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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

2003 - 2009, roadster, coupe, facelift
mjennings23
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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by mjennings23 » Sun Sep 03, 2017 4:43 pm

Hello all!

Bit of a guide on my hydraulic steering conversion coming soon, although regrettably I took far less photos than I'd planned. Poor weather and tiredness combined!

A query, however! Does anyone know how to code out the electric power steering in NCS expert? It's irritating me having my warning on!


EDIT: Here we go!

So, I have to be honest and say I took significantly less photos than I had planned, so I'm afraid visual aids are at a minimum today! :rofl:

First step, simple enough. Make space! Took out the engine fan and slam panel, along with the airbox. Gives more freedom with routing the pipes.
Image

Serpentine belts came off next, the longer belt needs to be replaced with an E46 M54 belt, I just went on ebay and searched for the part number pulled from RealOEM for a 325i. As they both had to come off, I replaced both.

Disconnect the intermediate shaft next, I opted to do it from both ends as I didn't want to try removing the track rods while on the car. They're reasonably new (1000 miles or so!) so I didn't replace them again. It's a bolt with a nut on top, nice and awkward. Of course, my tool kit was missing the 16mm spanner I needed to grab the nut at top, and a socket would be too deep. Luckily, raiding my dad's cavernous tool box led to finding a very old 5/8" spanner, which is about 0.05mm difference. That'll do then!
Image

One point of note here, if you don't have a way to secure the rack to loosen off the inner rods, do it before removing the rack. I had to put it back in when I couldn't get the track rods off.

The intermediate shaft for me same off with ease, some people may mind it not so simple. I had a pry bar at the ready in case it was needed. Drop the old intermediate shaft out, you can't reuse it due to the E46 rack having a smaller pinion then the E85/6.

Swapped my track rods over and installed the new rack. Simple job, two bolts/nuts, torque to spec. Reattach the ball joints to the wheel hubs and centre the rack. Install the Z4M intermediate shaft, but don't use new bolts yet. I put it on, checked it was turning correctly and reaching lock at equal points. First couple of times I was a couple of splines out but got there in the end.

Now, as I knew I was going to have to detach the upper column again to dig out the motor, I left these bolts for the time being.

Next up came the hydraulics install. First up is remove the pulley at the bottom of the engine, this is where the hydraulic pump will go. From reading, it seemed the best option was a refurb LF-20. The LF-30 superseded it, but also runs at a higher pressure and therefore higher assistance. From reading of people with E46's that made the change and didn't like it, I figured it would be even worse in our cars with a lighter front end.

Next up, reservoir. This mounts in the same place as on the E46, next to the oil filter housing above the alternator. I used a new Meyle part as the filter in these is not serviceable. Feed pipe runs to the pump, return from the fluid cooling loop.
Image

I used regular jubilee clips, the BMW ones require a special tool to clamp which I don't have.

From here on it was an easy 'follow the drawing' job, with the diagram I printed from RealOEM. Make sure the banjo bolts are torqued properly etc, and job's a good'un!
Image

Sunday was the 'sort the motor' day, as well as getting the system filled up and bled. Removing the steering column was, for lack of a better word, a nightmare. :thumbsdown:

There's already guides for this on the forum, but let's just say getting the heavy motor to go where you want and avoiding dropping everything on your face at the same time is tiring!

So I detached the motor and removed the pinion. Motor back in and all plugged up (to avoid any DTC/DSC issues), put the column and steering back in place and reconnected the battery.

Ha my dad helping at this point, stood over the PS reservoir with 3 litres of Dexron 4 fluid ready to pour. Filled up as much as it would take, and started the engine. Took a good few minutes of constantly cycling the steering from lock to lock to remove all the bubbles, and it didn't take much fluid as the refurbed pump and rack were already primed. Makes the job easier then!

So after no more bubbles were coming through, took it for a test drive. Felt a bit stiff at first due to a small bit of air still in the system, but quickly pushed that out and got up to full power.

Result? A Z4 that has a positive steering feel! A long day's work for an amateur DIYer like myself, I'm sure the more experienced and equipped would fly through it in a day. I gave myself two, although I didn't start until midday Saturday and was finished by 4pm Sunday, including removing and tidying up the seats.
Last edited by mjennings23 on Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by markplant » Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:22 pm

Machine monkey may know, or try a search of the people that have already done the conversion and drop them a pm
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mjennings23
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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by mjennings23 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:11 am

Updated with a quick guide, to be fair I mostly just followed Raymonds from a while back. Happy to answer questions!

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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by Machine monkey » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:29 am

Glad you have got it done. I must get mine finished and let you know if you can remove that heavy motor or not.
My little blue zed is in lots of bits. With lots of things started and not many finished! I may have found the limits of my time and ability!!

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Post by mjennings23 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:40 am

I tried unplugging it, and the whole DTC and DSC systems did not like it missing! I assume they must be linked through one of the BUS systems, but to be honest there's no pinion on it now interfering with the hydraulic system, it just whirrs a bit at startup and then shuts off.

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Post by MACK » Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:56 am

Great work you must be both relieved and "like a kid in a toy shop" it all went to plan. Forgive my ignorance but why did you do it, did your rack fail? Im wondering jow much this costs when compared to a recon rack. How much are you out of pocket? I guess at this point even if you can't code out the EPS bulb you could just take the clocks apart and remove it. Still be leaving codes but at least you won't see a light all the time.
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Post by mjennings23 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:06 am

MACK wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:56 am Great work you must be both relieved and "like a kid in a toy shop" it all went to plan. Forgive my ignorance but why did you do it, did your rack fail? Im wondering jow much this costs when compared to a recon rack. How much are you out of pocket? I guess at this point even if you can't code out the EPS bulb you could just take the clocks apart and remove it. Still be leaving codes but at least you won't see a light all the time.
The column was failing, so I saw no benefit to spending money repairing the electric when the hydraulic is better and similar costs.

Rough costs as follows...

Recon Rack £150
Z4M intermediate shaft second hand £75
Recon LF20 pump £70
Pump pulley £12
New reservoir £15
Pipes £50
Bolts, clips etc £40
New belts £20

So, roughly £430 on parts, and maybe 15 hours work including removing seats. Considering you'd be looking at a similar amount for the electric column repair, I think that it was the smartest move.

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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by Joycey » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:19 am

mjennings23 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:06 am
MACK wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:56 am Great work you must be both relieved and "like a kid in a toy shop" it all went to plan. Forgive my ignorance but why did you do it, did your rack fail? Im wondering jow much this costs when compared to a recon rack. How much are you out of pocket? I guess at this point even if you can't code out the EPS bulb you could just take the clocks apart and remove it. Still be leaving codes but at least you won't see a light all the time.
The column was failing, so I saw no benefit to spending money repairing the electric when the hydraulic is better and similar costs.

Rough costs as follows...

Recon Rack £150
Z4M intermediate shaft second hand £75
Recon LF20 pump £70
Pump pulley £12
New reservoir £15
Pipes £50
Bolts, clips etc £40
New belts £20

So, roughly £430 on parts, and maybe 15 hours work including removing seats. Considering you'd be looking at a similar amount for the electric column repair, I think that it was the smartest move.
Amazing. I think my rack might be on its way. I'm getting a strange pulsing feeling driving me bonkers. What rack did you use? This might be a job for me over the winter.
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Going hydraulic! And a coding query for you experts

Post by MACK » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:35 am

mjennings23 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:06 am
MACK wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 10:56 am Great work you must be both relieved and "like a kid in a toy shop" it all went to plan. Forgive my ignorance but why did you do it, did your rack fail? Im wondering jow much this costs when compared to a recon rack. How much are you out of pocket? I guess at this point even if you can't code out the EPS bulb you could just take the clocks apart and remove it. Still be leaving codes but at least you won't see a light all the time.
The column was failing, so I saw no benefit to spending money repairing the electric when the hydraulic is better and similar costs.

Rough costs as follows...

Recon Rack £150
Z4M intermediate shaft second hand £75
Recon LF20 pump £70
Pump pulley £12
New reservoir £15
Pipes £50
Bolts, clips etc £40
New belts £20

So, roughly £430 on parts, and maybe 15 hours work including removing seats. Considering you'd be looking at a similar amount for the electric column repair, I think that it was the smartest move.
Can't argue with that. Good job well done. Is your sport button still working for sharpening the throttle or is the esp light being on preventing this somehow?
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Post by Joycey » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:41 am

Another thought I've just had, all the conversions I've seen are on M54 engines I wonder if it's any different on the N52 engine. :slaphead:
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Post by mjennings23 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:42 am

Used a reconditioned E46 purple tag rack, its the closest in terms of speed to the standard Z4 rack.

Sport button still works to sharpen the throttle, assume because the motor still works and communicates, just has no load applied to it. Obviously has no impact on steering. The LF20 setup has the steering slightly heavier than "normal" mode for the electric, but lighter than "sport" mode. However, as I said the feedback is much better.

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Post by mjennings23 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:43 am

Joycey wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:41 am Another thought I've just had, all the conversions I've seen are on M54 engines I wonder if it's any different on the N52 engine. :slaphead:
The steering gear would be the same, but the pump may have to be changed? Not sure if the pump mounting has changed.

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Post by MACK » Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:01 pm

Joycey wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:41 am Another thought I've just had, all the conversions I've seen are on M54 engines I wonder if it's any different on the N52 engine. :slaphead:
Perhaps the e46 pump/res will fit the n52 engine making it an easy conversion. If they don't I think the non active steering version of power steering on the e90 330i with the n52 engine is a purely mechanical system. So in theory the n52 pump and reservoir will be useable so if you can mate that to the e46 rack/pipework it should work. However the only real issue I can think of is the pressure from the n52 pump may differ to the m54 making the steering feel heavier/lighter.
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Post by MACK » Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:05 pm

mjennings23 wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:42 am Used a reconditioned E46 purple tag rack, its the closest in terms of speed to the standard Z4 rack.

Sport button still works to sharpen the throttle, assume because the motor still works and communicates, just has no load applied to it. Obviously has no impact on steering. The LF20 setup has the steering slightly heavier than "normal" mode for the electric, but lighter than "sport" mode. However, as I said the feedback is much better.
Sounds like other than the bulb on the dash clocks its a win win! I guess it would be interesting to see how your steering feels in terms of feel/weight when compared to z4m. not sure how the normal zed compares in turns lock to lock to the M.
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Post by adam1985 » Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:38 pm

Joycey wrote: Mon Sep 04, 2017 11:41 am Another thought I've just had, all the conversions I've seen are on M54 engines I wonder if it's any different on the N52 engine. :slaphead:
AFAIK there havent been any N52 hydraulic conversions but I will be interested if you get it working :thumbsup:
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