# X3 jittery ride - would appreciate some thoughts



## southern-star (Oct 10, 2020)

Hi all,
This is my first time posting on bimmerfest and I apologise if this topic has been discussed before but I have searched the threads and saw nothing similar to my issue.

The story is this.

I have a G01 X3 in x20d M-sport trim which is driven by the missus as her daily and is only slightly over a year old. A few months ago, her car got rear ended and it spent 6 weeks in the workshop to get it fixed and she got her car back In August. Recently, she sent it the dealer for the annual servicing and to get them to fix some warranty defects. What happened thereafter is very bizarre as after we got the car back from the dealer, we noticed that the car rides worse than before. In fact, the car drove like a flying carpet on the road after it got back from the body repair shop. 

To our complaints about the harsh ride quality, the dealer's service assistant thinks that we are imagining it as he said that they had reset the computer in the car and it is now "back to factory" default. However we feel the ride of the car has now become very harsh and even I get nauseous driving it. There seems to be some low harmonics coming from the damper and transmitted into the steering and via the seat. As it is my wife's car, I thought she was imagining it initially but I drove it and now I am convinced there is something wrong as well.

Her car is supposed to be fitted with adaptive dampers but it feels like there is no damping at all. We can feel every road imperfection coming through and my head is dizzy after a long drive of say an hour.

We are at our wits end and I would be happy to hear any suggestions of what the fora in general thinks may be the issue or what can I do to mitigate this? Of course selling the car is an extreme option that I am considering as well as she has taken it back a few times and it is still not solved.


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## Doug Huffman (Apr 25, 2015)

Ensure the tires are proper and inflated to door post pressure. Ensure that the alignment is precise for comfort and not for handling (and not merely within BMW specification).


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## southern-star (Oct 10, 2020)

Doug Huffman said:


> Ensure the tires are proper and inflated to door post pressure. Ensure that the alignment is precise for comfort and not for handling (and not merely within BMW specification).


Thanks for the response Doug. Tyres are at 32psi which is what the chart on the door post says. Initially I thought the tyres were over inflated but they were not. Wheel alignment is slightly out, not sure how that happened since the service had nothing to do with the alignment. They did change the brake pads on the rear though.

Other similar spec'd X3 we drove from the dealership (demo cars) did not behave like ours, so we know for sure it is a one off. However, I suspect the dealership is dragging their feet because it is getting too hard to solve since no one has any idea why it is the way it is.


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## southern-star (Oct 10, 2020)

Thought I would provide a follow up to this thread for future reference.

The car was dropped off with the dealer but before that, we insisted on a ride with their lead mechanic around the block, on rough roads and on smooth roads. The mechanic agreed that the car was jumping all the way and agreed that there may be an issue with the dampers.

We got our car back earlier this week after leaving the car with them for about 10 days. The conclusion was that there was a software glitch and the adaptive dampers was permanently in hardest / sport mode and did not react to the road profile. We test drove the car on the same circuit with the mechanic after we got it back and agreed that the ride improved considerably and there was a noticeable difference in sport mode and comfort mode.

We had it for a few days now and don't have the nauseous feeling anymore. I would say that it is "solved". One of the suggestions that the mechanic said was to consider higher profile tyres which would help too but this is back to what I am expecting an adaptive damper to be like.

In summary, sometimes, it take many attempts to get the dealer to see your problem but one needs to persist to get a resolution.


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## Shiloh51933 (Jul 11, 2020)

southern-star said:


> Hi all,
> This is my first time posting on bimmerfest and I apologise if this topic has been discussed before but I have searched the threads and saw nothing similar to my issue.
> 
> The story is this.
> ...


Check the tire pressure first, the higher the tire pressure the harsher the ride. During cold weather the psi goes up.


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## Doug Huffman (Apr 25, 2015)

Shiloh51933 said:


> During cold weather the psi goes up.


*Impeached*. Never to be forgotten!


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