Squeeky Steering.....
 

Hey All,

Not sure if its just mine but sometime my steering wheel makes a squeeking noise when you turn the wheel both left and/or right.
Its like something is rubbing but cant put it down to what it is.......
Is it just me???

Regards
Rod.

By squeeking noise, would you characterize the sound as being similar to the noise made by rapidly dragging your finger nail over cloth (say your pants leg)?

That's the sound we had. The sound would start once the car had been driven for awhile, i.e., warmed up. The sound would occur on both clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation of the steering wheel, whether the car was moving or not.

The dealership replaced the steering rack (under warranty) and it has been fine ever since.

I have the same noise. Figured I would just take it in sometime in the future. Hopefully the steering wheel wont fall off anytime before then.

Has anyone tried just putting some lubricant between the wheel and the column?

I had the same problem and the dealer replaced the steering rack under warranty as well. No problem since last winter.

I got a whole new steering rack last month...

At first the dealer said they could not reproduce the problem. Make sure you go on a drive with your SA, QA or a mechanic...

After you get one of them to acknowledge it, they'll fix it pretty fast...

I have this noise too, but it's definitely coming from the steering wheel. I can't imagine the steering rack has anything to do with it. Different sound maybe...

I went to my dealershop last month and they said "according to BMW's standard level of noise... blah blah... it's not really loud..."
and then he said in the end," it's nor~~mal~!!""
what the heck!!!!!!
then what the heck is abnormal!!!
god damn... i hate my local dealershop. :(

anyway, I still have the noise but only when i turn the steering wheel to clock-wise.

I'm getting inconsistent steering assist from my rack. It's very subtle, and I could be just be going crazy. However, I'm pretty sure it's not normal. Sometimes the steering has too much freeplay, so it can feel kind of loose and lifeless.

The problem I had, had no effect on steering boost at all. It was just a grungy noise, as if there was not enough fluid when one turned the steering wheel left or right. It doesn't appear at startup, and only after the car is warm and has been driving for a while... Same symptoms as others have listed above...

I should also note that I had servotronic.

The problem is something that effects X3's & Z4's (which both have electronic steering), its pretty well documented on Z4 boards... Whether or not a entire new rack is necessary, i'm not sure - but it did cure the problem for me, so at least I'm happy...

I'm going to give my local dealership a call.......would it still be under warranty if I bought the car second hand and from a different state in Australia? Its a 2004 model so would be running close to the 3 year mark....