BMW E46 tram lining 330se touring

[Robmilford]

Can any one help I have a 330 E46 and have always noticed that if there is a crack or any fault my car seems to what to follow it, I believe its called tram lining. It is particularly noticerble on motorways when you pull of and drive down the slip lane as the wheel reaches the edge of the normal carrage way it tries to follow the line of the edge of the tarmac. I am running P600 tyres at 40psi there is no evedence of any tracking problems on the tyres, I have had the lower wishbone bushes changed at the last MOT and this made no differance. The car has a full service history and has not been in an accident, some times on poor motorway surfaces it actually feels like you have a flat. I do not think that the tyres are run flats either which I believe give problems. Has anyone any ideas.

Thanks Rob

[Vee]

What wheels does it run on ?
Although SE, some were specced with 18" MV alloys as an upgrade to the 17" SE ones.
In my experience when the tyres start to wear out tramlining gets worse.

[Robmilford]

They are 17inch rims but your prediction that it gets worse as the tyres wear out seems to be correct as it has got worse gradually. I now have about 2.5mm of tred left.

[Robmilford]

Just had another good look at the tyres and there is more tread than what I thought more like 3.5mm

[Robmilford]

I have just been reading about tramlining on the net and several mentions about longditudnal grooves making this worse. I have P600s on the front which I asumed were the wheels causing the problem and they do not have many grooves, however I have continentals sport contact 2s on the back and they have for big grooves on them, could this be the problem?

[toastboy]

I have an E46 330ci and it has always tramlined badly since I bought it 3 years ago. Nohing I've ever done, new tyes, different pressures, wheel alignment/balancing or different tyres has ever had much of an effect on it. You just get used to it after a while.