Z4 Handling issues after wheel alignment

Hey All,

Just done 32k miles in the past year with my Z4 and had to have the back tyres replaced and due to the one tyre having significant wear on the inside it was recommended to have wheel alignment which I had no objection to.

However, getting straight onto the motorway to cover a couple of thousand miles, the car suddenly seemed quite boat like, feeling very top heavy, the steering uber sensitive, and when turning suddenly seemed to have some body roll.

Trying to work out the problem, I thought it could either be the wrong back tyres, the wheel alignment is out or the suspension has gone out....I checked the paperwork and BMW apparantly also check the height of the suspension when they do their wheel alignment.

Trying to get BMW to redo the work in Blackpool they refused as it was done in Cotswolds BMW and I have been advised I will have to pay another £160.00 for the work

Any idea what the cause is as it does not feel safe to drive, and I do not want to pay another £160.00 for nothing. Times like this makes me hate BMW and my normally much loved Z4!

Help pls!!!

why hate BMW? They did not mis -align it, the dealer did, but not the mfr....it's out of alignment. it takes skill to work the new machines...I saw a alignment last week where they used the wrong program model year and it aligned wrong. Go back and demand they make it right. See the general manager. Why was not a test drive done when Cotswold finished with it?

I hate BMW for charging so much and for having independant dealerships :-)

Interesting comments re using the wrong model year, as I had described to BMW Blackpool that the car suddenly felt like I was driving the old Z4 (After owning the previous model for a number of years) which used to tramline.......could that be the cause of the problem: the car has been mis-programmed...?!

Have you dealt with customer services in the UK? Clearly not.....customers are never right here, and the managers normally don't care. But will try my luck on Tuesday!

Originally Posted by mattprune

I hate BMW for charging so much and for having independant dealerships :-)

Yeah I hate democracy too....LOL





alignment machines require you to input the model, type and year - it then aligns per the specs in the program. It is Just like using excel, word or anything else. It requires the right input to work...

just a possibility...could be shoddy work too....

again....Why was not a test drive done when Cotswold finished with it?

Haha!

So, how much manual work is done if there are so many machines involved? What was wrong with the old fashioned way of alignment? :-)

Have you see how to do the alignment, I want to know how it works @ BMW....

Yes, well, you would have thought a Test drive was done. But the handling issue is more noticable at speeds of 70 mph and apparantly they cannot test over 70 mph....but I think that is just an excuse as I see how those "FFF'ers" drive :-)

The funny thing is that when I took the car to Blackpool they refused to drive the car as they were concerned with Health and Safety....and they therefore could only put the car back through realignment. Oh, the mind boggles with the way things are done in this country.