Tilt steering wheel whacked out

[moose500]

Got a 2003 X5 3.0. Lately, when I go to start the car, the tilt wheel doesn't come down to the memorized position that it was set in. When I try to move the steering wheel, it hesitates but finally moves to the position that I like. then I will hit the seat memory button again to memorize the position. However, sometimes when I exit the car, the steering wheel doesn't raise like it should and just stays locked. Anyone dealt with this before? No fault codes stored either.

thanks,

MOOSE

[m5james]

Mine does the same thing w/ the side mirrors as well. I can hit the button like 3-4x and watch it slowly keep bumping itself till it finally goes where it' supposed to. I made a thread about this, you might try searching for problems before making your own thread so we can keep the information together on one post.

[albertax5]

the other week when it was realt cold here in alberta my tilt stopped working.i thought the motor was gone,it warmed up a bit and it magicaly started working and has been fine.so know my philosophy is just leave things alone and the x will fix itself...

[primetime]

Mine does it on occasion..but never for prolonged periods of time..It'll do it 1 -3 times in a row..then on day 4 all is back to normal for another couple months..just wierd tendancies in my opinion..nothing more. the mechanism still works fine..

[m5james]

I'd like to find the module that controls it all to give it a little electronics parts cleaner and di-electric grease at the connection. Sounds like it might be a common item, so unless it's a soldering problem internally, it might just be a connection that needs attention.

[moose500]

Just got it back from the shop. Nice little shop here in Sunnyvale, CA, called German Motor Specialits. They could not locate the problem either. However, there were no fault codes and when they reset the control unit, all seemed to work fine and still is. The control unit is the unit that stores and actually contains the buttons for the memory seats (I didn't know that). So here we are. It's working now but it got progressively worse and it was REALLY bad on COLD weather starts, interestingly enough. Sometimes I think BMW goes too far with this "comfort" stuff, lol. My 330i is fully equiped but it doesn't have a power tilt wheel... One less thing to break!

Thanks all,

Mike (MOOSE)

[rocky1536]

Mine did the same thing.

I was able to locate the problem bu unplugging the smaller plug on the back of the memory control module indicating the actual joystick as the issue.

Solution for me is plugging it in, setting each of the 4 settings for a few different wheel positions and then unplugging again. I no longer have control with the joystick but the motors are fine, it no longer "jogs" and it always goes to the correct position. It wasn't worth replacing the joystick, as i never need to adjust the wheel further than the 3 memory settings..

[m5james]

My mirrors also do the same thing, so is the control module behind the steering column joystick?

[rocky1536]

I'm not positive, but I think the mirrors are an independent problem as mine go off in there own world no matter what I do.

The control module is the unit to your left, on the side of the seat (that has the 1,2 and 3 memory buttons).

Take the plastic cover off, unplug the smaller plug-I believe there are only 2...

This completely fixed any problem my steering wheel had going to the correct place when I got in the car, before I would have to hit the "1" memory button 5-10 times just to get the wheel to the correct place. It doesn't "fix" the problem, but if you don't need to adjust your wheel often, than it can be considered a fix I guess...

[moose500]

Thanks Rocky. What's the easiest way to remove the plastic panel? Also, I had the same problems with my mirrors and the shop fixed one under warranty. They replaced the motor and now it is dead on. Good fix. My steering wheel is the one that's whacked now.