electric steering opinions

B

Buckz

Senior member
 West sussex
I'm a member of another forum and recently there has been a bit of a talk about electric vs hydraulic steering on an m.

I own a 3.0 si and I don't mind my steering, I agree it's not as good as a hydraulic setup but it's more than adequate for the car. Am I the only one? Is it really that terrible, aka one of the worst BMW even put in a car ?

Fellow members, give me your opinion! :)
 
Perfectly adequate having driven mine for 10 years and not once thought about it.
99% of drivers would never be able to tell or even think of critiquing it unless you told them it's not as good as hydraulic
 
Likewise, no problems with mine, but then again I have had quite a few cars with electro/electro-hydraulic steering. If mine ever failed, I think however, I would replace it with a full hydraulic syatem from a 3 series, as it's cheaper than getting the column repaired!

Mike
 
It might be mine as its an older version and so possibly improved later on. but for me its the worst thing about an otherwise really nice sporty car and also something that's hard to rectify and horrendously expensive if it goes wrong (c£2.5K for a new column). for my preferences its too over assisted even in sport mode and lacks "feel". However my wife recently commented how much she likes it (over my 3 series) as she says It feels similar to her Kia Sportage , nice and light with a good turning circle , so horse for courses.
 
The steering on my coupe is the main reason I don't see it as a 10yr car, more like a 5yr one. This followed by a desire for more power and better build quality/less road noise. It's way too light and does lack feel although I can gain enough information to push harder through seat of the pants feedback.

That said although our e90 and my previous e46 use hydraulic steering, whilst it was nicer to use it still lacked feel. I want a Porsche...

PS: I have driven many more mundane cars that really take the biscuit on overly light steering that really has zero feel.
 
Personally i think the steering and feel in the z4 is the worst part of the car.
It took me a while to figure it out. And after spending lots of money upgrading all other aspects of suspension and body control. It was obvious that it was actually the steering i didn’t like. I had a 323 e46 and the steering was great. So i have converted mine to a similar system.
 
Its hard when I've nothing to compare it to. I've never given the steering a second thought - seems perfectly fine to me.
 
Right, so the general idea is that bmw missed the point with the electric steering on non M ? I personally find it fine, it's not amazing and feedback could be better but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the car.
 
It's the thing you interact with the most but it offers little tactile reward. It wanders unless more strongly guided when compared to hydraulic that will stay straight with less input. On the plus side it's a very nice wheel to hold.
 
Buckz said:
I personally find it fine, it's not amazing and feedback could be better but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the car.
Click to expand...

Same here, no major issues with it tbh.


These cars are too heavy to be a properly sporty drive so slightly dull steering feel isn't an issue to me. More and more cars are using electric steering these days, including my daily drive Mazda 6, which has very dead steering feedback.
 
I think the e85 gets away with the EPS because it does weight up and the low seating and relatively firm/tight suspension give enough feedback of the road to still feel reasonably sporting. Considering it was BMW's first EPS it still feels OK compared to a lot of systems out there which can be like spinning an arcade game wheel.
 
I think there's a few factors here. Firstly its a case of you "dont know what your missing", if all us non M owners jumped in an M we would probably go "ah yes I get it now". But that said its also like drive by wire throttle, we've all got used to that over the last 15-20 years so its a real shock when you jump in something with a razor sharp cable throttle etc.
 
I might be wrong here but... I moved from a 120d e87 (electronic) to an 325ti e46 (hydraulic) and then to a Z4 e85 (electronic). In my humble but inexperienced opinion, the hydraulic steering is solid and reliable versus the electronic steering being lighter and sharper. As k31ron says, electronic steering is expensive to repair (the 1 series failed and cost just short of £1k to fix - thanks BM as it was under warranty). My 325ti however was totally bullet proof in every respect having done £120k miles in it over 4 years with zero problems. I have found the transition between both systems easy and adaptable. You just get used to the car, simples... :driving:
 
Small world - I had an E46 320td with hydraulic, then an E87 123d with electric and currently have the E86 with electric as well as an E46 325ti with hydraulic that I use as a daily.

In all honesty I really can't detect any significant difference between my current 2, so it really does look like BMW did a decent job with the electric set-up on the Z4. :thumbsup:

I know electric can have its issues, but at least it won't piss hydraulic fluid everywhere when a pipe splits like it did last year on my E46! OEM PAS pipe was £200 before fitting! :o
 
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