z4 steering seized - EPS?
- Thread starter ex4x4
- Start date
ex4x4 said:
Bump. I would also be very interested to find a decent EPS specialist. Indy diagnosed just with 'couldn't communicate with control module' but at least didn't take long about it and only charged me £50. Took car to a power steering 'specialist' who reckon its the torque sensor after apparently lengthy testing (1.5 weeks). But £350 later they seemingly don't have a clue how to fix despite claiming on their website that they refurb units and fix all ills with such components. Now staring down the barrel of a £3.5k bill for a new steering column on top of the rest of the outlay and wasted time. Any help or pointer in the right direction would be much appreciated.
For the record, my issue was light coming on after brief drive with no warning signs and then absolutely no power assistance. Fixed itself on one occasion for about 3 successive trips on the same day (over a month after the issue first appeared) but I haven't been able to replicate since.
mr wilks said:
Thanks for the reply. No, I confess haven't tried that. As little faith as I have in the 'professionals' that have looked at the car though I am convinced the problem is electronic so could a mechanical alteration help? The fault light is on immediately you turn the key and stays on. The specialists had the column off the car for testing so I'm assuming there was no load and they tested the torque sensor in isolation (equally though as far as I know they kept the car in the workshop for 10 days and just picked one of the common faults off Internet forums like this to justify what I'm paying them).
mr wilks said:
No, this is I feel the probable root of a bunch of the problems I've had with the car in the past couple of years more than its age. I used it as a daily driver for about the first 5 or 6 years I had it and barely had any problems other than those typical of doing mileage. Now it rarely gets used and the battery runs down a lot and I get more and more electrical gremlins. Some seem to fix themselves like airbag lights and unresponsive stereo/satnav but the pas won't apart from that one time. I had the Indy do a check of the battery while it was with them about the EPS and to my surprise they said it was absolutely fine. The alternator was replaced in 2010, a problem I'm dreading recurring as it was a nightmare part for the garage to get hold of and unsurprisingly not cheap (except compared to a steering column!) I would hope that when testing the column they were supplying it with a reliable voltage.
JamesF said:
Do you keep the car on trickle charge if not used regularly ?
The roady I had with the steering problem had 3 batteries in 50k miles ( receipts were in the docs ) which for me highlighted a issue ?
Both previous owner & myself had alternator & electrics checked with no sign of drain but I found when left on trickle charge I struggled to get the steering to fault but leave in garage for 4-5 days without trickle & it would fault the minute I switched steering & turned wheel
Do you garage yours with autolights set to on ? So when starting they turn on ?
No, I don't have a trickle charger. But if the battery is drained when I need to use the car I rarely jump it and instead do a slow charge on it to full capacity over a day or so. I've probably switched out the battery twice in the car's life which I don't think is too bad considering the electrical load of the car. Yes the lights are normally left on auto and will come on at start up as the car is kept in a cart lodge. The fault light though is there as soon as you turn the ignition not when I start to move the steering. The lack of use and low voltage from the battery may well have contributed to causing the steering to fail but it looks like I'm passed the point of being able to remedy that now and need to find someplace that will refurb the unit or switch out the torque sensor (if thats possible). Or I'm stuck with shelling out for a whole new (solid gold, encrusted with diamonds I presume) steering column assembly from BMW.
JamesF said:
Before you go deep into the wallet I would invest in a decent trickle charger (£45) & get the column shim adjusted ( 1hr labour MAX / took my indy under 15mins )
I would also try it for a while without auto lights on purely on a trial + error basis especially cold starting after its been stood for days
ex4x4 said:
I'm not sure if I'm reading your battery voltage readings correctly but if yours was charged and dropped to 11.9v after 24hrs but is showing over 14v when idling the battery is probably pooped and is excessively discharging when stood.
Normal figures should be,
A standing charged battery should be holding 12.4 ish Volts. Under 12 is knackered and will cause all kinds of weird electrical gremlins.
With the engine running the alternator should be giving around 13.7v at idle and not much over about 14.5v
Getting the code identified/cleared and maybe swapping out a suspect battery will eliminate the simple and most likely cause first and could be a very cheap alternative to tampering with the EPS or paying for expensive EPS fixes afterwards.
Did you find a solution? Mine has just shown me the EPS light after new suspension and lowering it.
Will Jack it up today and see what happens.
Will Jack it up today and see what happens.
. I don’t know if it’s linked and I’m trying to find out what’s going on. Let me know if you get any answers and I’ll do the same for you.
Great thanks.
I jacked the car up today, wheels turned freely but still had the fault code light on, checked on my fault code reader which didn’t turn up anything. Got my laptop out with INPA on it and ran a test but my rod was not responding. Checked a bunch of forum, soldered my 7and 8 pin together as that allows access to all modules but nothing..
I took it for a drive around the block, heavy steering initially but it was surprising good when I got moving.
I’ll be taking it over to my mechanic on Monday morning as he has a better computer system and hopefully will be able to clear the code.
I jacked the car up today, wheels turned freely but still had the fault code light on, checked on my fault code reader which didn’t turn up anything. Got my laptop out with INPA on it and ran a test but my rod was not responding. Checked a bunch of forum, soldered my 7and 8 pin together as that allows access to all modules but nothing.
. I took it for a drive around the block, heavy steering initially but it was surprising good when I got moving.
I’ll be taking it over to my mechanic on Monday morning as he has a better computer system and hopefully will be able to clear the code.
Ok so the steering is free when it’s up in the air and very stiff when it’s on the ground which means it’s something to do with the EPS and if you can’t communicate with the EPS via a decent scan tool which I can’t, just tells me there is no communication to the EPS and that could be bad news for both of us meaning the EPS is faulty and needs a rebuild but I’m not losing hope yet! I’ll have to try a few things on mine and I’ll let you know how I get on next week thanks
Sounds like the EPS motor to me, very common issue and is only getting more common as they're getting older. Will probably need to remove the motor and get it refurbed/buy a used one.
Attleborough, Norfolk
The EPS unit is a generic BMW part right? Meaning it’s not a rare part.
Anything with Z4 written on it costs a fortune over in Australia.
Anything with Z4 written on it costs a fortune over in Australia.