Has anyone experienced floaty/twitchy steering on their e39 at highway speeds (say 80 mph)? The best I could describe it is as if you were kept getting hit by crosswinds and had to keep correcting the car's path. It's not very apparent and it's not that the steering wheel gets pulled out of your hands (like when the car is tramlining). Yet, it detracts from the fun of driving as the car feels loose and not particularly stable at higher speeds. Feels more like a boat or an American cruiser.
Apparently, BMW's own recommendation is to tweak the alignment specs a little:
For the record, it's an '02 530i manual with sport pkg, 32K miles, OEM rims and new 235/45/17 Dunlop SP Maxx tires. I had the alignment done when I bought the car 2 months ago - it is now practically in the middle of the recommended alignment range specs. All the suspension/steering components have been looked over with no sign of damage of any kind.
Maybe it's just me - maybe I'm expecting too much from this car, but honestly, it doesn't feel as solid on the hwy as a b5 A4 that I used to own before. And it's not the roads either - they're as smooth as can be.
If there's anything that you can think of that could correct this twitchy steering, I'm all ears.
Someone on another board suggested replacing items 9, 10, 11 in this graph: