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The head tech from BMW flew into town today to inspect my X5 that's got Adaptive Drive & Active Steering with 20" wheels to see why its pulling to the left and the fact you have to keep righthand down pressure on the steering wheel to keep it on the road.
Well, yes we have a problem "Houston" and the fact there is no caster adjustment to counter-act that we drive on the lefthand side of the road here in Australia is the cause. They admit that the lefthand front wheel needs to be pushed forward and the righthand front wheel needs to be pulled back, as it is actually setup the opposite way around to suit lefthand drive cars.
They say as it is one of the first X5's in Australia with Adaptive Drive & Active Steer it is a new problem. So what happenned with all there testing, they forgot to test a righthand drive X5.
So they are going to do a couple of things once they have spoken to the techs in the USA and see if they can produce some bolts with a camber offset to put in the control arms and bushes and or alloy plates to pack the susupesion some how to give the same effect as castor adjustment.
So why did they not produce the X5 in the first place with castor adjustment, are they so penny conscious to save $20.00 a X5 or did it just slip through the cracks. Why send a car to Australia with a suspension setup to drive on the other side of the road.
Another thing they said was that they are going to see if there is different type of 20" tires that might have built-in camber offset to counteract the camber on our roads - I think that's up there with the fairies?
Anyway, gave them a week to fix the X5 or take it back as its just not a nice car to drive and I do nearly 700klm per week. Keeping a couple lbs psi on the steering wheel with your righthand all day does not make pleasant driving, not when the optioned up X5 costs nearly $140,000 AUD.
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07-10-2007, 01:11 AM
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