heat related steering issue for Z4

[louis]

fellow Z4 owners,

have any of you experienced the above problem?

presentating symptom is a "sticky steering" that requires substantially more effort to turn. Onset of problem is after the car's been left to bake in the hot sun for a while. this is often associated with steering that does not automatically centre after a turn. stiffness in steering occurs regardless of whether the "sports" button has been activated.

Symptoms do not appear in the morning or at night when the temperature is cooler.

this has been described and discussed in detail on a US forum and i think i may be experiencing it on my Z4 as well. would like some feedback from local Z4 owners before i inform my CSA abt this.

thanks

louis

 

[TripleM]

Re: heat related steering issue for Z4

So far so good dude
Do keep us posted on the outcome later on..

Is it Z4's common problem or ?

Anyway, send ur car in ASAP while waiting for response...

Gd luck

 

[louis]

Re: heat related steering issue for Z4

yes it is. apparently its pretty prevalent in places with high temperature, but not everyone seems to be affected by it.

here are a couple of links i dug up, many more can be found on roadfly:

http://www.z4um.com/viewtopic.php?t=11387

http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e85/6699836-1.html

http://bimmer.roadfly.com/bmw/forums/e85/6766470-1.html

the problem was first described in 2004 and i actually knew abt it before i bought my Z4... but back then i thought: "nah, it just a handful of guys overseas, can't happen to me, BMW would have sorted it out by the 2005 production run..."

evidently not.

its discussed more on roadfly forum than it is on Z4um, so that's probably why you haven't read abt it.

its very noticeable for me because my car is sheltered at home and i leave home around 7ish in the morning when its still quite cool. My car is parked in an open field when i'm at SGH though, so it gets really heated up before my journey home and that's when the problem occurs.

there have been a few accidents overseas that the owners have attributed to this problem, so i suppose its prudent to keep a look out for it even if you don't have it right now.

i'll go back to PML asap and update you guys once i know anything.

cheers.

 

[TripleM]

Re: heat related steering issue for Z4

thks dude for the link..

 

[xs4ed]

Re: heat related steering issue for Z4

Hello, Iám mailing this from Curacao in the Caribbean. I'am also experiencing the sticky wheel and as everyone else it becomes worse after the sun has had a go, which is every day here! Does anyone have the solution? Part numbers etc would be very helpfull.