Thanks guys, my only worry with take back as warranty is its not a BMW garage so think they wont have a clue about the fault, it seems even bMw dont want to admit there is a fault
So what I have found out so far
1/ there is an open case in US relating to recall due to this problem
2/ some owners have got whole steering columns changed out under warranty, although none of them actually have said what the root cause of the problem was.
3/ some on threads have said it is attributed to the heating aimed at the steering column footwell area which causes heating of the steering column area which causes subsequent heating of the electric assist steering module which causes the sticky steering problem. i.e some sort of eletrical problem with the eletric steering module which is located on the actual steering column.
4/ some have said they think it can be attributed to a mechanical fault caused by the universal joints attached to the steering column heating up therefore expanding and causing the sticky steering by some sort of expansion friction problem.
Conclusions I make from the above information on threads are :-
1- steering column change out - If this was a problem with eletric assist module why would the exact same problem not occur? would the module be mounted somewhere else? or more likely when changing out the column they also changed out the UJ joints and re-greased which actually solved the problem.
2 - If this only happens on 2003-2005 models what is it different post 2005 models that solves the issue?
3 - Heating the electric steering column causing and electric fault - this is highly unlikely, why would heat cause fault with an eletronic part in a module? It would likely fail or completely stop working, not cause a sticky steering issue.
4- mechanical Universal joint expansion causing friction, this sounds the most likely cause, and this could be caused at heat directed at the footwell area on the steering colum, some people have sprayed grease on the joints and seen a marked improvement. Could someone please reply if they had this issue and it was solved with the greasing solution as I would like to try this.
5 - Run flat tyres causing issue, this is not likely, it may cause something similar but not as pronounced and not the exact problem.
I have had my car for less than 2 months and it has always felt the same, plus not experienced it with any warmer temperatures, however, longer runs have not aggrivated the issue either.
I will try the UJ joint greasing and see how that works.
Any further comments on the accuracy of my comments would be gratefyully appreciated as I am trying to build this picture up to nail down the root cause of this issue.
regards
Rich
