Poorly 540 touring !

[merlin540]

I have bought a 540 which i love but did not do a lot of homework before i made the purchase. I wanted to upgrade my 528se saloon for more performance but could not fault it on anything else. After test driving the 540 i thought that it would need a new steering rack as the car wandered a bit in a straight line (It reminded me a bit of driving a Land Rover !).I knocked the price and was happy with my purchase, £3600 for a 99T M-Sport Steptronic with f/bmw/s/h and 110k miles. Steering came back to haunt me when i found it had a steering box and have had it checked for wear but it has none, apparently.
Can anyone shed some light on the horrible vague feeling i get instead of the pin sharp steering i had on the 528 that made it such a pleasure to drive ? Am i expecting too much ? All 4 wheels are buckled and just about to be replaced but i know that is not the problem. Could it just be the bushes ? HELP!!!!

[Fatboy]

My Brother had an E34 with slightly vague steering - the box was a bit worn. You could try a recon box, or first just try tightening the adjustment screw?

The box will always be a bit more vague than a rack, but it shouldn't be really vague - if it's had a wallop that bent the wheels, it may well have damaged some steering bits - alternatively check out the bushes in the steering/suspension etc, some worn bushes would also make the steering vague.

[Egbert Nobacon]

Its quite common on E39's for the front tyres to wear unevenly across the width of the tyre. (i.e the inside of the tyre is worn more than the outside)especially if alignment is slightly out.

I had a similar issue with wandering and tugging on a previous E39, all completely resolved by new front tyres and four wheel alignment.

Another symptom once this wear gets excessive is lots of tyre noise from the front.

[phelix]

That recirculating ball steering box vs the 6 cylinder car's rack and pinion was something that many journos complained about on the E39.

[eliot]

The recirc ball steering is often critcised. Having only driven a 540 i cant compare, but its certainly not as sharp as my e36 325 the wife drives.

But before giving up, consider replacing / checking front front control arm bushes and the anti-roll bar bushes.

[VerySideways]

Recirc ball is not as good as rack/pinion in these E39's, but it shouldn't be as bad as you are implying. Sounds like there is a problem, especially if all four wheels are bent...

[SJobson]

1999 MSport Touring? Eh? They didn't do a Sport version of the Touring until the facelift, so Oct 2000 (ish) onwards.

Check your tyre pressures - they're pretty critical on an E39. Also, perhaps the steering idler arm is worn (had it replaced on mine and that tightened things up). Could also be the rear end at fault - wandering isn't just caused by the front end.

[merlin540]

Thanks to all that replied to my "poorly 540 problem". I may be too fussy and what i find as annoying others might find acceptable but i like to have things "right". The buckled wheels were caused by the car being used on potholed roads where the car used to live so i hope for some improvement when i fit the other wheels this weekend. I think i will go for changing the bushes first and then move on to box adjustment if there are no significant improvements. The tyres are showing no signs of uneven wear, the car tracks perfectly and the steering is nicely neutral so its a bit disconcerting when it drifts and you dont feel it through the steering wheel. Taking yours eyes off the road for a second can catch you out ! The car has a slight judder under braking sometimes and maybe that is another symptom of worn bushes because the car has new pads and discs all round. Moving on...alarm goes off if after a few minutes if the key fob is used but the central locking is working fine. Rain sensor wipers dont work (a blessing maybe). Intermittant setting for wipers stuck on one sped.

[peaktorque]

Check your tie-bar ball joints (the long bar that connects both wheels to the steering box). My 535 had a worn outer ball joint, I changed it and it made a vast difference. You can only get the bar as a complete item, but it isn't that expensive.

You can easily check for 'play' by just slightly moving the steering wheel left-to-right and that motion should be directly transfered to the road wheels. If you have a noticable 'deadband' before wheels responding then I would suspect the above problem.

That said the steering is a bit 'dead' feeling at the best of times!

Try this: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=DN62...

[french]

It maybe the Idler arm or the Pitman arm bushes are worn or the joints on the
center tie rod ? Especially if its ha a tough life over rough ground.

To adjust the steering box on a 540 is a pain as you have to unbolt the engine & jack it up make the adjustment, then bolt it back up again ,if its not spot on you have to go through it all again !!

Also one last thing that did used to happen on occasion if the car's maintenance was not that great sometime's the lower part of the steering column bolts used to get a bit loose ,again over rough terrain you really need to check this ASAP.

HTH