TRACKING

1

On our 530d, the steering wheel was angled to the left and didn’t handle that well. This wasn’t helped by the 3.0 diesel being nose-heavy. So we gave it a proper laser four-wheel alignment to find out what was wrong.

2

The first job was to set the steering wheel straight and hold it with a special wheel holder (as shown). Our car has Servotronic steering, which always feels a bit odd, but Chris from Tanvic Tyres in Worksop checked and adjusted the tyre pressures and gave it a visual check.

3

There are no worn bushes or balljoints – the front dampers were replaced recently – so the wheel alignment laser probes were fitted to all four wheels. These communicate with the head unit in front of the car. This system is the most accurate way of checking alignment.

4

We found the front wheels were near enough 2° toe-out, but the driver’s side rear wheel was toe-in by far too much and enough to cause the car to crab, hence the wonky steering wheel.

5

With nothing obviously bent or damaged, we reckon it was just heavily kerbed in the past – the rear tyres were getting a bit low and the driver’s side was feathering a touch on an edge. Chris loosened the three wishbone bolts and manoeuvred the forward camber adjuster bolt to reset it.

6

Adjusting the rear driver’s side wheel altered the fronts very slightly, but not enough to make a difference because they were all within tolerance. A quick drive of the car revealed that the steering wheel was still slightly off, so we reset the fronts to correct it.

7

It’s a fact that BMW track rod ends never undo without oxyacetylene! Chris got them good and hot, periodically clamping the inner track rod from the rack with a pair of locking grips to get them moving. Twenty minutes later, the front had been set up perfectly.