Originally Posted by oldskewel

I did this "repair" today on my 2001 X5 with 170k miles. Worked perfectly. Some more info:

I had about 3/4" of noticeable free-play in the steering wheel. Not enough for major concern, but not good. I thought it might be the double u joint, but it turned out it was this exact problem swissfrank described, bolt #5.

It was literally a 5 minute repair. Probably easier due to my 3.0's cavernous engine compartment.

With my son at the steering wheel, car not jacked up, key in to release the steering lock, but engine off, he wiggled the wheel while I looked and felt for where the play was. It was clearly right at that point. None at all in the double u joint. Then some play down where the shaft goes into the steering rack (which is not a problem for me, it turns out).

So I loosened the E10 bolt, just using extensions, not removing anything else at all. Wiggled things around to estimate what was going on down there, but without disassembling anything else.

Put some red loctite on the screw and screwed it back in, having my son wiggle the steering wheel very slightly (I told him 1/8 inch) as I was doing it so things would seat themselves properly. I think this wiggling / reseating is a critical part of the repair. Torqued to 35 Nm (a guess, turns out to be about right).

Went for a test drive and the slack is completely gone.

I expect this is the sort of problem that helps if it can be caught early. Really - 5 minutes.