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      10-09-2017, 11:46 AM   #23
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So what's the tool that is for sale on the Facebook page ?
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      10-10-2017, 04:09 AM   #24
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Originally Posted by K3vmcb View Post
So what's the tool that is for sale on the Facebook page ?
It looks a bit like a wheel locking nut key with 3 circular pins in a triangular format on the flat end. The other end has a hexagonal shape.
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      10-10-2017, 09:04 AM   #25
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Personally, I wouldn't be tightening nuts within steering racks unless you can tighten to within clearance tolerances and unless you know these or have the kit to check it I wouln't bother.

Over tighten, no click, potentially premature wear or seizure.... just head off the the dealer and get it sorted properly. Well known fault and definitely does not sound like the one in that video above.

If you find it's not covered under the warranty opt for a steering rack specialist.
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      10-10-2017, 12:23 PM   #26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alscoob View Post
Personally, I wouldn't be tightening nuts within steering racks unless you can tighten to within clearance tolerances and unless you know these or have the kit to check it I wouln't bother.

Over tighten, no click, potentially premature wear or seizure.... just head off the the dealer and get it sorted properly. Well known fault and definitely does not sound like the one in that video above.

If you find it's not covered under the warranty opt for a steering rack specialist.
Well known fault so what do I go to the dealer and say as there is no recall for this ? Thanks
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      10-13-2017, 05:50 AM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3vmcb View Post
Well known fault so what do I go to the dealer and say as there is no recall for this ? Thanks
When it occurred on mine I just called the dealer and said that I had a knock on the steering and if I called in could some one have a listen while I demonstrated, just to make sure it was not dangerous. I arranged to go over the next day. You mention the word dangerous and they wont turn you away.

I arrived tech bloke came out I waggled the wheel it went clunk clunk, he said common fault but OK to drive. I was ready to say it seemed a well document issue on forums and had copies of various posts in case he fobbed me off.

Arranged to have it booked in, they confirmed new rack required as everything else was OK, done that day but had to leave the car overnight as they have to code the rack to the car, so they did a complete software update which took a long while.

Mine was done at Specialist Cars Stevenage. Hope it helps.
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      10-13-2017, 07:56 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alscoob View Post
When it occurred on mine I just called the dealer and said that I had a knock on the steering and if I called in could some one have a listen while I demonstrated, just to make sure it was not dangerous. I arranged to go over the next day. You mention the word dangerous and they wont turn you away.

I arrived tech bloke came out I waggled the wheel it went clunk clunk, he said common fault but OK to drive. I was ready to say it seemed a well document issue on forums and had copies of various posts in case he fobbed me off.

Arranged to have it booked in, they confirmed new rack required as everything else was OK, done that day but had to leave the car overnight as they have to code the rack to the car, so they did a complete software update which took a long while.

Mine was done at Specialist Cars Stevenage. Hope it helps.
Mine too - couldn't really fault the service at Specialist at Stevenage
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      10-15-2017, 03:10 PM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alscoob View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by K3vmcb View Post
Well known fault so what do I go to the dealer and say as there is no recall for this ? Thanks
When it occurred on mine I just called the dealer and said that I had a knock on the steering and if I called in could some one have a listen while I demonstrated, just to make sure it was not dangerous. I arranged to go over the next day. You mention the word dangerous and they wont turn you away.

I arrived tech bloke came out I waggled the wheel it went clunk clunk, he said common fault but OK to drive. I was ready to say it seemed a well document issue on forums and had copies of various posts in case he fobbed me off.

Arranged to have it booked in, they confirmed new rack required as everything else was OK, done that day but had to leave the car overnight as they have to code the rack to the car, so they did a complete software update which took a long while.

Mine was done at Specialist Cars Stevenage. Hope it helps.
I'm away on holiday on Thursday I'll need to either try get in before I go or do it as soon as I'm back and get a lot of forum evidence etc in case they try saying to me it's nothing
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      02-28-2018, 11:37 PM   #30
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Hi i´m new in this forum, i had F30 328i 2013 i live in México and i have de same problem, this is what i find on internet some one called Tim

My noise was when I was driving and I hit a small bump in the road, (drivers side) also if you are stationary and you wiggle the steering left to right, expect a small knock noise when the engine is off, this is normal, when the engine is running the knock should be a lot less than when switched off. I have attached a picture of the nut that you can adjust, the picture is of a latter steering rack, but the adjustment nut is in the same location. If you look at the picture, I have black texta marks around the adjuster, (this later model has a three pin tool for the adjustment) on your year model you need a E20 mm security socket (or try fitting a normal socket over the nut, choose the tightest fitting one, and turn about 1/4 turn clockwise, then test drive, it should be much better, keep turning (1/4 at a time only, and keep testing, once the steering starts getting heavy, then back off a touch. A much easier way to get to the nut is through the engine bay. Take off the air filter cover and release the circle clamp attached to the air filter cover and move to one side, (you will not be able to disconnect it completely, but just enough to get some room) and access the steering nut from inside the engine bay, it is a lot quicker and you don't have to remove all the under the engine covers. as your looking at the engine bay the nut is on your left hand side down near the steering shaft, use a small torch to locate

I have some pics but i can´t upload them
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      03-01-2018, 01:19 AM   #31
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Turboprop View Post
Hi i´m new in this forum, i had F30 328i 2013 i live in México and i have de same problem, this is what i find on internet some one called Tim

My noise was when I was driving and I hit a small bump in the road, (drivers side) also if you are stationary and you wiggle the steering left to right, expect a small knock noise when the engine is off, this is normal, when the engine is running the knock should be a lot less than when switched off. I have attached a picture of the nut that you can adjust, the picture is of a latter steering rack, but the adjustment nut is in the same location. If you look at the picture, I have black texta marks around the adjuster, (this later model has a three pin tool for the adjustment) on your year model you need a E20 mm security socket (or try fitting a normal socket over the nut, choose the tightest fitting one, and turn about 1/4 turn clockwise, then test drive, it should be much better, keep turning (1/4 at a time only, and keep testing, once the steering starts getting heavy, then back off a touch. A much easier way to get to the nut is through the engine bay. Take off the air filter cover and release the circle clamp attached to the air filter cover and move to one side, (you will not be able to disconnect it completely, but just enough to get some room) and access the steering nut from inside the engine bay, it is a lot quicker and you don't have to remove all the under the engine covers. as your looking at the engine bay the nut is on your left hand side down near the steering shaft, use a small torch to locate

I have some pics but i can´t upload them
I haven't tried to sort mine yet or take it to bmw but I will need to as I now hear it constantly and it's annoying
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      03-01-2018, 03:01 AM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Turboprop View Post
I have some pics but i can´t upload them
Resize them to less than 2400 x 1500 pixels.
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      03-01-2018, 01:19 PM   #33
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lorcan View Post
Resize them to less than 2400 x 1500 pixels.
When i got to the upload (inser image) it´s send me this message
Please enter the URL of your image: http://

where can I upload them directly from my computer?
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      03-01-2018, 01:28 PM   #34
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https://postimages.org/

Load up to the site, then copy the link
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      03-02-2018, 10:18 AM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Turboprop View Post
When i got to the upload (inser image) it´s send me this message
Please enter the URL of your image: http://

where can I upload them directly from my computer?
Scroll down the newpost/reply screen until you see this:
Attached Images
 
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      03-02-2018, 04:39 PM   #36
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Updating photos


Quote:
Originally Posted by Turboprop View Post
Hi i´m new in this forum, i had F30 328i 2013 i live in México and i have de same problem, this is what i find on internet some one called Tim

My noise was when I was driving and I hit a small bump in the road, (drivers side) also if you are stationary and you wiggle the steering left to right, expect a small knock noise when the engine is off, this is normal, when the engine is running the knock should be a lot less than when switched off. I have attached a picture of the nut that you can adjust, the picture is of a latter steering rack, but the adjustment nut is in the same location. If you look at the picture, I have black texta marks around the adjuster, (this later model has a three pin tool for the adjustment) on your year model you need a E20 mm security socket (or try fitting a normal socket over the nut, choose the tightest fitting one, and turn about 1/4 turn clockwise, then test drive, it should be much better, keep turning (1/4 at a time only, and keep testing, once the steering starts getting heavy, then back off a touch. A much easier way to get to the nut is through the engine bay. Take off the air filter cover and release the circle clamp attached to the air filter cover and move to one side, (you will not be able to disconnect it completely, but just enough to get some room) and access the steering nut from inside the engine bay, it is a lot quicker and you don't have to remove all the under the engine covers. as your looking at the engine bay the nut is on your left hand side down near the steering shaft, use a small torch to locate

I have some pics but i can´t upload them
Attached Images
    
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      03-02-2018, 04:41 PM   #37
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Steering rack knock

The rack is assisted by a servo motor via a rubber belt to a worm drive, this is what does the work for you. The steering wheel and column interfaces to the rack via a normal rack and pinion set-up but with the addition of a torque encoder on the steering column just before the pinion. This torque encoder senses the steering movement and turns the servo motor accordingly. Servos do not natively have a holding torque, meaning they don’t mechanically have the ability to hold a fixed position like a stepper motor could, so instead the electronic controller must be pulsing the DC servo with AC to keep the position, this is probably somewhere in the KHz frequency range, I’ve not tested with an oscilloscope, but this is standard practice with CNC mills and lathes etc. This is what holds the steering in one position along with the mechanical resistance of driving a worm by trying to push the worm and not turn the gear.

As the servo is doing most of the work the rack and pinion do not fully mate, there is slack, and it is this slack you can feel when wobbling the wheel. When the car is switched off you are feeling exactly how much slack there is between the rack and pinion, when switched on you still feel a knock and this is the delay in reaction time between the torque encoder and the servo. In any other set-up this is excessive, and possibly here to, but I believe there is a reason for this, and it’s to do with the torque sensing. The pinion part of the rack needs to “float” to achieve zero torque otherwise the steering would be jittery and sent off in any direction with the smallest bump.

From what I can see the ability of the steering to self-centre is still done the old way by using steering geometry to push the rack back to centre, there seems to be no method to sense or electrically assist this.

Tightening that 3-hole nut on the top of the rack closes the gap between the rack and pinion by physically pushing the rack further into the pinion. I can see why this is carefully set at factory now as you do not want to completely close the gap, it must still have a calibrated amount of slack or there is a risk of messing up the steering input torque sensed by the torque encoder. This adjustemnt could lead to accelerated wear, but more likely is it will make the steering jittery. This may feel like better feedback, but I feel it is more likely the servo is working overtime with all the extra input from the torque encoder. BE VARY CAUTIOUS OF ADJUSTING THAT NUT!

Thing I do not like:
1. All assistance is driven through a rubber belt, so at some point the steering is destined to fail without warning.
2. The extra slack between the rack and pinion removes any chance of feedback from the road wheels to the driver.
3. The slack in the rack and pinion sound dreadful.
4. Pot holes and bumps can beat the reaction time of the steering creating a knock between the rack and pinion.
5. A loss of electrical power would mean sudden very heavy steering.
6. Any MOT station not familiar with this power steering set-up unique to BMW is going to issue an advisory or fail the car. VOSA no longer issue vehicle spicific test updates to stations like they used to.
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      03-27-2018, 11:57 AM   #38
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Hi Turboprop

I have a similar problem, did you at the end tighten the nut and did it solve the problem?
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      03-27-2018, 12:23 PM   #39
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I haven't tightened my nut on my rack I'm unsure what to do it was ment to be at a garage last week but I never got the time to go in past and show the problem
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      03-27-2018, 02:26 PM   #40
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3vmcb View Post
I haven't tightened my nut on my rack I'm unsure what to do it was ment to be at a garage last week but I never got the time to go in past and show the problem
Does anybody know if this issue (the knock I mean) is dangerous or not? I understand from the explanation of turboprop that is kind of a side effect of the design but does it create a vagueness in the steering response that can be dangerous?
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      06-06-2018, 02:07 AM   #41
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Hi guys had this with mine, sorted it yesterday with probably less than an eighth of a turn of the nut. Most cars these days have this nut its just a spring loaded tensioner which takes up the slack between the pinion and rack. Should be very slight adjustment needed to return the rack to where it was when new. As long as you are careful and take it easy tightening the nut I'm confident you'll be OK. After all you are only returning the rack closer to factory setting from where it should not have moved. Mechanical impact is never good and will obviously cause accelerated rack/pinion wear through time on top of the annoying clunk. I served my time as a light vehicle mechanic and any play in a rack is an mot failure here in UK probably the same elsewhere. So we are only wanting to remove play NO MORE!!
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      06-06-2018, 03:40 PM   #42
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Where'd you get the tool from?
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      06-06-2018, 04:29 PM   #43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Turboprop View Post
The rack is assisted by a servo motor via a rubber belt to a worm drive, this is what does the work for you. The steering wheel and column interfaces to the rack via a normal rack and pinion set-up but with the addition of a torque encoder on the steering column just before the pinion. This torque encoder senses the steering movement and turns the servo motor accordingly. Servos do not natively have a holding torque, meaning they don’t mechanically have the ability to hold a fixed position like a stepper motor could, so instead the electronic controller must be pulsing the DC servo with AC to keep the position, this is probably somewhere in the KHz frequency range, I’ve not tested with an oscilloscope, but this is standard practice with CNC mills and lathes etc. This is what holds the steering in one position along with the mechanical resistance of driving a worm by trying to push the worm and not turn the gear.

As the servo is doing most of the work the rack and pinion do not fully mate, there is slack, and it is this slack you can feel when wobbling the wheel. When the car is switched off you are feeling exactly how much slack there is between the rack and pinion, when switched on you still feel a knock and this is the delay in reaction time between the torque encoder and the servo. In any other set-up this is excessive, and possibly here to, but I believe there is a reason for this, and it’s to do with the torque sensing. The pinion part of the rack needs to “float” to achieve zero torque otherwise the steering would be jittery and sent off in any direction with the smallest bump.

From what I can see the ability of the steering to self-centre is still done the old way by using steering geometry to push the rack back to centre, there seems to be no method to sense or electrically assist this.

Tightening that 3-hole nut on the top of the rack closes the gap between the rack and pinion by physically pushing the rack further into the pinion. I can see why this is carefully set at factory now as you do not want to completely close the gap, it must still have a calibrated amount of slack or there is a risk of messing up the steering input torque sensed by the torque encoder. This adjustemnt could lead to accelerated wear, but more likely is it will make the steering jittery. This may feel like better feedback, but I feel it is more likely the servo is working overtime with all the extra input from the torque encoder. BE VARY CAUTIOUS OF ADJUSTING THAT NUT!

Thing I do not like:
1. All assistance is driven through a rubber belt, so at some point the steering is destined to fail without warning.
2. The extra slack between the rack and pinion removes any chance of feedback from the road wheels to the driver.
3. The slack in the rack and pinion sound dreadful.
4. Pot holes and bumps can beat the reaction time of the steering creating a knock between the rack and pinion.
5. A loss of electrical power would mean sudden very heavy steering.
6. Any MOT station not familiar with this power steering set-up unique to BMW is going to issue an advisory or fail the car. VOSA no longer issue vehicle spicific test updates to stations like they used to.
That's a great explanation - thanks.
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      06-07-2018, 01:30 AM   #44
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The tool was purchased from these people below for like £42. Very friendly, excellent communication and you can pay via paypal. Delivery was around three days I think via DPD tracked courier. Seem a bit pricey I know but I think its worth having this in your tool kit if your planning on keeping your car for a few years. The car is transformed after adjustment, no more cringing whilst going over bumps, and also mine was wandering a little at higher speeds.... All cured


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