EPS Failure Rate, do they all go wrong in the end?

[MACK]

Glad you seem to have got it sorted, bit of a bolt out of the blue to see a thread I started year a back resurrected but its good to know there are decent solutions to sticky steering about. In fact it was the the initial responses to this thread that swayed me into buying a zed.

I don't agree on the Vanos seals though, they aren't preventative maintenance as the original seals are a flawed design (in terms of material choice) and start to fail after just a few year by all accounts. I did mine not long after buying with no codes present etc and they were fooked. Noticed the subtle difference straight away when i drove it, stronger bottom end and got a small increase in fuel economy (about 1mpg or so).

Did them once before on my wife's E 46 330 many years back and had similar results

 

[jimbo1958]

I was at the campsite 2 weeks ago for 3 nights on a motorcycle trip with 4 others. The bar is open and working!

Nice. Be good if the bar's open Friday afternoon like when the old owners had it.

 

[Kamuela]

Hmmm... My Google Translate translation of the German site says to turn the adjustment thing with the bottom rotating towards the rear; that would be counter-clockwise as viewed from the outside, non-worm end of the motor, clockwise viewed from the steering shaft end, which appears to be the opposite of what your picture shows. Or am I misunderstanding, it's the ring that moves, the motor stays put? Which would make a lot of sense.

Also, do you all have knee air bags to fight around? Or is that a US thing? I'm struggling to get to the upper bolt.

 

[raymond.harper]

My own EPS failed after four months of ownership. Torque sensor had failed. New upper column 2500 pounds from BMW not including fitting. Currently converting the car to E46 hydraulic system .

 

[Chris_D]

My own EPS failed after four months of ownership. Torque sensor had failed. New upper column 2500 pounds from BMW not including fitting. Currently converting the car to E46 hydraulic system .

hows it coming along raymond?
will u be updating relevant thread on progress..?

 

[raymond.harper]

My own EPS failed after four months of ownership. Torque sensor had failed. New upper column 2500 pounds from BMW not including fitting. Currently converting the car to E46 hydraulic system .

hows it coming along raymond?
will u be updating relevant thread on progress..?

Hello Chris got the new E46 rack in place connected with a Z4M intermediate shaft ( Z4 one does not fit). This morning removed the idle pulley and fitted the LF20 pump. All very straight forward up to today. Unfortunately the serpentine belt does not fit so waiting for a new belt. Pipe work next which looks a bit of a challenge especially with the p/s cooler. I will do a long thread on the process once I have finished. Ray

 

[Chris_D]

My own EPS failed after four months of ownership. Torque sensor had failed. New upper column 2500 pounds from BMW not including fitting. Currently converting the car to E46 hydraulic system .

hows it coming along raymond?
will u be updating relevant thread on progress..?

Hello Chris got the new E46 rack in place connected with a Z4M intermediate shaft ( Z4 one does not fit). This morning removed the idle pulley and fitted the LF20 pump. All very straight forward up to today. Unfortunately the serpentine belt does not fit so waiting for a new belt. Pipe work next which looks a bit of a challenge especially with the p/s cooler. I will do a long thread on the process once I have finished. Ray

Nice one! Sounds like ur making good progress!
Would be great to see an 'ongoing progress' thread. Did one of those for Betty's big fixes and it was a real confidence/morale booster to read all the positive comments. Really kept me going through to getting her back up and running!
Jus sayin

 

[bladeowner]

Hmmm... My Google Translate translation of the German site says to turn the adjustment thing with the bottom rotating towards the rear; that would be counter-clockwise as viewed from the outside, non-worm end of the motor, clockwise viewed from the steering shaft end, which appears to be the opposite of what your picture shows. Or am I misunderstanding, it's the ring that moves, the motor stays put? Which would make a lot of sense.

Also, do you all have knee air bags to fight around? Or is that a US thing? I'm struggling to get to the upper bolt.

It is a bit confusing. Mine was turned clockwise if you looked at it from the shaft/column end. As the German guy mentions (and I) there is more movement one way than the other because one way the teeth will mesh together more and jam (least movement), and the other way with more movement they will come well apart. If you mark it before you move it you will see which way has the most and least movement. So you want to move it the direction with the most movement. Assuming you get the bolts undone

Not seen an airbag down there... The pic of the LHD German car looks different to mine above. http://www.zroadster.com/forum/index.php?attachments/exenterring1-jpg.139493/

The part number of the steering column on realoem is different for RHD and LHD and so the orientation may be different.

 

[Kamuela]

The airbag, or absence thereof, explains some things. It totally blocks access to the top screw. I thought it was me...

 

[bladeowner]

The airbag, or absence thereof, explains some things. It totally blocks access to the top screw. I thought it was me...

With the cover off, there's nothing on mine blocking the motor but the screws are still not easy to get at especially the top one.

 

[Kamuela]

It still could be me. I'll poke at it when I get home in a few days, drop the airbag and maybe I can actually get a hand, or part of one, in there.

 

[Kamuela]

Fixed!

After 3 hours of horrible language and a little blood, I finally got that upper bolt loose (hint: needed to make a very short 6 mm allen wrench, maybe 15 mm long, hold in in a 6mm ¼" drive socket, lean on it hard), tweaked the adjustment ring about 10 mm CW, went for a 2 hr drive. This is what it is supposed to be like! If there's any hint of sticking in the future, I'll add another 5mm, maybe, now that I know the trick. You guys without the knee airbags don't know how good you have it. I managed to loose one of the airbag retaining clips (no biggie, but I can't imagine where it went) and it ate my 6mm ball end wrench; it's up there somewhere, I'm hoping it'll shake loose and drop on my foot someday.

So, my thanks to everybody, and if there's anybody in the US needing to do this, I can offer detailed instructions. It's subtly different from the German website.

 

[MACK]

Well Done, glad you got it sorted!

 

[bladeowner]

Fixed!

After 3 hours of horrible language and a little blood, I finally got that upper bolt loose (hint: needed to make a very short 6 mm allen wrench, maybe 15 mm long, hold in in a 6mm ¼" drive socket, lean on it hard), tweaked the adjustment ring about 10 mm CW, went for a 2 hr drive. This is what it is supposed to be like! If there's any hint of sticking in the future, I'll add another 5mm, maybe, now that I know the trick. You guys without the knee airbags don't know how good you have it. I managed to loose one of the airbag retaining clips (no biggie, but I can't imagine where it went) and it ate my 6mm ball end wrench; it's up there somewhere, I'm hoping it'll shake loose and drop on my foot someday.

So, my thanks to everybody, and if there's anybody in the US needing to do this, I can offer detailed instructions. It's subtly different from the German website.

Well done, I'm glad you sorted it.

 

[Ducklakeview]

Was removing the reverse beep wire from the sounder under the dash earlier so decided to check out the access for the bolts. I don't have the knee airbag and was able to easily slip on the 1/4" drive snap on wobble socket to both bolt heads...

Will adjust when it's daylight to see if I can remove some of the twitchiness, which I think is due to the gears being too tightly engaged, creating sticktion when the pinion first starts to apply torque, which is then rapidly reduced by the torque sensor, creating that weird feeling. At least that's what I think.

Mike

 

[bladeowner]

Was removing the reverse beep wire from the sounder under the dash earlier so decided to check out the access for the bolts. I don't have the knee airbag and was able to easily slip on the 1/4" drive snap on wobble socket to both bolt heads...

Will adjust when it's daylight to see if I can remove some of the twitchiness, which I think is due to the gears being too tightly engaged, creating sticktion when the pinion first starts to apply torque, which is then rapidly reduced by the torque sensor, creating that weird feeling. At least that's what I think.

Mike

What type of bolts do you have?

 

[Ducklakeview]

Male headed torx.

Mike

 

[bladeowner]

Same as mine then. Interesting.

 

[Shady Ady]

Hi
I have suffered with the steering issue for a while now and having tried the grease nipple and lubricating the ujs had just about given up resigned to saving for a column or considering the hydraulic solution. I then came across this thread, slightly sceptical I thought nothing to loose so one evening last week had a friend make the 10mm clockwise adjustment. Having just driven over 500 miles around the lake district in glorious sunshine I can't believe the transformation, it's fixed!
Thanks to everyone one who researched and posted detailed accounts. I would recommend to anyone having the problem to try this first.
Mine fittings were E10 torx.
Cheers
Ady

 

[MACK]

Hi
I have suffered with the steering issue for a while now and having tried the grease nipple and lubricating the ujs had just about given up resigned to saving for a column or considering the hydraulic solution. I then came across this thread, slightly sceptical I thought nothing to loose so one evening last week had a friend make the 10mm clockwise adjustment. Having just driven over 500 miles around the lake district in glorious sunshine I can't believe the transformation, it's fixed!
Thanks to everyone one who researched and posted detailed accounts. I would recommend to anyone having the problem to try this first.
Mine fittings were E10 torx.
Cheers
Ady

Good to hear it worked for you. When I started this thread before I bought mine this was my principle fear in buy a zed. The horrendous cost of replacement would have sent me down the hydraulic route if mine went wrong I think. Since then a few places seem to be offering repairs to these when they totally go down (ecu failure) as well which makes it a lot more palatable. I also learnt recently that the column on my 05 reg was replaced when the car had been on the road 12 months or so. Obviously at the time something went wrong and no doubt BMW picked up the tab. Not sure having a column replaced with new in 6/06 really negates further issues, as depending where you read both pre and post facelift cars suffer issues.