[playmobilboy]

Hello, just looking for if someone can confirm my car is running normal.

Everytime after cornering to right or left, my steering wheel will not return to completely straight as it will be a little bit leaning to left or right depend on my turn was left or right. I have to manually adjust it a bit to get it straight. Is anyone having the same situation as me or the steeling wheel should be able to completely back to straight without touching it?

My car just done the wheel alignment by BMW but it seems the steering is not as stable as before. Thinking if I should go back again.

Thanks

[playmobilboy]

Anyone can share experience? Thanks

[DRIVE'R]

still waiting for my one, so sorry cant help u there

[ovekvam]

The steering centering torque depends a lot on the tire type. On my previous cars I have had sets of tires with no centering torque at. Once I set the car up in a turn, I could take my hands off the steering wheel, and would continue turning. With the same alignment, other sets had plenty of centering torque.

The two factors in the suspension that affects the centering most, is the caster angle and the wheel offset. I doubt that BMW would have changed any of those. They are probably not even adjustable without replacing parts.

If there is a strong centering torque, and the steering wheel still doesn't return to center, there could be too much friction somewhere in the steering system. Maybe a bearing tightened too hard, or something that is rubbing. This is easy to test by lifting the front of the car off the ground and steering from side to side.

[playmobilboy]

Thanks ovekvam, you are really expert.

My car is exactly the case, it has strong centring torque but just the steering wheel doesn't return to very centre. Perhaps BMW has helped me tightening something. I am also not sure if this is due to the Continental run flat tire wore out (7000km now)

I am not experience enough to determine if there is a problem of the car or myself, I just feel it is hard to run straight on highway and I have to slightly adjust the steering wheel from time to time

[ovekvam]

I guess the runflat tires are extra prone to tramlining when wearing out, due to the stiff sidewalls. When there are shallow grooves where everybody have driven, the tires will usually try to climb out of these. This is a big problem in Norway, where a lot of cars drive with studded winter tires that wear down our roads.

To help make the steering more stable, you could increase the tire pressures (decreases tire wear, but will give you less grip) or add some extra toe in (also increases tire wear).