Light Steering when Pushing Hard

[OppositeLockMT]

I've noticed my car's (E46) steering starts to get a bit light when pushing hard or throwing the car into a corner, very anti-climactic. I almost feel like I'm starting to lose control of the car. Could this be down to bad tyres? Or is it the steering rack?

Also, would anyone know if there are any differences in steering ratios across the E46 range? (except the ///M)

Car:

 

[Sankekur]

Might be the pump as well, think early e46's had problems with the pumps over boosting, leading to excessively light steering.

Might also be a dodgy pressure regulator on the powersteering system.....

 

[Philip Foglar]

Might be the pump as well, think early e46's had problems with the pumps over boosting, leading to excessively light steering.

Might also be a dodgy pressure regulator on the powersteering system.....

That's interesting!

These are as far as I know, the somewhat better/stronger power steering pumps (being a pre-facelift E46 as I gather it is), but they are still prone to pack-up at some point, not as quickly as some of the facelift type pumps though which were known to be quite weak.

Maybe flush and replace the power steering fluid and see if that helps.

 

[OppositeLockMT]

That makes sense. I did have the pump replaced about 25,000kms ago though. The steering is nicely weighted when driving normally or going through fast bends which require little movement of the steering wheel. When I become more aggressive with it it just becomes uninspiring.

Recently flushed the fluids aswell, made a small difference but the problem is still there.