Hello members,
i bought my car last november, i had a steering rack/column problem that shelly bmw fix two weeks after i bought it! now the steering rack/column is making the same clunking noise again when i turn left. i was told by shelly bmw that everything was replaced and it was a $3000.00 parts/labor!!!
im planning on bringing it to center bmw to look at. i also contacted bmw northamerica to let them know of the problem. I bought this car from shelly bmw who ever does there cpo inspections sucks!!!

im very dissapointed now and i wish i never traded my 3 series in!!!

 

What year and model do you have? I am guessing a 530 ... I know early 545's had steering rack problems. I know a guy who had it replaced twice. There haven't been any issues I am aware of with the more recent models.

 

Had the same on my 525D. BMW lubed it up and its been fine since.
There are a lot of issues with streering racks AFAIK. But that's pretty much all theres a problem with - if thats an consolation!

 

i do have a 2006 530! so the early models have this problem?? im worried when i driving, it feels like something is going to break and i feel like im going to lose steering!

 

From what my buddy said with his 545i, it also was a clunking issue when he turned, esp. at low speeds. I wish I knew more about the problem, but I know it drove him crazy. Like I said, the rack was replaced twice....no amount of lube could fix his problem (no jokes on that comment, please).

There's another thread I know you posted in that talks about the control arms and bushings...it's interesting because the guy I mention above who used to have the 545i with the steering rack problems bought an M5 this summer (when I did), and he was having what he thought was the same problem as with the old car. It turned out he bad a bad control arm (or something related to that) which was causing his new CLUNKING in the front-end and steering column, while turning at low speeds.