Telescopic Steering Column Issue / Problem

[ArNarX5]

Hi there...

I have a 2005 X5 3.0 and about a month ago I realized that the steering column was making some noise when going up and down. It was as if it needed oil or something on a gear. I took the car to the dealer and they said that the noise was normal. When I checked it after picking up the car, i noticed it was gone and perhaps they didn't hear it at all.

A week ago I realized that the UP/Down movement of the steering column is only limited to maybe 1 inch of travel where as before it was about 2 or 3 inches of travel. Also, as luck would have it, my car just hit 50,000 miles and so went the factory warranty.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be fixed easily or is it something major and costly? I wanted to take the bottom cover off and look at the column but I thought I'd ask and see if anyone else has come across this issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance...