acribb

I just got back from the dealer and they replaced something in the steering wheel center that was clicking. A slip disc or active steering tilt sensor or something like that (I got several bs answers as far as I can tell).

Now the steering wheel is crooked and to the right and I want to straighten it myself rather than go back there and have them scratch my instrument cluster more (there are 2 small scratches now on the cluster).

Thanks.

Hormazd

There is a procedure involving turning to a full left and then a full right. Maybe someone else can elaborate more on the exact steps. Rudy?

jshoope60

You should have to remove steering wheel and matchup the notch on the steering wheel and the steering column. This is how I did it on my e46 steering wheel.

Hormazd

No such thing on the E60. Worst case, if it cannot be done by the owner then any BMW service center can do it in 5 minutes electronically.

Rudy

Whatever you do, don't simply take the wheel off and re-center it like an "old-fashioned" car.

Assuming you have active steering, one of the two procedures in the following thread should work -- unfortunately, the one that's most likely to work is the one the dealer has to perform...

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=10461

The procedure that the dealer needs to follow is quite simple and should not take long at all:
RA__Adjustment_for_active_front_steering.pdf

acribb

I don't think it's as simple as reinitializing the active steering. I've had to do that several times after restoring battery power when I have worked on the car stereo. From what I can tell, turning the steering wheel to the left, then all the way to the right just resets the Active Steering system. It doesn't physically straighten the wheel which is connected to the column.

I'm pretty sure the tech put the steering wheel on crooked and I would like to somehow put it back on straight myself.

Rudy, can you look this procuedure up in the TIS for me?

Rudy

The procedure you can do yourself (turn wheel fully left, etc.) usually won't help when work was done on the steering system. The dealer needs to hook the car up to the computer and perform the procedure I outlined above. There's simply nothing we can do -- it has to be done by the dealer. It will, in most cases, re-center the steering wheel.

Is your dealer one of the clueless ones? If so, they may have forgotten to do this procedure. Either way, there is a possiblility that they didn't attach something properly but it's so common that it's just the reset issue that I'm willing to bet that's what's going on here...

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=31820
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=23485
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=12497
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=6423
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=1379

acribb

Thanks Rudy. I initially only read the first part of your post, the one I wanted to believe.

Would this cause the steering to now pull to the right since the steering wheel is cocked to the right?

Rudy

Well is your car pulling or isn't it?

My experiences with this issue, although limited, are that the car still tracks straight (alignment is fine) but the off center wheel is simply a function of the active steering being confused as to where the top of the wheel is.

Doc Horror

I had an off-centered steering wheel, the dealer resetted the active steering and............
perfect