Car sick in the back seat?
 

For those of you who drive with your kids in the back seat, or those who used to;

So I have kids, 4 yr old daughter and 2yr old son, and whenever my daughter rides the car in the back seat for more than an hour of drive, she always says she got car sick.

She sits in her child seat (which is the only place she will be until old enough) in the back.

My previous car was a E61 (530i wagon with m sport suspension), and it was never the case with the E61.
Though, I am speculating it may have been just because she was not old enough at that time (age 2), as my son who is currently 2 y/o never complains in the E53.

I only have the X5 and cannot compare, but am also suspecting that maybe it has to do with the way E53 (or to an extent tall SUVs in general) moves, due to higher center of gravity.
When I first drove the E53 the “shake” (kind of like a sideways wiggle shake on bouncy and uneven roads ) was pretty noticeable compared to the E61. I can’t really put it down in words but it is obviously not a movement from anything wrong with the car, but from the characteristic thereof.

My question is, any of your usual passengers like your family member get car sick uniquely when riding your E53?
Like he/she/they are ok with any other car but gets uncomfortable or sick in E53?


By the way my E53 is ’06 with 44k miles with tires only 1 year old and suspension components in ok condition, checked by my mechanic and myself, so pretty safe to remove possibility of any issues wrong with the car. 19" Style 132s in summer and 17" studless in the winter, but my daughter feels sick regardless:(

I think you should replace your daughter. Joke.

No never heard of this to be something particular with any car. Try not feeding her. And put up the side shades when on long rides.

Car sick in the back seat?
 

My son, 15, gets car sick as all heck in the back of mine... but my wife says that’s because I drive like I’m in a Nascar..... [emoji12]

That said, he gets sick in the back of my Enclave when I drive too, so not much help there.


Just a crazy though, but the back seats in mine are very firm and you did say she was in a car seat? Maybe try folding up a large blanket and laying it over the seat and seat back before you strap the car seat in. That may give the seat something softer to press in to and reduce some of the “wobble”.... maybe.

Both of my offspring are okay in both of our X5's. E70 and E53. Had my mother-in-law in the E53 for a 17 hour drive and she slept like a baby for much of the trip with no complaints. Our daughter's are about the same age. Has she overheard someone else talking about getting car sick in a vehicle? Ours will parrot ailments back at us at times, especially when it serves an ulterior motive like getting out of chores or something she doesn't feel like doing. LOL do you have another vehicle that she prefers to be in? Kids can be very conniving. ;)

Inability to see the horizon is the #1 cause of car sickness. Can you put the seat in the middle to help with that? The head rest on the front seat is all a kid will see from the side seats.

I used to have to make sure my son would not keep his face buried in the iPad when driving especially if on a curvy road. Have the kid look at the horizon whenever they feel like starting to get queasy. The normal cause of queasy is when the visual horizon doesn't match your inner ear's expectations of what horizontal is. It's made even worse when your head isn't uproght (eg playing video games or reading a book with head pointed down)

Sounds like your daughter really misses the E61. Its not a vehicle problem. In time she will become use to the SUV ride.

So far my kids and grand kids that have been in the back seats seemed to do fine.

Thank you everyone for the feedback!

It was such a family and dad kind of issue that I was not really expecting this much feedback so quickly, but I really appreciate the hospitality of this forum!

I am now pretty keen to believe this issue is very specific to my daughter and not the car, and not really and option right now to switch cars (I only got the E53) considering how I like it and also I have spent quite a lot on preventatives recently.

I will probably try another child seat a little higher up, so that she can get a good view out the window. Her eyes come just above the bottom of the window so she may not have a good outside view in her seat.


Very interesting, and indeed!! My wife always asks my daughter "are you ok back there?" when in car... And I stop telling my wife to stop asking that sort of question, it makes my daughter feel even worse... sort of like the opposite of Placebo effect.

Very interesting feedback. Rather than reeforce her intrigue into feeling bad. "Are you ok"?, do what I did, instruct her how to control her own queasiness with explaining how we become queazy.

"Car sickness usually happens when our eyes see something not moving when our head feels motion, so the best way to avoid it is to look at something far away and toward the front of the car outside the car"

It can be buildings, Bridges, power wires, semi trailers in case she's still too short to see the actual ground eg horizon.

And also certain drinks such as Ginger Ale have decent anti qwezy effect.

ginger biscuits !! always helps when I'm out boat fishing.. also never had any issues with people in the back of mine

My wife used to do a lot of that as well. She has since caught on to the daughter's tricks and has started employing some of my responses. :D My favorite for boo-boos is "Rub some tough on it, you'll be fine." Now my daughter uses it on my son (who is 2) when they are playing which is just hilarious. :rofl: Prevents the need for most parental intervention for minor bruising and falls. :thumbup:

Much better response than my dad. He always said that there's no crying unless it's bleeding or hanging funny.

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

That sounds like a good one!!

I might just buy a tube of small skin cream and label it "TOUGH" myself, and tell her using a patch of it on your arm will prevent carsickness lol

Placebo great. Also see if Dramamine has a dose for kids.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Just curious if the car sickness is related to highway driving or all driving. I have been in cars with other people driving and when they reach the highway they tend to constantly move the wheel back and forth creating a subtle weave left and right. This slight weaving causes the passengers to feel nauseous. This movement can be eliminated by the driver casting his gaze further down the center of the lane thus eliminating the weaving. Works like a charm. Most often the driver is unaware of themselves weaving at all.

I might do this myself. Because I love concept. :rofl: :thumbup: :D

@EODguy your dad sounds like a riot.

BTW, this thread had my wife in literal tears last night. Was great. Laughter keeps us young after all, or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves.

My dad is something alright....

When my oldest turned 18 he was on his own and he thought Papa would help him get a place to live...

Dad got him a refrigerator box and told him to get a job so he could cover it in plastic sheets. Good times..[emoji38]

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

I leaned a trick road racers use: to hold your knee firmly against the steering wheel through curves to absolutely eliminate the wiggle.

100% of drivers I've monitored will wiggle their way through a 270° off ramp with typically 20 to 30 steering inputs.

I find a line, hold the wheel with my left knee so it doesn't move when I hit a bump. For offramps that I frequently use I already know the line I steer onto the line and 270° later I let the car auto straighten, loosen up the knee to still make that a smooth lateral g transition.

Get a g-force app and practice until you get a non jiggly line. I've had numerous people comment that in spite of the near 1g turns (back in z28 days) that my turns are smooth and don't make the passenger nauseous.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1a8f869b2c.jpg

A typical driver lateral gforce plot for a 270° off ramp

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fe2d66f2da.jpg

Hold the steering wheel with your knee and smooth out all the bumps.

You got to love the things you learn on here. That is a great tool to learn. I always learned that in a curve you watch the outside line and it guides you through the turn without variation.
T

Except so many off ramps aren't even close to circular. I usually end up a foot over the fog line when I take a circular path but I will usually take the smoother path rather than follow the drunken sailor path the construction crew made.

I guess a stick and a string is too high tech for the guys that make off ramps. If nobody rats me out to the wife I'll take some spy video next time she takes an off ramp then myself so I can show you what I mean real world. You can feel it in your gut if you are a passenger also. Any time the driver deviates from a circle or a straight line the car will wobble because the sideways force is at the tire patch so laws of physics means you'll not only get lateral G force but a roll moment also. Each steer input will result in about 3-4 "sway" wobbles as the shocks soak up the spring rebound.

Anybody see a car a car driving without shocks it's hilarious. Talk about car sickness, it was making me nauseous just watching as I followed.

I just remembered the X5 steering wheel too high to use my knee directly as the stiffening agent so I will brace my elbow on the door instead. Go through a long curve with your elbow braced vs. just holding the wheel with one arm and record the g forces with your phone and compare the difference.

That's A LOT of steering input. Going to pay attention to myself next time I'm in a clover leaf. I use an apex line through turns usually and I'm going to feel disappointed if I actually correct 20-30 times through a cloverleaf.

we call them ginger snap cookies here across the pond. GREAT IDEA will try on wife...

Better drivers will maybe make 10-15 steering inputs over a 270° it's enough to make me a little queasy. I find a line and hold the wheel in one place as long as I can using the fog line as a "rough estimate". As long as I don't run out of safety lane I won't change course usually then when time to pull out of the turn I will robotically return the wheel to center at a constant °/second motion using dynamic tension between both arms (eg push left with 3# with right hand and right with 2.5# of force with left hand). Or with smaller cars just lock the knee into the wheel.

I've done lots of g force plots of my corners vs other drivers and it's not surprising to me that people don't get car sick in my car but do with other drivers. "wiggly jiggly" is the best way to describe an average driver's normal turn: about 10-12 steer inputs on a typical 90° city turn. Me: I turn a constant tighter radiius to the Apex and hold the wheel against auto straighten out of the turn and try to match the same rate of angular change on the way out. Oh and important: smooth throttle also counts: average driver's won't use smooth throttle application as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

LOVE the steering corrections on off ramps conversations. Bad example: I have a brother who fancies himself as a great driver. He is the only person I know who drives the clover leaf ramps as if they are square...turn hard, drive straight, turn hard, repeat until the end. 10-20 hard turns per ramp. He is a Electrical Engineer, never got mechanical basics I guess. LOL

Sadly your brother is an average/typical driver. Since I take smooth turns where the only change in lateral acceleration is when I hit a bump, the wiggle jiggle of people driving normally around a curve is very noticeable to me. It's common driving "straight" as well. (As if they are a pinball bouncing off the lane makings)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

THAT BE HIM. :yikes:

Car sickness is a terrible feeling. Like sea sickness, if the water is flat and the boat is going straight one is less likely to get seasick so some of it could be caused by your X5 or what roads you use.

It is hard for anyone to keep looking at the horizon all the time and once one starts to feel carsick it is hard to get back to normal without an extended pit stop.

As a severe case, as a passenger, if I am not looking to the front I start to become carsick in a minute or two to the point that no matter what I do the initial queasy feeling doesn't go away until I have been out of the car for several hours. I have to prepare for trips. I use the patch. I never leave on an empty stomach, I always take a Diet Coke, Tums and Mentos peppermint candy. Even with the preparation, I still can't look at my phone for more than a few seconds. I can't close my eyes to try to sleep. Riding in the back seat is carsick suicide. Even driving, I have to have cold air blowing on my face and have a diet coke to sip on. Whenever we stop I have to get out and walk around for 10-15 minutes, get back some of my 'land legs'. More frequent stops help. Distractions are worthless, headphones are out of the question.

It's very hard to measure how bad a child feels. I would assume her case is severe and she is not any part of the cause. I would make an appointment with an ear Doc for a checkup and then map out a plan for her. And, as soon as it is possible, let her ride in the front seat. If her case is severe riding in the backseat is never going to work.

@bc. Great description on the whole world of hurt going along with motion nausea.

I got queasy from a plume ride. The ride was a large inner tube shape with a bottom like a life boat. Just me and my son so it acted like a plumb Bob and had me backwards the whole time.

I couldn't shake the nausea for hours. It's brutal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

@ everybody I took some videos of the hand on knee and one or two control curves. I will upload them to YouTube and share. That trick was the biggest improvement in my driving ever. Steering wheel not moving? Perfect circle every time.

For you mc riders out there; an excellent trick: put some plastic tubing over your brake lever, you can then twist your hand like throttle and the you get about 5-8x the precision : no prob keeping the front wheel right at the maximum power without skidding.

(Your hand becomes an incline plane: you have to twist an inch to move the brake lever 1/8)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

All one has to do to drive smoother, If somewhere near the speed limit , is to start focusing farther down the road than you normally do and the furthest point of the inside point of a curve. Increase the distance you look down the road until all steering wheel movement is slow, very smooth, and minimal. As your speed changes adjust how far down the road you need to focus. Racing lines are a whole different discussion.

Oh, there is also a bracelet for carsickness.

Car sick in the back seat?
 

I will add to that: worry me like less about being exactly centerd in the lane. If you picked a curve that touches the fog line and there is a full safety lane, just stay on the smooth course don't correct

I uploaded a video https://youtu.be/hYq493k-zMU

My wife always yells at me for that... she is a 90 degree corner person and I am a smooth arch... she says it makes her lean over too far in her seat! I tell her it’s not the arch, it’s the fact that I’m doing it at whatever the posted speed limit is that makes her lean [emoji16]

For the most part I’m a tap the brakes to set the front tires and roll through it driver... it drives her crazy! My youngest daughter (15.5) drives just like me.

You need the active suspension that leans the car.

https://youtu.be/zCdvFbzOFrw

I sooooo badly want this on my next car. I believe X5 has it but don't know what year or if you needed the M.

Wonder if it can be retrofitted..

Tell your wife you need dynamic drive and she won't have the rag doll experience any more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

That's brutal. My sympathies. Always feel fortunate that I only recently developed a very slight car sickness (headache/nausea but mostly headache) if I try to read. I used to LOVE to read books on road trips. Would do it for 10 hours straight if my Mom was taking us from one of my Dad's stations to her hometown.

Needless to say... I don't read in cars anymore. But at least I can still sleep and check my phone without issue. I feel for those who can't enjoy a good car ride. :(

I paid attention during a few clover leaves over the last few days. Asked my wife to do so as well. Looks like I'm one of the few "good" drivers according to this thread. Only a very few steering inputs. I have in the past has passengers comment on how smooth I drive. It's nice to now know why that is. Apparently everyone else likes to play with the wheel as much as possible.

HAHA, that reminds me. You see people in movies driving moving the wheel from side to side when supposedly going straight. I wonder if that's how that actor ACTUALLY drives!!! :rofl: It always drives me nuts when I see it.

Car sick in the back seat?
 

LOL - “Honey, I’ve solved your problem, I’m going to run out and grab a new beemer with dynamic drive! You’ll never complain about my cornering again, you’re welcome” [emoji23][emoji23]

Hmmm, wonder if the 5.0i’s have it? I have really been wanting a garage queen that I could just play with... but I’m afraid I’m going to have to wait on a few kids to graduate first ☹️

Retrofit is interesting though! You’ve been an exceptional pioneer of new process and technology in the past, keep me posted if you figure something out [emoji106][emoji16]. I’m half way there, air bags in the rear... but that said, I’ve been eying a set of adjustable coilovers, I think when my bags take a dump that I’m going to go springs all the way around - which I hope isn’t anytime soon.

Car sick in the back seat?
 

The dynamic drive doesn't use the air suspension it just adds a linear motor into the sway bar (note I didn't say anti sway) and it pushes and pulls on the sway bar to sway the car.

There has to be some interesting geomotery to get left/right to be a roll maneuver.

Oh duh maybe it just twists the sway bar

And some serious torsion on that bar! Imagine the usual lean of the car being “resisted” by that linear motor, that has to be some hefty force being applied.

Totally makes sense now that I think about it, air would just be too slow to respond... unless it was a huge sweeping corner or you had some kind of massive quick release air storage system... which would be hugely impractical...

Some early active suspension did use bags. They learned it was not responsive enough. They did a combination of air bag plus locking shocks. Same car would lock the shocks when people got in and out (no more door stuck in the grass past the curb).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I actually had an old Mercedes that did that ironically, or should I say my wife had one. I wish I could remember what that sucker was, leaked, smoked, ran shitty, one of the worst cars I’ve ever had sit in my drive way! I want to say it was an Exxx something but for the life of me I can’t remember, I’ll have to ask her if she does.

Don’t remember it having air suspension but it did “lock” the shocks to keep it from leaning. I only remember it because it would stiffen up if you opened both doors on one side at the same time.


Speaking of car sick, I wonder what the horizon view is on those new “lane centering” Nissans and how many times they twitch the wheel to keep the car centered in the lane?? Wonder if they have a tendency to make people sicker/sicker? dunno?

It is very confusing to talk about suspension options going back to E70s. The BMW suspension options have changed names or the same option called different names by enthusiasts. How they work has also changed. Currently, Adaptive drive has two suspension components. They are now called Dynamic drive and Dynamic damping. Adaptive drive also includes adaptive steering. For most of the history they were separate options depending on the BMW model and year so you could order the options individually.

If an E53 could be retrofitted to the current Adaptive drive it wouldn't pass my value equation of cost verses benefits compared to conventional suspension upgrades.

I completely agree with that.

Unique idea for sure but for the cost and engineering required... just give me a good set of coil overs and I’m good to go.

I think if I ever have dynamic suspension, it will be on something new and will have been bought that way [emoji106]