X1 making the family sick..

Finally took the new car out on the motorway for a 3hr drive and for the first time ever we all arrived at the hotel feeling sick. My wife had a pain in her neck and a horrible headache. The baby vomited on route and cried a lot. I felt quite sea-sick and I was driving (and on dry land!!)

The X1 has unbelievably hard suspension which makes it 'rock' when one wheel encounters a bump or any kind of undulation in the road. The motorway is well used in parts but it is not that bad and we rarely exceed 110km (on cruse control) with no head or side winds.

Is this happening to anyone else?

Maybe changing your run-flat tires to regular tires may help.

any kind of swaying would point to defective shocks. have those checked and take a ride in another X1 with the same suspension to see if there is an obvious difference. If the suspension were stiff enough to pitch the car, you would have the sensation of being thrown from your seat.

The tires are standard tires, not run-flats. In Europe you have to buy this option.

The car goes back next week for tests, hope they find what is wrong with it as not being able to drive it on the motorway is a small problem... the sales guy said the ride is hard but shouldn't make us motion sick.

Not true. What he was describing sounds like tramlining, which is normally found in almost every car. The size and type of your tyres contribute to this.

Originally Posted by bimmerized

any kind of swaying would point to defective shocks. have those checked and take a ride in another X1 with the same suspension to see if there is an obvious difference. If the suspension were stiff enough to pitch the car, you would have the sensation of being thrown from your seat.

Originally Posted by investor27

Not true. What he was describing sounds like tramlining, which is normally found in almost every car. The size and type of your tyres contribute to this.

Well I looked up tramlining and this is road surface related. The car does go left or right depending on the road slope but this is not the problem. Our previous car did the same, the problem with this on the X1 is the very heavy steering which makes you work a lot correcting this movement.

The problem I am referring to is vertical and rotational movement. The car is transmitting the smallest imperfections in the road to the passengers. Bumps, holes, ripples in the surface, hardly anything gets taken out of the ride. The vertical movement is virtually constant. The rocking comes from one wheel (or one side) passing over an imperfection and instead of the socks talking the energy, the car rolls.

It is this virtually constant vertical and rotation movement which is making us sick. The headaches probable come from all the bouncing vertically. You just need to put a finger on the back of your neck while moving in the X1 to feel the amount of strees being transmitted up the spine to the base of the head.

[QUOTE=X1blue;6978726]The tires are standard tires, not run-flats. In Europe you have to buy this option.
QUOTE]

Just curious, if you don't get standard RFT, then you must get a spare wheel right?
I did not see a space for spare wheel in any U.S. X1 videos, but I am willing to buy 1 after ditching the original RFT's. If I can't fit a spare wheel somewhere, then I will have to choice but to be doomed to a life of RFT's.

[QUOTE=speedracerf4i;6980288]

Originally Posted by X1blue

The tires are standard tires, not run-flats. In Europe you have to buy this option.
QUOTE]

Just curious, if you don't get standard RFT, then you must get a spare wheel right?
I did not see a space for spare wheel in any U.S. X1 videos, but I am willing to buy 1 after ditching the original RFT's. If I can't fit a spare wheel somewhere, then I will have to choice but to be doomed to a life of RFT's.

Fix-A-Flat. I will probably run the OEM runflats until they're used up, get damaged by one of our famous Michigan potholes, or until I simply can't stand the compromised ride any longer, then I'll replace them with conventional tires, put a couple cans of Fix-A-Flat in the car, and hope for the best.

[QUOTE=speedracerf4i;6980288]

Originally Posted by X1blue

The tires are standard tires, not run-flats. In Europe you have to buy this option.
QUOTE]

Just curious, if you don't get standard RFT, then you must get a spare wheel right?
I did not see a space for spare wheel in any U.S. X1 videos, but I am willing to buy 1 after ditching the original RFT's. If I can't fit a spare wheel somewhere, then I will have to choice but to be doomed to a life of RFT's.

No, the X1 here comes with a a liquid kit as standard. You have to order the wheel option and we didnt. Regretting that now as I was upgraded to an Audi A3 at the airport recently and this also had no spare. And course as luck would have it, the first puncture in 20 years was lateral and around 4mm, the limit for the Audi kit.. When the rental company sent a truck 'to help' they could only take the car to the nearest Audi..

You might check to see if there are shipping spacers up in the suspension. It is not common, but sometimes the port forgets to remove these so the car rides high and rough (minimal suspension travel). Of course, our cars have to be shipped on boats over from Europe and I'm not sure what BMW does when shipping cars via truck or rail within Europe.

Originally Posted by X1blue

Finally took the new car out on the motorway for a 3hr drive and for the first time ever we all arrived at the hotel feeling sick. My wife had a pain in her neck and a horrible headache. The baby vomited on route and cried a lot. I felt quite sea-sick and I was driving (and on dry land!!)

The X1 has unbelievably hard suspension which makes it 'rock' when one wheel encounters a bump or any kind of undulation in the road. The motorway is well used in parts but it is not that bad and we rarely exceed 110km (on cruse control) with no head or side winds.

Is this happening to anyone else?

get rid off RFT

Originally Posted by SilverX3

get rid off RFT

RFT in Europe are a 300 euro option which we didnt buy. We have standard 225/50 R17 94 H MICHELIN Primacy HP tyres.

X1blue, I recommend you rent another X1 for a longer trip (or ask your dealer for a loaner). Then you will have a definite answer whether this is a design issue with all X1s or if yours has a defect that needs servicing.

Originally Posted by the_fox

X1blue, I recommend you rent another X1 for a longer trip (or ask your dealer for a loaner). Then you will have a definite answer whether this is a design issue with all X1s or if yours has a defect that needs servicing.

If the dealer had let us take one for a longer ride, I dont think we would be in this mess now. We have an Audi or a Range Rover.. they only let you ride in the city for 45mins and always with someone from the dealership.

Were on holiday in a rental at the moment, lets see if we can get another dealer to lend us one..

maybe it was something you ate before.

we have an '08 X3 & it had a trucky ride from the start, especially noticeable for rear seat passengers - we had a used Audi A6 for awhile and the ride was very cushy in comparison - but most of the roads that we travel are fairly smooth and the relatively stiffer ride is a small con compared to the many pluses of the X3 - I realize we're talking X1 but I'm assuming the suspensions of all X models are of similar design & components.

sounds to me like (1) the suspension of the X1 is a dramatic change from what you were driving before (2) you were essentially "off road" driving or (3) the shocks & struts need replacing .

good luck !!!!

Originally Posted by casper

maybe it was something you ate before.

We drove it 5 times for more than 1hr before taking it back for servicing, and each time we felt bad around 1hr after leaving home.

Dont you tend to sweat with food poising? We all just felt as we do when we take long boat rides.. we all suffer from sea sickness, we just dont usually get sick in the car. X1 makes us sick even on pretty good motorway surfaces, it seems to pickup and amplify the slightest imperfection on the road.

Originally Posted by ubermax

we have an '08 X3 & it had a trucky ride from the start, especially noticeable for rear seat passengers - we had a used Audi A6 for awhile and the ride was very cushy in comparison - but most of the roads that we travel are fairly smooth and the relatively stiffer ride is a small con compared to the many pluses of the X3 - I realize we're talking X1 but I'm assuming the suspensions of all X models are of similar design & components.

sounds to me like (1) the suspension of the X1 is a dramatic change from what you were driving before (2) you were essentially "off road" driving or (3) the shocks & struts need replacing .

good luck !!!!

The car is 5 weeks old, so the suspension should be OK but this is BMW...

The suspension (and wheels) are very different from our old VW Golf, indeed from any rental I have driven over the past 10 year. I have never been in a car that jolts, jumps and vibrates so much.

At least with the X1 you can put Electronic Damper Control (EDC) but the X1 does not have this option (even though they now put it on Series 1, 3, 5 and 7 cars)