loose steering wheel and poorer handling

[phobias]

this might seem as quite a generic and vague question but still, here it goes.

i have jan 04 320ci done amount 35,000 km.
i noticed that my car's handling seemed a lot poorer than when i first got it.
it surfaces in 2 ways.

1) the steering wheel feels looser than before.
2) the handling is not as sharp and quick as previously, ie i have to make a larger turn on the steering wheel b4 the car would turn and the response is also a little slower.

i have checked the tyre pressure and tyre threads and they seemed fine.

the car still have warrenty and i am trying to get pml to fix it under warrenty. but i can't seem to quite isolate where the problem is.

any ideas what the possible problems might be? is it just wear and tear on the vehicle? should a 1.5 yr old vehicle have this sort of problems?

thanks!

 

[drift838]

Re: loose steering wheel and poorer handling

It's the front control arm bushing.

 

[Racebred]

Re: loose steering wheel and poorer handling

check on your steering spindle. Very lucky your car's still under warrenty, so you can save a couple of hundreds to change out that part. specifically it's the rubber at the joint along your steering spindle that has loosened. Over time, it'll get loosened even more and your angle of dead centre will increase, to a point.

at the same time, worn bushings will also sort of give the same feeling. get them checked out visually.

for the first problem, driving around with warped brakes, flatspotted tyres, and misaligned suspension settings will cause the problem. so if you are changing out your steering spindle, make sure you cure the above problem first, or this "accelerated wear" problem will surface again.

 

[E34EuroTouring]

Re: loose steering wheel and poorer handling

Get an ALIGNMENT done!. It does wonders to my steering and handling problems. Solved them all!. Try it!.
:whipper: