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Sticky steering

Discuss problems you have had or are having with your Z4
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PirateRiderBen
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Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:19 am

Sticky steering

Post by PirateRiderBen » Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:37 am

Hello all! I just bought a 2005 3.0 6 speed Wednesday. 99.5k miles, essentially a 1 owner car.

Drove the car to work today where it was 80ish degrees and he car sat in the sun. Heading home I noticed the steering felt like it would stick for a brief moment. Long story short now I know this is a huge issue with these cars. I'm devastated because I love everything about the car. It seems short of a 3500$ repair to replace the whole column there's a way to drill into part of the column and lubricate it. I've searched high and low and have been unable to find any how to videos or decent pictures of WHERE I should drill? I'm hesitant to whip out the Bosch and start punching holes in my car until I know where exactly I need to drill. Can anyone provide photos or a link to a how to video where I can study exactly where I should be drilling in order to grease/lube the column and remedy this issue (hopefully)?

Thank you in advance!

-Ben

Kamuela
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Sticky steering

Post by Kamuela » Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:45 am

There 're two things to try. The drill and lube works if it's not bad. Otherwise, rotating the tension ring seems to be nearly a permanent fix. It worked for me, here's a little light reading


viewtopic.php?f=3&t=50994&hilit=Sticky+steering

mjennings23
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Sticky steering

Post by mjennings23 » Wed Oct 18, 2017 7:10 pm

If neither of those things work, along with any other fixes, a conversion to hydraulic is a lot cheaper than a new electric column, if you’re handy with a spanner it’s quite easy too as the early cars shared a vast amount with the E46 3 series.

There’s details on another thread, and I’ve done it myself too when my EPS failed completely, if you do decide to go down that road

Moffat
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Sticky steering

Post by Moffat » Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:58 am

If you go for the drilling and fitting a grease nipple option make sure you use a SILICON grease only as you are lubricating plastic. It workeworked a treat on my 2003 z4

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