Dead Steering and Wandering. Checked all the usual suspects....no luck....

[Zrtyler]

I'm trying to figrue out what's going on with my car. I've posted some videos along with my description to give as accurate a description as possible. My ability level is that I've done multiple car projects on a DIY level, so I know more than most but I'm not the most car-savvy dude.

The car is a 1999 e46 328i Sedan with 320k miles. Yes, you read that right...320k!
I have a dead spot from 11 - 1 o'clock on my steering wheel. The car is difficult to keep going straight at speed because of this, so I basically have to concentrate really hard just to not drive like a drunk person on the freeway. Everything seems fine when it's actually turning, there's no grinding or difficulty in turning the wheel.

I jacked up the car and checked it out. There is some play from the 3 to 9 positions on the front wheel, which you can see in the video I attached. The tie rods *seem* ok to me which I show in another attached video. No obvious signs of wear for the inner tie rod boot, it looks fresh and can't notice anything there. There seems to be a slight noise coming from what I would *guess* is coming from the area above the steering coupler where it meets the steering wheel. You can hear this in the video showing the steering knuckle.

I'm kind of at a loss and am thinking that the steering rack could be the culprit if the rack and pinion grooves are losing their definition. This is my best guess.

Any ideas??? Thanks so much guys.

Recently replaced:
1)Control Arms + bushings (with shitty Uroparts, found this out after the fact)
2)Rear Control Arm Bushing
3)Steering Guibo / coupler
4)Rear Trailing Arm Bushings
5) Rear Shocks
6) Then got an alignment after all this + brake fluid swap








Any ideas?

[Mless5]

Well you clearly have play in the wheel(s), I would look at inner tie rods closely, tire rack and wheel bearings next if I were you. Oh, and don't drive the car until the issue is resolved!

[Dave1027]

Got to be steering rack or tie rods or a little of both.

Your front wheel play video is only valid if the steering wheel is completely locked and unmovable.

[Zrtyler]

Got to be steering rack or tie rods or a little of both.

Your front wheel play video is only valid if the steering wheel is completely locked and unmovable.

It was locked

[Dave1027]

It was locked

But even though it's locked it can still move a little bit. That's the clunk clunk sound you are hearing. It's best to have someone sit in the driver seat and grab the steering wheel.

[Zrtyler]

Thanks for the tip, that seems obvious now.

I looked at it again from under the car while someone was turning the wheel. Everything in the steering assembly, including the male piece that connects the steering rack to the steering coupler, is turning in unison with the wheel. It looks like there's a bit of a lag in that 11 to 1 oclock zone when the steering assembly is turning to when the tie rods start moving laterally with it. Like the steering rack doesn't "catch" until 11 or 1.....

I suppose I could just replace the inner tie rods and hope that solves the problem but I think I'm gonna do those with the steering rack at the same time to have the greatest odds of solving the problem.

I hope I'm not wrong, I've never enjoyed burning money :P

[Honolulu]

Try the reverse approach: have someone hold the wheel while you try turn the wheels. The play will (should) manifest itself, so, starting at the outer tie rod ends, examine each joint for relative movement. You want each side of each joint to move in unison. When you come to a joint where both sides don't start to move at the same time, or don't move the same amount, you should have found your culprit.

This may take three persons... one to hold the steering wheel, one to rock the front tire, another to put a hand over each joint and see where the culprit lurks.

BTS, just because the tie rod boot is in good shape, doesn't mean the joint is okay, ditto other boots/joints.

Rode 30 miles one way in a friend's VW Bug, back in the day, to go surfing in the pre-dawn darkness. Bug was only running on 2.5 cylinders and there was 1/2 turn play in the steering(!). They had "adjusted" the steering box the previous day, and got the plug wires on backwards. Oh to be young again. Fortunately at that hour we were about the only weaving idiots around.

[dhurley34]

I would replace the inner and outer tie rods. If that doesn't solve it, then the rack is wore. The wheels will move a bit when testing.

[MIKYZZ4]

Ask to speak to Richard at the RackDoctor:https://shop.rackdoctor.net/main.sc
Describe your symptoms, I'm sure he would be able to give you some insight on your problem.

[Zrtyler]

I ordered the rack and inner tie rods from Rack Doctor this morning, got em 2-day shipped so I can get the job done this weekend. The price is similar to buying new inner tie rods so I figured what the hell....go for it. The problem is slowly getting worse and I don't want to waste anymore time.
Will post if I hit the dart board with this fix. Hell, I'll post if I missed the dart board with it as well....with my tail between my legs.

If it's not one or both of these two components it narrows down the likely culprit quite a bit, albeit I don't really know what that would be at this moment.

[MIKYZZ4]

I'm confident this will be the fix, I await your results.

[TonyAngel]

Zrtyler, did you get any results yet? I don't know if the problem that I had was the same as you are experiencing, but I had the same play in my steering wheel when I first test drove my E90. Visual check lead me to believe that it was the steering rack. Did a google and found that they were cheap, so I bought the car anyway. When I got the car home, I gave it an in depth once over, which included removing the air filter housing and duct work. When I removed it, I looked down and there was the steering knuckle, so thought I'd check it out. I had my son wriggle the steering wheel from about the 11:00 to the 1:00 positions. I noticed that the knuckle was moving, but the tie rods weren't. I thought, "yep, rack." Just for the heck of it, I reached down and grabbed the knuckle and shimmied it and what do you know, it was loose. It looked like the shaft going into the rack was turning with the knuckle, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't.

Below the knuckle there is a sort of sleeve that fits over the splines on the spindle that leads into the rack. This sleeve is tightened via a torx head screw. When I put a wrench on it, it didn't immediately move, but when I applied a bit of pressure, it moved. I tightened it down another turn or so and all of the slop went away. It was really hard to tell what was going on by just visually inspecting it. When I put my hands on it, the problem revealed itself pretty clearly. I'm sure I'm going to have to get in there to do it again, since I'm sure there's a torque spec for that screw that I didn't even get close to.

If you look down at the knuckle and can't see the torx head, just get someone to turn the wheel for you until it shows itself.

[Zrtyler]

Thanks for the tip Tony, I'm definitely going to check that out. Did you ever find out the torque spec on that?
I changed the steering rack. Both the inner and outer tie rods were pretty done for, as you can see in the video, but the original problem remains.
The wheel still has play from 11 to 1 in the steering and is hard to drive straight on the freeway.

[Zrtyler]

You know what, I thought you were talking about another point of the car, the top of the lower joint assembly. That's where I think the culprit for my issue must be. Either there or some kind of part inside the steering column is allowing the play? Not too sure where to go from at this point.

[TonyAngel]

I completely forgot about checking the torque spec. Of course, I'll remember when I start having the problem again. Since you changed the rack, I can only assume that you tightened the linkage from the steer column to the rack. Have you been able to narrow the problem down? Like checking to see if the rod ends are moving with the steering wheel. Did you check your wheel bearings? Jack the front end up and shimmy the tire 3:00 to 9:00 and then 12:00 to 6:00?

Since the rack was replaced, you need to narrow the problem down to being either before the rack or after it. If you have no play doing the shimmy test, look to the steering column. The shaft coming out of the steering column on my E90 is square. Is yours? If so, maybe put a wrench or crescent wrench on the column shaft and see if you have move the steering wheel while holding the shaft steady.

[Zrtyler]

I'd like to check it out this weekend if I have time. I think I can get a decent look at the upper steering assembly without even jacking up the car by removing the air filter and some other stuff like you did. Sound about right?

[TonyAngel]

I meant to check my son's car before he left, but missed the opportunity. Prom night. I'll take a look at it in the morning, but yeah, air intake plumbing sounds about right. Like I said, considering the new rack, just need to narrow to either before or after the rack. I'm just saying that because when my son came home saying that the steering on his car felt "loose," I immediately went to the control arm bushings and while in there discovered that everything needed to be changed. A little here and a little there added up. Wound up going with complete control arms (CABs and ball joints) and it made a world of difference.