When I picked up my 03 4.4i it had a really very, very annoying squeak coming from around the steering column. The 19's do not help as it rides a bit firmer so every minor bump would drive me nuts.To help my diagnosis, when I retracted the steering wheel all the way, the squeak stopped so I concluded it was in the steering column trim or the column itself.
I ran it by the stealer and they said it would be a couple of hours work to diagnose it at a handsome $110/hr
Did a ton of research here and decided to remove the lower trim panel on drivers side to access the steering column trim. This involves first removing a plastic part above the pedals that houses the foot well light and the PDC beeper/gong thingy. I discovered that BMW uses shaped blocks of polystyrene foam (you know, the solid white stuff that is used to protect sensitive electrical equipment in transit and molded to fit the shape of the part) behind the trim. I assume these are to protect occupants knees/legs etc from hitting metal parts behind dash in a wreck.
Anyway, the piece behind the central portion of the dash had come adrift and was rubbing the piece directly behind the lower trim panel on the drivers side. Every time the lower trim moved, the pieces would rub together and to appreciate how annoying this noise was, try rubbing two pieces of polystyrene packing together...squeak, squeak, SQUEAK
I replaced the foam where it should live and wedged is securely back in place with some of that double sided foam draft excluder tape that you use around windows, doors etc in the house.
Re-assemble dash and presto, annoying squeak that was driving me to distraction GONE ! Only part to work out was why retacting the steering column stopped the noise...well, the trim around the column when fully retracted would push up on the polystyrene block behind the dash and move it back away from the other part it was squeaking on so it really had nothing to do with the steering column.
Thanks to all for the information in the posts that allowed me to exclude a bunch of options and as always, having tech data to help dismantle the dash was great.
David
02-13-2008, 11:48 AM
I've got a couple small rattles coming from behind the mid dash area that I need to troubleshoot one of these days 
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