E30 Zone

525i sport new front end suspension, New springs front and rear, idler arm, steering centre/outer tie rods, upper and lower control arms, rear dog bones (trailing arm support things) new front anti roll bar links, new clutch 1000's now spent on making it mint,

BUT IT STILL WONT DRIVE IN A STRAIT LINE!

it wonders and follows everything in the road and is not easy to drive as it should be. the rear is sat down on the passenger side slightly lower (bout a finger difference to the drivers side) its just feels horrible to drive unless you go fast round a tight corner it feels as it should i think then plenty of grip etc.

parts that have been changed on the rear is the dog bones, and it feels as if its coming from the rear.

i cant sell it as it owes me well over 3k now and i couldnt bear to break it so the only option is some one on hear who can advise me or lock it up in garidge for a few years why i calm down!

SOME ONE PLEASE HELP ME I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE!!!!!!

THANKS.

Has the car ever been in an accident?

What wheels have you got?

Is the subframe bent?

Wheels as Max says? All BMW parts? Checked the alignment? What tyres are you running?

sounds like you've replaced the obvious, but as Maxfield has asked, what wheels are on it?

From what I have heard E34's do not behave well on 17"+ wheels.

Even big turds like my soarer don't like wrong offsets and can tramline horribly if the track width is too wide from low offsets

it has never had an accident and body wise is solid floor is mint no creases etc, has 17" 235 m contour rondell reps on, tyres are 235 sport contacts rear 225 pirelli p600 fronts i have had the front tracked but never had a 4 wheel alignment done as its pointelss as far as i know as nothing can be adjusted on the rear (please correct me if i am wrong) subfame is strait and true on bad roads its horrid to drive oh and the tyres are 45's

You're wrong. NEVER let anyone near it with just a pair of front wheel tracking gauges unless it's a very temporary measure. Always get a car properly 4-wheel aligned (and not by one of the spotty oiks in Kwik Fit).

There's a specialist place near me where I take my cars, and it makes one hell of a difference.

where is it?????? am in st helens what do they do? is the rear adjustable and how much does it cost do you have experiance with e34's?

do they have a hunter machine?

Are the wheels located on the hubs correctly? The rear subframe mount bushes make these wander across the road terrible

i have heard that but under hard acceleration there is no clunking etc? so i think that can be ruled out i hope as its a big job is it not?

doesnt matter if its not clunking, couldnt tell they were going on my touring until I had the car up on a lift and a pry bar in the right place, made a hell of a difference

if i get under it what should i look for the obvious signs etc?

Subframe mount bushes can correct wheel alignment but must be fitted in response to the results of a 4-wheel laser / radar alignment machine.

But if it's too far out then not even tweaked bushes will help.

Stick some standard 15" BBS on there and see what difference they make

from memory, Rondell are usually E39 fit, so will need spigot rings to fit properly. Tyres, Im having the same problem, but I'm using 22540 17 front on 17x8 and 235 45 17 (I think) on the rear 17x9 and i wander -tramline often. I didn't have this problem when I was running 215 45 17 on 17x8.5 and 235.45 on 17x9.5.

Could it be that the tyres are either too close in contact patch, but different in sidewall (ie: fitting a 255 on a 7inch rim would cause ballooning-I know.. not possible, but an extreme example). Wouldn't this cause a tyre patch lengthwise on the front and width wise on the rear?

Loki_V2 wrote:Subframe mount bushes can correct wheel alignment but must be fitted in response to the results of a 4-wheel laser / radar alignment machine.

But if it's too far out then not even tweaked bushes will help.

How are you going to 'tweak' the bushes?
Are you trying to say you need a wheel alignment to see if the bushes need replacing?

my touring tramlines on low profile tyres but on taller tyres (smaller wheels so the same rolling diameter) it's fine. these old bardges are designed to run on a fairly tall sidewall so messing with this wil upset things a bit.

also, as said above, i'd look at the rear subframe mounts. i stopped on the M25 in my wifes E34 after i could barely hold it in the slow lane, assumed i had a puncture. alas not, it was tramlining with shot rear subframe bushes scary!

despite the fact you can't adjust the rear end, get it checked anyway as it may have had an oversteer kerb swatting incident in it's life without you knowing.

DanThe wrote:

Loki_V2 wrote:Subframe mount bushes can correct wheel alignment but must be fitted in response to the results of a 4-wheel laser / radar alignment machine.

But if it's too far out then not even tweaked bushes will help.

How are you going to 'tweak' the bushes?
Are you trying to say you need a wheel alignment to see if the bushes need replacing?

No.

I thought that with E30's at least, you can correct the front wheels via tie rods as we know, you can also make minor adjustments to the rear wheels if they are slightly out by installing bushes in a way that counters the misalignment.

But you need to know how far you out to know how much to correct.

320ise wrote:where is it?????? am in st helens what do they do? is the rear adjustable and how much does it cost do you have experiance with e34's?

Forge Street in Bootle. The place is called the Balljoint centre. Provided your car is bolted together properly and it's just adjustments you'd be looking around £45 to make it drive nicely.

Wheel Alignment & Balljoint Centre

17 Forth Street
Bootle , Kirkdale
Liverpool, Merseyside L20 8NL
Phone: 0151 9335111

Half crazy Sith Efriken bloke runs it.

Loki_V2 wrote:

DanThe wrote:

Loki_V2 wrote:Subframe mount bushes can correct wheel alignment but must be fitted in response to the results of a 4-wheel laser / radar alignment machine.

But if it's too far out then not even tweaked bushes will help.

How are you going to 'tweak' the bushes?
Are you trying to say you need a wheel alignment to see if the bushes need replacing?

No.

I thought that with E30's at least, you can correct the front wheels via tie rods as we know, you can also make minor adjustments to the rear wheels if they are slightly out by installing bushes in a way that counters the misalignment.

But you need to know how far you out to know how much to correct.

Thats eccentric rear arm bushes, not subframe bushes which will be the probable cause here

Speedtouch wrote:Stick some standard 15" BBS on there and see what difference they make

Penny to a pound of crap, it's the rims causing this. E34's hate anything over a 16" rim. As above put a set of 15" BBS on it and see how it drives then. Theres still a problem then it's time to go looking elswhere. It's pointless replacing everything on the car before ruling out rim issues.

how does that work though when the m5 had 17" standard? does it really make a difference on base range? not saying your wrong as you might be right just a bit confusing thats all!

Even the M5 was skittish on 17's. They had a tendency to tramline and that was on nicely weighted, genuine BMW rims. I'm not saying you rims are shite but a lot of aftermarket rims have real weight and balance issues. Speak to people on here who have junked their BK reps! I've driven 2 e30's on BK reps and they both drove like a 200k mile st1tter. Put them back on BBS and they drove like new. BSS325i had them on his touring as well and said the same.

Even the e39 was iffy on anything over a 16! Mine was a full sport pack with genuine style 49 17" alloys and if I'm really truthful, it drove crap on anything less than a bowling green smooth surface! I'd hate to think what they are like on 18's

damn its a shame because i wanted to get one of them next and get 19`s on it, guess not then! i do have a set of bbs x spokes with bloon tyres i guess i could try them and see what happens.

320ise wrote:damn its a shame because i wanted to get one of them next and get 19`s on it, .

I wouldn't!!!

Cast you mind back to all the people who ordered their e46 M3's and ticked the optional 19's box. Half of them took the cars back to revert to 18's and even then my service advisor tells me they had no end of "it seems to wander" issues and complaints of bent rims.

320ise wrote:i do have a set of bbs x spokes with bloon tyres i guess i could try them and see what happens.

Do it! Do it! Do it!

i will do tomorrow i think its a shame as it looks really nice with the 17s hate the baloon look of the 15s could i use 225 50 15 instead of 225 65 15? and then slam it? that mite look cool!

I do think you need to have very very bad wheels to make a car so poor that it dont drive in a strait line! If you drive with 17inch rims on an E34 it should handle that, I use that on my E32 who is more or less a big E34 and its working very fine to be honest! You should also remember that the E34 M5 in its late versions also had 17 inch wheels as standard. Why not take your car to a local BMW dealer and book a time at the garage there and let them take a look on it, I do think your wheel aligment is worng and they can sort it out for you and it will not cost you so much...

lol bmw 4 wheel alignment is £300 nearly at my stealer! £78.50 to breath on it, £129.99 to put it on a ramp etc. rip off lol (the 300 was genuine though!) what tyres do you run? mine is just wandering and tramlining every where cant let go of the wheel or its hedge time!

Dealers by me want £100 to read the ECU fault codes

its a joke! but i suppose if you could buy a e34 new or e30 (well over 15k my 525isport cost 30k when new! have the bill!) a 100 or 400 hear and there is a drop in the ocean!

DanThe wrote:Dealers by me want £100 to read the ECU fault codes

If people are daft enough not to buy their own fault code reader for under £100, and there are plenty available for well under that, then harsh as it is, they deserve to be ripped off...

had a look today and the front struts have no lower spring pad! what effect would the have on the front suspension? had a look at the rear and it all looks fine.

320ise wrote:lol bmw 4 wheel alignment is £300 nearly at my stealer! £78.50 to breath on it, £129.99 to put it on a ramp etc. rip off lol (the 300 was genuine though!) what tyres do you run? mine is just wandering and tramlining every where cant let go of the wheel or its hedge time!

The balljoint centre. Just take it there and get it set up. Talking about it won't cure it.

Oh, and my E39 540i had the 17's on, it tracked well enough, but the ride quality was shocking for a car that cost the best part of £50k new (was insanely overloaded with options).

19"s will just destroy any driving pleasure you'd have otherwise had.

My 535i sport has bilstein suspension front top strut brace and 17" BK171's running 235/45 17 tyres

The car sticks to the road like glue.

It did use to crab and go skittish over white lines, which was down to the collapsed Rear Subframe mountings. got them replaced (Car did not need wheel alignment).