Weird goings on

C

Cassie-UK

Active member
 Near York
Ok, for some time my steering has been pulling to the left. I had my normal mechanic look at it last week and he said it was perfectly aligned. I drove it home fairly irritated as it was still pulling to the left.

Today on my way home from work in a snowstorm, it started pulling to the left A LOT more. I had to hold onto the wheel firmly with both hands just to keep it going straight. Then, after a few miles of that, my wipers suddenly stopped working, in a freaking snowstorm!!! Pulled onto the hard shoulder, turned the car off & back on, wipers worked again, but only for half a minute or so.....back onto hard shoulder, ignition off / on, exact same thing happened. However, after the third time, the wipers continued to work fine and, bizarrely, it's no longer pulling to the left! Did something reset? The steering now feels perfect!

Am having it looked at again next week, but this time by a garage specialising in BMW's.

Any ideas??
 
wipers are probably due to build up of grease on the inner workings, bit of a common issue.

There is a DIY on here for fixing.
 
srhutch said:
wipers are probably due to build up of grease on the inner workings, bit of a common issue.

There is a DIY on here for fixing.
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But why would they kick back in after stopping & restarting engine? They do sit a bit high up on the windscreen.
 
Stuart Truman said:
Did they check the full alignment? Also tyre pressures? Maybe get the steering electronics tested. (Position sensor etc)
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No idea Stuart. Annoyingly, they only ever seem to want to speak to my husband - he knows less about cars than I do!!! I don't think I'm taking it back there...
 
my car pulled to the left when i had a puncture in the n/s front tyre. it also handled abnormally when the pressure was down 5-8psi in that one tyre compared to the others.
 
ben g said:
my car pulled to the left when i had a puncture in the n/s front tyre. it also handled abnormally when the pressure was down 5-8psi in that one tyre compared to the others.
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Will check pressures today, thanks ;-)
 
Have a local garage looking at my car today. They said that they had the wipers all apart and all looks ok, but they don't appear to be getting power. When they manually put power to them the wiper motor runs. I just had it booked in for a service so they don't have time to mess with them anymore today unfortunately. They did say something that I was surprised by - they said that the only way to get to the wiper relay was by taking off the dash. I'm sure I read somewhere that the wiper relays are located behind the fuse box and can be accessed through the glove box. I certainly don't want anyone taking my dash off if it's not necessary!

They said the steering and vibration problems are likely caused by my front tyres being warped, so I guess I'm gonna have to fork out for some new tyres :( :(

So all in all not too happy.....getting my car serviced is nice, but I'm still gonna have to drive it home with that awful vibration / steering wobble, and no wipers :(
 
Think I may have to get some cheaper non-runflats put on the front for now, at least till I get the wipers fixed. God knows what else they're going to find wrong during the inspection! I know it's not ideal to have runflats on the rear but not front, but I might have no choice financially at the moment :-(
 
Cassie-UK said:
Have a local garage looking at my car today. They said that they had the wipers all apart and all looks ok, but they don't appear to be getting power. When they manually put power to them the wiper motor runs. I just had it booked in for a service so they don't have time to mess with them anymore today unfortunately. They did say something that I was surprised by - they said that the only way to get to the wiper relay was by taking off the dash. I'm sure I read somewhere that the wiper relays are located behind the fuse box and can be accessed through the glove box. I certainly don't want anyone taking my dash off if it's not necessary!

They said the steering and vibration problems are likely caused by my front tyres being warped, so I guess I'm gonna have to fork out for some new tyres :( :(

So all in all not too happy.....getting my car serviced is nice, but I'm still gonna have to drive it home with that awful vibration / steering wobble, and no wipers :(
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I would be worried by a garage that says you need to take the dash out to get to the relays.
 
If its pulling that badly, I'd suggest something has failed or bent. Alignment may look ok until you realise something else is out of whack and doesn't work right when moving. Control arms bend easily from a kerb whack. Knuckles and bushes also worth a look/check perhaps..
 
Just picked the car up - bizarrely, it's now pulling hard to the right instead of the left! I wonder if they took the tyres off and put them back onto opposite sides to what they were....

He said the front tyres are so warped they're like eggs! I'm having two new ones put on in the morning....will be interesting to see what the steering is like after that.

He said that he'd have to get an auto electrician in to look at the wipers but he wouldn't be available for over a week :-( Hard to drive without wipers!
 
New front tyres on, now drives like a dream again - no vibration at all and no pulling to one side.

However, just pulled into my drive and the passenger wing mirror fell off! I can't win!!! Luckily it didn't break. Is there a consensus on what type of glue is best?
 
Husband is outside right now trying to do the wipers / grease build-up fix. We don't know if that is the problem but it'd be nice to find out before ringing an auto-electrician. For the most part the wipers no longer work at all. Very occasionally ill get a single wipe from them. The washer is intermittent as well.
 
No luck :-( :-( :-( Wasn't much grease there at all.

Anyone found a walk through on how to access the wiper relays? I understand they are behind the fuse box.
 
Well, my wipers have been working fine for two days in a row now....how weird. I have a provisional appt this Thursday to have them looked at again, but if they continue to work ill probably cancel for now. I've got a busy week and funds are kind of low.

I can't believe the difference the new tyres make to the handling. I never knew warped tyres could cause so much steering wheel wobble, vibration, tramlining and pulling to one side.

Sooooo much happier with my zed now :-) :-)

Hubby glued my wing mirror glass back on too :-)
 
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