Hi All,

I had my car in for service yesterday (among other things, had to replace the "lifetime" battery") and after getting it back I noticed that the steering wheel position could no longer be adjusted using the little joystick on the side of the column.

I took it back in and, after a lengthy diagnosis, they told me that BMW had a service bulletin on this problem. Their plan was to reprogram the entire car in hopes that the appropriate control module would spring back to life. Failing that, they were going to have to replace the module. In the worst case, the cost was expected to be over $700 (I'm about 10,000 miles past the 50k mile warranty - sigh).

They insisted that replaceing the battery couldn't have cause the problem, but I can't see anything else that might have led to the problem...

Has anyone else experienced this problem and, if so, what did you do about it?

Thanks!

 

Did you happen to notice if your front seats would adjust or not? I had the same thing happen with the steering wheel, but in addition neither the driver's nor the passenger seat would adjust. Also, the rear, electric sun shade would not work. Miraculously, the next morning it had "healed itself". I did take it to the dealer a couple of weeks later for other work, mentioned this problem and they, of course, said they could not duplicate it nor were there any error codes thrown off. I did get a Progman update for the other issues. I have not had the problem since that one occurrence.

 

Of course replacing the battery had nothing to do with it Good luck with that - $700 for a new module - sheesh

 

The seat remembered both of it's settings, so it seems localized to the steering wheel module. Re-programming the car didn't fix it, and the module is back-ordered nationwide, so I guess I'll be driving with my arms in an uncomfortable position for a while...

 

I know this is very old but what was the outcome and what module did they order?