Re: E28 535is hit from side, steering off (archive)

I had the same problem with my 86 535i. Replacing all (upper and lower) control arms only made the wandering worse. The car became undriveable!!! Just when I was ready to give up, I discovered that the center rod (drag?) ball joints were really bad.

Personally, I would check every ball joint before messing with the steering box. First, it will not cure loose ball joints and second, too much tension could cause binding and increase steering box wear.

Good Luck

Alex

At some point in the life of my 1987 535is it was hit in the front side panel that seriously enough to require the fender to be replaced. The car has a difficult time remaining in a straight line at various speeds as if the car wants to go another way other than where I am steering the car. The car has 16" rims off of a new 540 and is running with brand new Yokohama A520's not to mention brand new control arms. Before the new tires and control arms, the car would veer on it's own much worse than with these additions. It is hard to gather confindence while driving the car fast because I'm always waiting for the car to start moving in a different direction (slightly). To correct the cars direction I need to steer in the opposite direction. Normally, while on the freeway if you wanted to change to the lane just to the right you would tilt the wheel slightly to the right until you are satisfied with the turn and then back to center or 12:00. In my case I need to turn the wheel back to 10:00 and then back to center. You can imagine the instability created by all the wheel cranking. Long sloping turns take a lot of back and forth action in order to accomplish.

One of my first thoughts was that the cheap Dunlops on the car paired with worn control arms were the culprit. Replacing both of them helped quite a bit but the car is still wandering a bit. I especially notice this when I go to drive my 325is that has never been in an accident and the steering is perfect. Does anyone have any theories about what possibly else could be causing the car to wander. Keep in mind that after the control arms were replaced, there is still 2-3 inches of play in the steering wheel. The frame was checked and is perfectly straight and wheels and alignment show to be fine. Also, steering wheel is "permantly" point to the left about an inch which happens to be in the direction that you have to correction each time the car wanders right. This tells me that this has been a problem for a very long time but I don't know for sure. All input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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