E34 pulls to left

[gma]

Hi, all -

Newbie here with a question.

My 92 525i / E34 pulls to the left.

It has been through several different wheel / tire combinations and problem has persisted very consistantly, so that's not the problem.

I'm neurotic about my tire pressure, so that's not it.

I do my own brakes (correctly and thoroughly) and the problem has even persisted through a brake change. There is no excessive drag on the left side, and there's no pulsation through the pedal or wheel when on the brakes, so that's not the problem.

The bearing rotates freely and without wobble. It behaves and compares equally to the right side bearing, so i doubt that's it.

I've had the car laser and string aligned three times throughout the course of the problem and the problem still persists. currently, my caster is 5.9 L and 6.0 R - not enough to cause the problem, I think. These measurements came from string last week. The rear end is straight, the camber and toe are ok, so I don't think it's anything in the chassis.

The car's never been hit, so that's not it.

I just unloaded both barrels on a set of Privat Fahrens and Dunlop SP Sport 9000's. With the being rears wider than the fronts, i know i can't rotate the tires. i'd like to maximize their life as much as possible and would also like to get rid of the annoyance of havign to carry the wheel 7 degrees to the right all the time to keep from drifting into oncoming traffic.

any suggestions?

thx,

gma

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...in that I've been trying to track down the cause of a slight toe-in issue up front on my 5'er, I'm learning about all kinds of things which may **not necessarily** show up on even the best of a laser-alignments: Is it possible anything up front might be bent slightly? A front spindle, a control arm, etc? How old are your various bushings up front?

It's always been my understanding that a good alignment will reveal ANY abnormality in the front suspension, but I've found this is not always the case. For example, after 3 seperate laser-alignments by 2 very reputable BWM-only shops, I just found out my rear subframe is approx .5 degrees "off" (probably from when the bushings were last repl'd), which would certainly be enough to cause weird behavior up front.

Are your front/rear tires wearing funny at all?

Tim G.
'91 535iM
118k

Hi, all -

Newbie here with a question.

My 92 525i / E34 pulls to the left.

It has been through several different wheel / tire combinations and problem has persisted very consistantly, so that's not the problem.

I'm neurotic about my tire pressure, so that's not it.

I do my own brakes (correctly and thoroughly) and the problem has even persisted through a brake change. There is no excessive drag on the left side, and there's no pulsation through the pedal or wheel when on the brakes, so that's not the problem.

The bearing rotates freely and without wobble. It behaves and compares equally to the right side bearing, so i doubt that's it.

I've had the car laser and string aligned three times throughout the course of the problem and the problem still persists. currently, my caster is 5.9 L and 6.0 R - not enough to cause the problem, I think. These measurements came from string last week. The rear end is straight, the camber and toe are ok, so I don't think it's anything in the chassis.

The car's never been hit, so that's not it.

I just unloaded both barrels on a set of Privat Fahrens and Dunlop SP Sport 9000's. With the being rears wider than the fronts, i know i can't rotate the tires. i'd like to maximize their life as much as possible and would also like to get rid of the annoyance of havign to carry the wheel 7 degrees to the right all the time to keep from drifting into oncoming traffic.

any suggestions?

thx,

gma

[gma]

...in that I've been trying to track down the cause of a slight toe-in issue up front on my 5'er, I'm learning about all kinds of things which may **not necessarily** show up on even the best of a laser-alignments: Is it possible anything up front might be bent slightly? A front spindle, a control arm, etc? How old are your various bushings up front?

It's always been my understanding that a good alignment will reveal ANY abnormality in the front suspension, but I've found this is not always the case. For example, after 3 seperate laser-alignments by 2 very reputable BWM-only shops, I just found out my rear subframe is approx .5 degrees "off" (probably from when the bushings were last repl'd), which would certainly be enough to cause weird behavior up front.

Are your front/rear tires wearing funny at all?

Tim G.
'91 535iM
118k

It was the rear sub-frame bushings. One of them was completely collapsed and the other was on the way (There are three - the third / rear / center one was fine). After replacing the two, all has improved.

Thx for the reply. I offer this explanation here for anyone else who may experience the same problem. One thing I didn't note in the initial description was that the severity of the problem was inconsistant - sometines it was a strong, aggressive pull and sometimes it was a smaller, less strong pull. This would have been the red flag / give-away that it was a bushing (the subframe was finding a home, shifting under driving conditions and re-settling into a new home - giving different conditions at different times. It likely was sitting in the 'right' home for the alignments.)

Thx again.

Gma.

[jarome]

Hey i've been having the same problem with mine but it steers to the right instead. Sometimes it pulls aggressive and sometimes it doesn't. Anyways how much was it to change your bushings?

jarome

[Hector]

and as you describe, it doesn't pull to the left consistently with the same degree of pull each time when I'm on the hwy. It also occurs at high speeds. This started after I installed the front struts, and replaced both thrust and controls arms. I haven't had the time to get under the car to troubleshoot. One thing though, whenever I pull out of my parking spot in reverse, and turn the steering wheel to the right (clockwise) as I pull out, I always here a clunk sound as I keep turning the steering wheel. Hopefully this weekend I'll crawl under the car and do a little troubleshooting.

I also had the car in the shop for front wheel alignment but the caveat with this is in my car is that one can only correct for camber by adjusting the tie-rods. Nothing else. There is no caster adjustment unless you purchase the caster jig that mounts at the top of the strut towers from Bav Autosport.

Thanks for suggesting the subframe bushings, I haven't check these in years so I might have to replace these.