[PriceyUK]

Hi all,

Long story short my partner's Pre-LCI F30 320i EPS motor took a hit and as such was crooked with bent screws, and there was an audible belt slipping noise when turning the wheel with the engine on - so initially I replaced that and the belt noise went away, but there's now a knocking: https://youtube.com/shorts/IkGhoqnPUEY?feature=share

A mechanic friend of mine (doesn't work on BMWs) is having a look at it during his work time (inbetween jobs, when he gets chance). So far he's looked over the front end and said everything's fine with it, the knock is coming from the rack itself.

So as much as it could be a waste of time, I planned to try a used rack that's listed as compatible with the F30 - but I can't find any for sale that match any of the part numbers (I couldn't get the part number of the original rack as the ink is somewhat faded, for whatever reason. So initially I looked at RealOEM and there's 12 part numbers).

So I went ahead and picked up one listed as compatible, but the input shaft + its housing is shorter than the one that's on the car:

View post on imgur.com

Which leads me to two questions:
1) Considering the highlighted area looks seperate & bolted on, can it simply be swapped over to the donor rack and everything's good to go compatibility-wise?

2) What does the two-digit code mean on rack's labels? Is that some sort of compatibility?

It's a bit of a crap situation, but any help is appreciated, thanks!