Steering/Handling question for 2011 and 2012 F01/F02 owners

[xDrive50i]

My question to 2011 and 2012 F01/F02 owners: When switching driving modes from Normal or Comfort to Sport or Sport+ modes, does your steering feel different and the handling of the car change slightly?

When I got my car back in 2009 and until recently, when I switched into Sport or Sport+ modes from Normal or Comfort mode, the steering would tighten up, get more direct and require a bit more effort (muscle) to steer the car. I really liked this feature...

My car was in the shop and they reprogrammed a controller in the car and now the steering in all modes is as tight and requires more effort to steer/control the car as it was in the Sport and Sport+ modes before they reprogrammed the car!
To make matters worse, after the first reprogramming, the steering wheel would have a very strong vibration when the car was standing still and the engine was idling!
I didn't like this at all and returned the car to the shop and they reprogrammed it again. Now the vibration is not quite as strong but still present. So far they couldn't do anything about the steering effort issue.

Neither the vibration nor the tight steering in Normal or Comfort mode where present when I originally got the car.

So I would like to get some feedback from other F01/F02 owners in particular MY 2011 and 2012 owners. The reason I am asking for MY 2011 and 2012 is because they told me that this is recent software and that the steering and vibration is normal on new 7 series cars. I did test drive another 7 series after I brought the car back into the shop and indeed the particular car I test drove had both issues. Now I don't know if this is because they happened to reprogram that car before I test drove it (with the same software they programmed my car with) or if it came like that from the factory?!?

As I said, my car never had any kind of vibration no matter how mild, that could be felt in the steering wheel at standstill while the engine was idling!
There was also a definite change in handling characteristics in the steering wheel when switching into Sport or Sport+ modes, it would usually take a split second after changing modes, but you could feel the steering wheel get stiffer/tighter and require more effort to turn.

[xDrive50i]

Hmm, nobody who drives a 2011 or 2012 F01/F02 has any comments on this subject ?!?

[BMWrules7]

Sorry, I have been away from this forum for a while!

Anyway, I examined my 2011 750Li (X-Drive) for steering wheel vibration.

Here are my findings:

(1) Slight to moderate vibration after startup. In particular, during the time the RPM indicator exceeded 750, there was slight to moderate vibration communicated via the steering wheel.

(2) Once the engine had a few moments to stabilize and the RPMs dropped to ~750 then only slight vibration on the steering wheel.

(3) I attempted to find an objective way to see if the steering wheel communicates more vibration than other key parts of the car. I found by placing your hand firmly around the driver's inside metal door handle (pull it slightly, but not enough to open the door) that I found this metal door handle communicated nearly the same amount of vibration as the steering wheel.

Again, once stabilized the amount of vibration on the door handle and the steering wheel was slight. For example, I would consider the vibration produced by the Active Blind Spot Detection ("ABSD") to be severe. The vibration present in the steering wheel was not sufficient to mask the warning vibrations of the ABSD.

Now moving on to the issue of "sport" mode and the tightening of the steering wheel, I present the following:

(1) My car has the latest SW and was updated about two weeks ago.
(2) The latest SW fixed a number of problems. The Active Cruise Control with Stop and Go ("ACCSG") is much improved. Before the SW update the ACCSG would often times lose control of thecollisionsing the collison detection to alert. This required the driver to cancel the cruise immediatelyver by immediatly braking to avoid a crash.
(3) Overall, the integration of all systems in much more polished than it was with the old SW. For example, the Auto Hold operation (setting it to ON) is much improved. The older SW could allow you to engage an invalid state with the parking brake active and the autohold active.

Now, I regret to say that I love the comfort mode as most on this board would make fun of me. I am in my early 40s and not yet an old fart. I like the sport mode when I dive into a curve and I change modes dynamically.

There is no doubt that the chassis does tighten and the gear change pattern does give higher revs when in sport+. Sport mode will do the same if you have it configured to do so.

But, I have always found it very hard to detect a tightening of the steering wheel. I never noticed this and I always looked for it even before the SW update. I guess it feels a little different, but not enough to write home about.

If you have an objective way to measure the steering wheel turning force, please let us know!

Since we have very similar cars I would be happy to run any more tests for you or take pictures of anything now or that should come up in the future. Hopefully, I can count on you for the same!

Originally Posted by xDrive50i

My question to 2011 and 2012 F01/F02 owners: When switching driving modes from Normal or Comfort to Sport or Sport+ modes, does your steering feel different and the handling of the car change slightly?

When I got my car back in 2009 and until recently, when I switched into Sport or Sport+ modes from Normal or Comfort mode, the steering would tighten up, get more direct and require a bit more effort (muscle) to steer the car. I really liked this feature...

My car was in the shop and they reprogrammed a controller in the car and now the steering in all modes is as tight and requires more effort to steer/control the car as it was in the Sport and Sport+ modes before they reprogrammed the car!
To make matters worse, after the first reprogramming, the steering wheel would have a very strong vibration when the car was standing still and the engine was idling!
I didn't like this at all and returned the car to the shop and they reprogrammed it again. Now the vibration is not quite as strong but still present. So far they couldn't do anything about the steering effort issue.

Neither the vibration nor the tight steering in Normal or Comfort mode where present when I originally got the car.

So I would like to get some feedback from other F01/F02 owners in particular MY 2011 and 2012 owners. The reason I am asking for MY 2011 and 2012 is because they told me that this is recent software and that the steering and vibration is normal on new 7 series cars. I did test drive another 7 series after I brought the car back into the shop and indeed the particular car I test drove had both issues. Now I don't know if this is because they happened to reprogram that car before I test drove it (with the same software they programmed my car with) or if it came like that from the factory?!?

As I said, my car never had any kind of vibration no matter how mild, that could be felt in the steering wheel at standstill while the engine was idling!
There was also a definite change in handling characteristics in the steering wheel when switching into Sport or Sport+ modes, it would usually take a split second after changing modes, but you could feel the steering wheel get stiffer/tighter and require more effort to turn.

[xDrive50i]

Thanks BMWrules7 and dbs600 for your feedback! Very much appreciated.

@ BMWrules7: Thank you for your reply and thorough 'investigation' and reply
By all means, if you have any questions that I can answer, I'd be more than happy to help where I can.

In regards to the steering wheel vibration, it isn't as bad anymore after the last time the car has been in the shop, however my complaining about the the other issue of the steering feel being the same in all modes now has apparently gone up to some technicians via the PUMA system and they asked if they could have my car back in the shop to do measurements and apparently compare them to unpublished design data to figure out what is causing this issue... That leads me to believe that I was correct that something did change after they reprogrammed the car and that there should be a different feel in the Normal and Comfort vs. Sport and Sport+ modes!

We'll see what happens or what they can figure out...

@ dbs600: My car thankfully never had an issue with pulling to either side.

I usually also know who either worked on my car or instructed other technicians to perform certain tasks on my car, so I always get the full rundown of what work was performed on my car.