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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
