Alignment

I recently replaced the tie rods in my E39 BMW 530i and needed an alignment. Badly. I had made an appointment for an alignment, but when I took the car there, I was told that they were not capable of aligning it. I am still unsure of why they told me this, but it had something to do with the steering angle sensor needing reprogramming.

I then decided I would take the car to the BMW Dealership for the alignment; a decision which, looking back on things, was not a great one. The closest BMW dealership is an hour and forty-five minutes away. However, I still made my appointment and drove to the dealership on that Thursday afternoon.

I got to the dealership and sat down to wait for the alignment to be completed. However, when the alignment was finished, my name was called and I went to meet with the service advisor. I was told that, due to a bent strut tower, the camber alignment was out of spec and the adjustment range was incapable of fixing this. I payed for the alignment and was ready for the long drive home.

However, the technician had rolled my window down. My driver-side window hadn’t been working about 85% of the time. When he went to roll the window back up after the alignment had been completed, it wouldn’t move. After trying multiple tactics, the window still would not roll up. Seeing as how the outside temperature was ~15°F, I wasn’t about to drive home with the window all the way down. Thus, my mom and I were rented a car.

We drove back to the dealership the next evening to pick up my car and drop off the rental. The window was up and I was charged for an hour of diagnosis and was told that the window switch module was likely the cause of the window not working. I was quoted $350 for the new module. Of course, I didn’t have the dealership replace this part.

When I got home, I went on the BMW forum and found somebody who was willing to sell me their E39 driver-side window switch module for $50. I received the module a few days later, installed it in three minutes, and my windows are working perfectly. My next job is fixing the bent strut towers, after which I may have to get another alignment… of course.