I own a 02/2007 E61 530d (pre-lci). This car has driven 330k km (200k miles).

Last year after I bought the car it started to get a 'dead point' in the middle of the steering wheel, turned out to be play on the Active Steering wheelhouse.

At the time, through a garage (not a BMW specialist), it was replaced for an exchange wheelhouse. The motors and sensors have been transferred.

Since then, the car has the property that the turning circle to the right is gigantic, and to the left so small that the wheel can rub and a fault code appears (and all the lights in the dashboard come on).

The steering ball joints were replaced last weekend. The steering rack was centered (by measuring both sides), the steering wheel was set straight on the steering rack and the car is aligned.

The turning circle to the left and right was therefore the same. However, it was not possible to reset the steering angle sensor and to get everything working digitally. After installing the steering shaft at an wrong angle (as in the previous situation), the lights go out again, but the problem is not solved.

My question is therefore: do I have to search in a digital or mechanical problem (does the active steering motor also have to be mechanically 'centered' on the wheelhouse, and therefore remove the subframe up again)?

 

The car now drives without any problems. The fault code comes when you steer far to the left, as far as it normally can't.

Code it gives is: 5F0D - Steering Angle Sensor Segment Find Algorithm found wrong segment.

But it is not possible to calibrate it. (presumably because turning left and right goes beyond its limit values)

 

You could possibly have a dirty sensor. Search on here for how to clean it.

 

How did you try to reset the SZL? Did you perform calibration through ISTA?

 

Thnx, I'll try. Weird thing is that the read values in ISTA/INPA are 'correct' (changing in the right direction), so it doesn't loose contact

 

Yes, first we did a reset with universal software/ code reader. This was not working.

After this failed we hooked up ISTA and did an alignment with reset following the procedure in ISTA.

Now we are at the point where this has been successful and in normal traffic no malfunction appears on the dashboard.
However, when I send the wheel far the the left, it seems as if it is outside a limit value and this causes a malfunction at full steering angle (and all lights come on, so ABS, traction control and AFS).
The turning radius to the left is also much smaller than to the right (I can steer 'further' to the left).

That is why the question arises whether it is possible that the Active Steering motor is not right on the steering rack, so that the 0-point (center point) of the steering rack is not the 0-point (center point) of the AFS motor.

 

A dirty or faulty steering angle sensor can cause that.