E46 M3 BAD tramlining. Need help.

[bmwfnatic]

Just to be clear, you're describing the steering feel here? Not the nose of the car?

If it was my car, I would now be looking at
1, whether the tierods are E46M3....not E46 vanilla.
2, The steering angle sensor.
3, The front wheel bearings( raise the front end, grab each wheel at 3 and 9 o' clock and push/pull in those directions).
If the bearings are bad enough to affect the steering, they should be howling by now.
4, power steering pump.
5 steering rack.
6, check that the new steering guibo is indexed correctly and clamping tightly.
The front end is pretty much refreshed.

Has the car been previously damaged in a front end collision?

Quick question, what does the steering angle sensor have to do with this?

[FBloggs]

No the sway bar bushings are OEM and original. No cracking I can see though. I would say late to initial steering and also late on recovery. The steering seems variable. Sometimes slightly left goes straight, sometimes straight goes straight, sometimes slightly right goes straight. Something has got to be loose.

Just to be clear, you're describing the steering feel here? Not the nose of the car?

If it was my car, I would now be looking at
1, whether the tierods are E46M3....not E46 vanilla.
2, The steering angle sensor.
3, The front wheel bearings( raise the front end, grab each wheel at 3 and 9 o' clock and push/pull in those directions).
If the bearings are bad enough to affect the steering, they should be howling by now.
4, power steering pump.
5 steering rack.
6, check that the new steering guibo is indexed correctly and clamping tightly.
The front end is pretty much refreshed.

Has the car been previously damaged in a front end collision?

[thetypicalm3guy]

So you have poly for the front swaybar bushings?
Are they powerflex?

Is the front end late to react to the initial steering input?
Or is it late on recovery?

No the sway bar bushings are OEM and original. No cracking I can see though. I would say late to initial steering and also late on recovery. The steering seems variable. Sometimes slightly left goes straight, sometimes straight goes straight, sometimes slightly right goes straight. Something has got to be loose.

[BlueBimmers]

Jumping in late I know. Good article in May/June derBayerische about alignments. Article stressed that a little toe out in front helps turn it, and a little toe in for the rear helps stability. Hope you figure this out.

[FBloggs]

So you have poly for the front swaybar bushings?
Are they powerflex?

Is the front end late to react to the initial steering input?
Or is it late on recovery?

[thetypicalm3guy]

Perhaps you could do a squirrel test.
place a traffic cone in the middle of an empty parking lot.
Leave the DSC on.
Approach the cone at 20 mph dead on.
Swerve at the last instant, being prepared to catch the tail.
perform the test several times.
Think about how the chassis behaved.
Did the chassis behave as a single unit?
Or was there a lag between the action of the front end and the response of the rear end?

Because the chassis should behave as a single unit if all the suspension components are in good shape.

Think about what the front end did.
Think about what the rear end did.

Did the front end have good recovery, and stabilise to straight promptly?
Was the rear end "late"? And sloppy?

Are you using poly front swaybar bushings?

I dont even need to do the test, I already feel like the body and the steering do not match each other. This leads me to think its bushing related. No, on OEM sway bar bushings. The front end feels "late" rear end, from what i can tell, seems solid.

[FBloggs]

Perhaps you could do a squirrel test.
place a traffic cone in the middle of an empty parking lot.
Leave the DSC on.
Approach the cone at 20 mph dead on.
Swerve at the last instant, being prepared to catch the tail.
perform the test several times.
Think about how the chassis behaved.
Did the chassis behave as a single unit?
Or was there a lag between the action of the front end and the response of the rear end?

Because the chassis should behave as a single unit if all the suspension components are in good shape.

Think about what the front end did.
Think about what the rear end did.

Did the front end have good recovery, and stabilise to straight promptly?
Was the rear end "late"? And sloppy?

Are you using poly front swaybar bushings?

[EthanolTurbo]

Are you sure it's not an improper install of suspension? For example, if you tightened the bolts on the front control arms with the suspension unloaded it would drive weird, you need a preload when tightening those bolts.

[BigDave]

2005 E46 M3 coupe SMG. Having really bad tramlining that im trying to figure out. Basically cant even drive the car without looking drunk, any small imperfection in the road will veer the car in that direction.

Here is what ive done to try and address this issue

1) front control arms
2) FCABS
3) Sway bar end links front
4) POLY RTABS
5) new discs and pads all round.
6) new steering guibo

I am at a loss. all wheels seem stable when trying to find play. Could it be the brake pads rubbing on the discs prematurely or maybe my tires are bad? Tires have plenty of tread and all match (pirelly p zero)

My 19's use the same tire sizes as you. Even my 18 inch 265mm SQUARE set uo does not tramline. There is a trick. Don't run a lot of camber. Add toe IN to the front and the rear. I used to have a very aggressive alignment and it was just too miserable on I-95. My car is on coil overs. lowered just a little, with basically STOCK alignment specifications.

Too much toe will scrub your tires, No toe or toe OUT gives poor straight line performance. Make sure both the front and the rear get OEM stock toe in.

Loose your SPRINGS!!!!! Those set ups rarely give you a perfectly level chassis. You need to START with a 100% perfectly level chassis. Don't try to match wheel arch gaps. BMW screwed up on the design of the E46 body. A perfectly level chassis will give you different wheel arch gaps front to rear. Resist the temptation to set ride height for purely cosmetic reasons.

Just get a set of BC racing coil overs (cheap!) and don't slam your car. I have my ride height set higher than the typical 13/13.5 inch measurement. Just high enough so it looks plenty lowered but clears all parking dividers, sloped entrances, and most road debris.

You dont have to corner balance your car....... but eyeball and measure, and get your chassis as LEVEL and even as you can...front to back and side to side.

[thetypicalm3guy]

Subscribing to this as I'm having a similar issue. It'll be so bad sometimes I have to yank the steering wheel in the opposite direction to get it back straight

Yes exactly! What have you done to try and fix this?

[MTiz]

Subscribing to this as I'm having a similar issue. It'll be so bad sometimes I have to yank the steering wheel in the opposite direction to get it back straight

[thetypicalm3guy]

Which tires? It matters.

These were pulled off a friends BMW e90 m3. They are old crappy 2014 Nankang tires. I did, however, drive these on my friends e90 m3 before and there were no noticable driving issues. I dont see how on one car the tires wouldnt matter much then would on the other. That being said, they are old cheap tires. But given this has been happening on my relatively new 19inch P zero Nero tires too I dont think the issue is the tires.

[thetypicalm3guy]

What dampers are on the car?
How old are they?
If they are adjustable, are they on softest settings?

If the car tracks straight but seems to lurch and take a while to settle down, i'd recommend that the dampers be evaluated.
That;s about all that has not been covered in the front suspension.
The only other part would be the steering flex joint.

Koni dampers on currently. I tried setting the front shocks to stiffest and to most comfortable and both do the same. I have also just done the steering flex joint. (300 miles ago)

[thetypicalm3guy]

it's worth checking your "mounting studs" for your front sway bar ..

the issue that i was experienced before...

one day, car starts to develop those "road pulling" experience when passed through uneven road surfaces ..

sometimes it went straight, sometimes it pulled ..

thought it was caused by the old bushing / end-link / or steering arm and etc...

then it ended up to be the mounting studs (which got popped) ..

as shown in the attached image. FYI

No issues here just checked

[FBloggs]

What dampers are on the car?
How old are they?
If they are adjustable, are they on softest settings?

If the car tracks straight but seems to lurch and take a while to settle down, i'd recommend that the dampers be evaluated.
That;s about all that has not been covered in the front suspension.
The only other part would be the steering flex joint.