Car's back at the garage

N

ncrossy1980

Active member
 Newcastle Upon Tyne
And I stand by my decision to put this in the M specific area! :stir:
Just after a couple more opinions of some experienced owners if possible.
When I test drove the car, the air con wasn't working. Salesman said they'd have that looked at and claimed it was fixed when I collected, re-gassed. It was not, well they might have gassed it but it definitely isn't working. The electric wing mirrors had an intermittent fault, new relay getting put in today. But my biggest concern is this, and the reason why I put it in this section as I know the M has a different power steering rig to the standard Z.
On full lock, left or right, there's a 'whistling' noise. It's isn't a creak or an electronic buzz, it's a high pitched whistle. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
It's in the garage now as I speak, there's no chance they'll have everything done today as if parts are required they'll need to be ordered in. Which especially for the air con is a nuisance as I told them about that on the test drive. But if anyone has any previous experience with the steering noise, I'd appreciate some feedback :thumbsup:
 
RE the air con ? Is the garage BMW or BMW specialist ?
Could be worth checking if its gone into "transport" mode ? I think the rear demist doesn't work as well if so :?
If they have re gassed then that should highlight any condensor problem's
 
ncrossy1980 said:
And I stand by my decision to put this in the M specific area! :stir:
Just after a couple more opinions of some experienced owners if possible.
When I test drove the car, the air con wasn't working. Salesman said they'd have that looked at and claimed it was fixed when I collected, re-gassed. It was not, well they might have gassed it but it definitely isn't working. The electric wing mirrors had an intermittent fault, new relay getting put in today. But my biggest concern is this, and the reason why I put it in this section as I know the M has a different power steering rig to the standard Z.
On full lock, left or right, there's a 'whistling' noise. It's isn't a creak or an electronic buzz, it's a high pitched whistle. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
It's in the garage now as I speak, there's no chance they'll have everything done today as if parts are required they'll need to be ordered in. Which especially for the air con is a nuisance as I told them about that on the test drive. But if anyone has any previous experience with the steering noise, I'd appreciate some feedback :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Not sure this belongs in the M forum.... I recall this noise from my 2.5i e85 on full lock. Normal with the electronic power steering on that car
 
Tim182 said:
ncrossy1980 said:
And I stand by my decision to put this in the M specific area! :stir:
Just after a couple more opinions of some experienced owners if possible.
When I test drove the car, the air con wasn't working. Salesman said they'd have that looked at and claimed it was fixed when I collected, re-gassed. It was not, well they might have gassed it but it definitely isn't working. The electric wing mirrors had an intermittent fault, new relay getting put in today. But my biggest concern is this, and the reason why I put it in this section as I know the M has a different power steering rig to the standard Z.
On full lock, left or right, there's a 'whistling' noise. It's isn't a creak or an electronic buzz, it's a high pitched whistle. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
It's in the garage now as I speak, there's no chance they'll have everything done today as if parts are required they'll need to be ordered in. Which especially for the air con is a nuisance as I told them about that on the test drive. But if anyone has any previous experience with the steering noise, I'd appreciate some feedback :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Not sure this belongs in the M forum.... I recall this noise from my 2.5i e85 on full lock. Normal with the electronic power steering on that car
Click to expand...
I read in many places that the ///M had a totally different power steering rig to the standard Z4... pretty sure it was even mentioned on the Top Gear coverage which makes it FACT :poke: haha :roll: Doesn't the M use hydraulic steering?
What is this transport mode you speak of?
 
Ok so I've just googled Transport/transit mode, and tbh I haven't had the car long enough to test the rear screen heaters. Is there anything else which could indicate transit mode? Sadly this isn't with BMW or an indie, it's with Evans Halshaw Renault @ Sunderland, so they likely will not have any BMW experience with stuff like this.
Just as a quick edit - from reading through a few old threads, my AC button does light up when pushed but the air doesn't go cold. I read a report that the air con button doesn't illuminate when in transport mode.
 
ncrossy1980 said:
What is this transport mode you speak of?
Click to expand...

If battery level drops as it can if the car has stood at a dealer for a while then the car drops certain features it can live without like aircon & rear demist
I bought my first Zc in same mode , needs proper diagnostic kit to reset which my indy did for £20
May not be that but worth looking at , i think from memory when the aircon button was pressed there was no light ? Is yours illuminated when selected ?
 
Yes, dont worry about the M specific police! You were 100% correct posting in this section.

When I hold the steering hard over, I get a change in the noise. If I let the wheel go and it comes just off full lock, the noise goes. It is however very faint, and I don't see it as a problem.

You are correct the M has hydraulic steering. All the others Z models do not!
 
mr wilks said:
ncrossy1980 said:
What is this transport mode you speak of?
Click to expand...

If battery level drops as it can if the car has stood at a dealer for a while then the car drops certain features it can live without like aircon & rear demist
I bought my first Zc in same mode , needs proper diagnostic kit to reset which my indy did for £20
May not be that but worth looking at , i think from memory when the aircon button was pressed there was no light ? Is yours illuminated when selected ?
Click to expand...
Yea in my case the light does come on, but the temperature from the vents doesn't drop at all. On a two hour drive back from the lakes at the weekend the air coming through the vents with the air con on was warmer than outside!
It's good to know other folk are hearing a noise on full lock, I think. I wouldn't call my noise feint though, you probably wouldn't hear it with the radio on but it's a definite high pitched whistle.
 
This is probably going to be a stupid question and I have no knowledge of M's but can you select your temperature in the cabin? If so then have you got the temp too high? The air wouldn't be cold if you have.
Ignore me if this is a daft post!
 
Carol M said:
This is probably going to be a stupid question and I have no knowledge of M's but can you select your temperature in the cabin? If so then have you got the temp too high? The air wouldn't be cold if you have.
Ignore me if this is a daft post!
Click to expand...
No no no god no daft questions when it comes to me, I'm blissfully ignorant to how these cars work at the moment! The temp control is just a primitive turny knob, it was all the way to the left to cold with the air con light illuminated. I also have a F30 which has the electronic heaters with a visible temp reading, the Z4 is different, it's just the good old turny dial cold to hot.
 
I had something similar with the Air Con in my 3.0Si. Turned out to be a hole in the condenser. :( They charged it up and it cooled. a week later nothing, no drop in temperature. I had a leak test performed by a family company recommended on here. BMW wanted over £1k to do the work. They did it for £300, all good and it works really well. Plus they warrantied the work.
 
Wildfire said:
I had something similar with the Air Con in my 3.0Si. Turned out to be a hole in the condenser. :( They charged it up and it cooled. a week later nothing, no drop in temperature. I had a leak test performed by a family company recommended on here. BMW wanted over £1k to do the work. They did it for £300, all good and it works really well. Plus they warrantied the work.
Click to expand...
They did mention something about checking for leaks, but frankly the cost should be covered by them as it's under the statutory 3 month warranty. If there's a leak, hopefully they should be aware of that as they only gassed it a week ago so if there's no gas left in there... that clearly points to a leak! Good to know though, thanks :thumbsup:
 
Also worth noting that air-con usually doesn't function below a certain exterior temperature - usually 4-5 deg C or so but would need to check the manual.
 
Crusoe said:
Also worth noting that air-con usually doesn't function below a certain exterior temperature - usually 4-5 deg C or so but would need to check the manual.
Click to expand...
Wow, again, didn't know that. At the time it was 8-9deg outside, possibly 10ish, I'd just had the roof down for about half an hour so it wasn't close to freezing outside. But that's also good to know!
 
Well as expected, the garage just rang me up and said errrr well we've re-gassed the air con and its working great. OK, you did that last week though? How much gas had escaped since then? Errrrr we re-gassed the air con and its working great! FFS.
Has to be booked into main BMW dealer to get the steering looked at. Which I guess is kudos to Evans Halshaw for not attempting to butcher it.
 
jpeeters said:
Mine is also squealing at full lock and a friend has it as well in his. Seems to be normal behavior...
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I think once I have the car back, I'll record it, upload it here, and people can compare? I've been taught in all my years of motoring that noise from steering = not normal & bad. But I've never had a high end car like this before, so I guess it could be different rules.
 
Not read all the responses, but could be worth checking intake boots.

BMW intake boots have been known to fail and cause vacuum leaks. I expect a wheel on full lock is likely to be dry steered during parking etc so the load on the engine will be greater so the car will up the revs a little to deal with the load which naturally means its sucking more air. A slight hole will make a whistle sound.

Just a though anyway :)
 
Isn't this normal with hydraulic power steering? ALthought not a whistle as such, but it depends on how one describes it, every car with hydraulic power steering that I have ever owned has always been a noise at full lock
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom