ones are meyle HD which are solid so I can only assume that the damping effect of oil filled bushes helps with the electric steering. Perhaps BMW did this for a reason?
I am considering changing back to genuine.
My car is an alpina with 19 inch wheels and hardly worn Michelin pilot tyres.

Mick

 

[dhobbs]

Have you ruled out the wheel/tyres?
Swapping them left to right or front to back would tell.
what tyres do you have? Some cheap one wear uneven within a thousand miles, try running your hand over the tread and feel for abnormalities.

There are a few threads on here about the steering position sensor, maybe worth a test!

 

[Scooba_Steve]

This issue did not exist a month ago. I've had the car since August last year and it has been perfect and never exhibited this problem. I've driven the same stretch of motorway hundreds of times and the car has never acted this way hence it is nothing to do with the wheels following the camber of the road.

It never did this with the RFTs on and it didn't do this when I put the new wheels and non RFTs on in December. This issue started at the back end of Feb but I can't find anyone that can find anything wrong.

Did you change anything else? It could just be wear and tear e.g. bushes perishing or perhaps a wheel balance weight has come off. Slightly sticking calliper?

 

[Rich8]

Have you had any luck identifying this?
I have exactly what you describe.
Feels like a gentle tugging, happens on the straight but more noticeable on a gentle bend, Doesnt seem to happen on tighter corners with more lock applied.
Only Really notice it when cruising on the motorways and seems to start at about 60.
And oddly also only noticed it happening in the last 4 months or so - I have had the car 2 years (2007 coupe).
Front lower wishbone bushes were replaced in March, started noticing it soon after so maybe the cause but it just doesn't feel like it could be caused by that (or the runflats, or balancing, alignment etc....). Doesn't feel directly caused by anything I can see on the road surface, and doesn't nudge the steering in time with anything else i can identify in the car (wheel rotations, engine speed, road speed etc) - it feels more artificial than that.

Feels to me like there's maybe some kind of glitch in the leccy power steering?
I'm not looking forward to booking it back in and starting the inevitable long and expensive process of systematically replacing parts of the steering and suspension.

 

[riddzz666]

I had this and it was terrible to drive car past 60 mph but if you did it got better after 75 mph
It started when i replaced rear tyres and front bushes(upgraded to polyurethane)
I had people check the tracking and weights on the wheels as it felt like that could be the problem
I then changed front tyres and rear bushes(upgraded to polyurethane)
This made thing a lot better
I have now just changed my Discs and pads and the car is spot on no wobble what so ever from the steering now
Maybe ive been lucky to sort it but car drives like a dream again

Matt

 

[dhobbs]

Do the front bushes have to be put on the arms in a specific position?

The reason I ask is that I had a similar problem and last time I had the wheels off I sprayed all the bushes with silicone spray. This strangely enough had a positive effect. All I can think of is the bush may have moved position a little.
Anyone have any thoughts on this or am I crazy!