Tramlining experience poll

[Mnbrennan]

So opinion only, and not experience of a cure/improvement, besides, so far the overwhelming poll result says the cure has NOT been suspension but tyres.

I purposely made this thread to get away from opinions, and to enable people to buy based on others experience
This thread is not for opinions, as stated in first post.
Otherwise people will be paying for things that other people 'think' will cure it.

Now consider yourself told off and let this be a lesson to others.....

Sorry father...

 

[t-tony]

When I bought my Z3 it was awful and after a few months I fitted a set of new tyres and the car was transformed, totally. As Brian said it could have been the front tyres which made the biggest impact but it needed 4 so I can't say either way.
On the other hand, my Z4 came with square wheels set up on run flats and it gave an "impression" of tramlining, just not that bad. When I fitted the 108's on Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres it was considerably worse, ie noticeable. Soon I'm fitting the original wheels back on while I get the others refurbed so I will take more notice of how it drives. At some point I intend to fit poly bushes on the front lower arm rear mountings and I will also take note what effect this has if any.

Tony.

 

[Geophys]

When I bought my car and drove it home it tramlined like crazy, I thought I had made an enormous mistake, I bought at a classic car auction, so couldn't just take it back. Next day I had a set of Continental Sport Contact 5s fitted, never looked back.

 

[Dickymint]

When I got mine it was shocking and had to keep sawing at the wheel to keep her straight and any rut or groove in the road you would follow it no matter where it went! a couple of polly bushes in the lollypops and all was good though the old ones didn't look to bad they had probably done 100k, any way since fitted I have not looked back also (crooked my neck while fixing it )

 

[Althulas]

When I first had mine it was fine on Goodyear F1's but after while the rears needed changing due to wear and I replaced the rears as the fronts had plenty of life in them and bought some Tyos what a big mistake that was it tramlined terribly and dangerously the back would just want to swing out so a new set of Falkens all round cured it but I don't think it hurts to keep on top of the rest of the running gear to keep it all taught anyway.

 

[Devon Z]

In all my years with the Zed many things have helped with tramlineing, with the staggered 17" it was front tyre tread pattern, avoid radial patterns she was fine on the pilot sports with V shaped tread pattern.
When I changed to 18" the wheels had tyres with a radial pattern as everything is these days, I had also polibushed the wishbones and the tramlineing was back but this time playing with the tyre pressures has reduced it dramatically.

 

[ljauto]

had a z4 2.0 m sport with 18" rims was that bad sold it back to blackpool town hall, terrible terrible car sorry if you have one

 

[Antm72]

Not really ever experienced any tramlining in my Zed. I have had 3 different sets of wheels with budget to branded tyres and they have all been ok.
The general feel to the drive change for me would be to have the front aligned and retracked it had a positive effect and the drive was far smoother and steering more positive.
I replaced both rack ends and rod ends to make it easy to be done and it's been great

 

[Alan Slade]

I changed the wheels on my z3 from 16 inch with which I had no tramlining problems, to a set of 18 inch 108s. Looked a lot better but was 'undrivable'. The front wheels were fitted with run flats, standard on z4, the rears were Continentals. I spoke to the help desk at Blackcircles to ask whether different tyres would improve the situation and was told 'certainly' They were also concerned about changing from run flats without telling my insurance company. I bought some Good years for the front and cured the problem. Mine was front tyres only!

 

[Mario]

My 2 cents - I changed the front wishbones, the lolllipop to poly and crucially the track rod arms, not just the end but there is a ball/joint between the piece that screws to the rack and the track rod end that in my case was really really wobbly so I changed the lot on both sides - after that I did an alignment and asked the guys to dial max toe but within spec for a total of .21" ., now the car goes like it's on rails whichever tyres you put.

 

[mrscalex]

I got it after putting 18" wheels on. I think 18" wheels need fresh, tight suspension to work.

 

[Mario]

I never fitted more than 17" but the improvement I got was massive, steering is really precise and also really stable at high speeds.

 

[Rudyrov]

Running stock size 16 rims and at the moment Goodyears on rear and Cooper on the front.
It's started to get a little sloppy again recentlyand am looking to see whats worn o needs refreshing.
For me a good set of tires usually clears this up, have no intention to get away from the 16's at the moment.

 

[Pingu]

I've never had tramlining.

My tyres are as specified by BMW (Continental SportContact [RealOEM link]) and I have standard, unmodified suspension (except for Bilstein B8 rear dampers).

Has anybody with BMW specified tyres and original suspension (in good condition) suffered from tramlining?

 

[motco]

New tyres all round fixed mine, came back as the tyres wore down, and went away with the next set. Bit fussy these cars. Avons the first couple of times, Falkens now.

New fronts reduced it to very manageable levels on mine, and new rears later did nothing to either reduce it further or worsen it. My original tyres were so old that they were made of wood! Well they were that hard anyway, and cracked in the root of the grooves. Can't recall what I fitted though.

 

[Bampz]

When I first bought my 1.9 it tramlined like crazy ,changed front tyres for mid range tyres and tramlining completely disappeared ,had no Issues with my 2.8 which has polybrush lollipops fitted both cars ran on 17 inch wheels

 

[NigeB]

I have just voted for new tyres all round. Mine was terrible for tramlining when I got it. Changed the lollipops to poly bushes - helped a little. The car was on run flats when I got it - these were way too unforgiving - eventually ended up with a full set of uniroyal rainsport 3 as these are the lowest weight rated tyres and therfore most forgiving that i could find. Superb bits of rubber they are too!

 

[DrWong]

My Z tramlined badly when I bought it. It had new Avons at the back and ancient borderline slick Dunlops at the front. A new pair of matching Avons at the front cured it completely.

Before changing the tyres, I changed the front control arms and bushings, returned the lollipops back to OEM rubber from poly, and swapped the inner and outer track rods, due to an MOT fail. None of these improved the tramlining. Or perhaps the effect of the bald front tyres overwhelmed any impact these had.

I'm pretty sure my front shocks, springs and top mounts, and all of the suspension at the rear is original and suitably tired, i.e. these don't seem to be causing tramlining, at least in my case.

 

[Tom Martin]

Our Z3 also tramlined badly when we first got it. It had new Mitchelin pilot sport 3 on the front and 8 year old Bridgestone on the rear. Changed the rear, put 2 new tyres on to match the front and that eliminated the tramlining.

 

[DrWong]

h

Our Z3 also tramlined badly when we first got it. It had new Mitchelin pilot sport 3 on the front and 8 year old Bridgestone on the rear. Changed the rear, put 2 new tyres on to match the front and that eliminated the tramlining.

Given my experience was the opposite of this, i.e. new tyres at the back, old at the front, it would suggest that matching tyres all round is the important bit