Power steering shatter - E90

[diekoning]

I have a E90 2006 330D, for the last few weeks, when I start the car and want to immediately turn, there is a bit of shatter. As soon as I provide revs, it stop within seconds, even when nothing moving the steering wheel and let it rev for e.g. 10 seconds, it is smooth. Mainly in the mornings.

Will this be the steering wheel fluid or something more serious?

Thanks.

 

[Lizzard]

Maybe look at when it happens and the conditions thereof.

Meaning that you say it happens in the morning, presume that it is when the car slept overnight and the first startup for the day. If this is the case check if it happens due to temperature as all fluids has a specific temperature it needs to work fluently at, normally between say -2 and 30°C. It might get cold during the night and then the steering rack gets stiff as all the components is exposed to the weather, think of the fluid inside the steering rack, if the steering rack itself is cold to the touch how cold is that fluid inside.

I don't think it is something to worry about, I also have a mouning sound in the morning (sometimes) when I turn the steering for the first time. Never during the day and never there after, only in the morning when it was cold the previous night.:rollsmile:

Hope this will help but it is my 0.02$ on this. I will worry when that noise is persistent and doesn't disappear like in the first say 5 turns or say 5 minutes because by then the fluid should have warmed up a little like car oil in the engine.

Maybe I am too sleepy here but hey that is what I believe it to be :tiptoe:

PS: If your power steering is on its way out then you will have a heavy steering, same goes for your steering rack

 

[Peter@AEW]

The shudder will either be from a belt that is slipping untill it gets warm or from low fluid

 

[Twinz]

Check the steering fluid level first. Sounds like the culprit.

 

[diekoning]

I will try the fluid first, it makes sense that it can be the belt also. They did replace the water pump, refurbish the air-con pump and replace the crank pully the last 3 months and changed fan belt, etc.

It is new belts though, maybe the tension is then set wrong?

 

[Twinz]

Sjoe they did a lot of stuff on the car. Check fluid as first port of call.

 

[Speed Freak]

I have a E90 2006 330D, for the last few weeks, when I start the car and want to immediately turn, there is a bit of shatter. As soon as I provide revs, it stop within seconds, even when nothing moving the steering wheel and let it rev for e.g. 10 seconds, it is smooth. Mainly in the mornings.

Will this be the steering wheel fluid or something more serious?

Thanks.

IHi;I have the same car which I had an issue with the power steering as well, except that mine was screeching and biting persistently. BMW told me I needed a new powersteering pump and qouted me on a new one. I decided to take a look into it myself. These cars have a history of crank damper pulley failure which I found out later. It was not the case with mine however. Your powersteering pump is situated next to your crank damper pulley and is driven by what is called a stretch belt. BMW has a special tool which they replace that belt with. The tention between the pump pulley and crank damper is extreme, thus the reason for the crank damper to fail. In my case the crank damper was fine, but my belt was stretched too much. At the end of the day I made a tentioner and installed it and my problem was solved. As a result my crank danper will never fail either, because now I can use a longer belt and my tentioner keeps it under tention. I suggest that you check out your crank damper pulley first, I don't know if you've checked your powersteering fluid level, but it short oil, top it up with Castrol Dexron 3, that't what BMW uses in it. You are also supposed to change that oil at every 100 000 km intervals which no-one will tell you, so you could consider that as well. If this is all in tact, I suggest you check out your steering rack. I really hope this information is helpful. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted.
Speed Freak

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I have a E90 2006 330D, for the last few weeks, when I start the car and want to immediately turn, there is a bit of shatter. As soon as I provide revs, it stop within seconds, even when nothing moving the steering wheel and let it rev for e.g. 10 seconds, it is smooth. Mainly in the mornings.

Will this be the steering wheel fluid or something more serious?

Thanks.

 

[diekoning]

I have a E90 2006 330D, for the last few weeks, when I start the car and want to immediately turn, there is a bit of shatter. As soon as I provide revs, it stop within seconds, even when nothing moving the steering wheel and let it rev for e.g. 10 seconds, it is smooth. Mainly in the mornings.

Will this be the steering wheel fluid or something more serious?

Thanks.

IHi;I have the same car which I had an issue with the power steering as well, except that mine was screeching and biting persistently. BMW told me I needed a new powersteering pump and qouted me on a new one. I decided to take a look into it myself. These cars have a history of crank damper pulley failure which I found out later. It was not the case with mine however. Your powersteering pump is situated next to your crank damper pulley and is driven by what is called a stretch belt. BMW has a special tool which they replace that belt with. The tention between the pump pulley and crank damper is extreme, thus the reason for the crank damper to fail. In my case the crank damper was fine, but my belt was stretched too much. At the end of the day I made a tentioner and installed it and my problem was solved. As a result my crank danper will never fail either, because now I can use a longer belt and my tentioner keeps it under tention. I suggest that you check out your crank damper pulley first, I don't know if you've checked your powersteering fluid level, but it short oil, top it up with Castrol Dexron 3, that't what BMW uses in it. You are also supposed to change that oil at every 100 000 km intervals which no-one will tell you, so you could consider that as well. If this is all in tact, I suggest you check out your steering rack. I really hope this information is helpful. Good luck and I hope you get it sorted.
Speed Freak

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Thank you, I appreciate the thorough response. The crank damper pulley was replaced earlier this year, if I'm not mistaken, I started to notice the steering wheel doing this, but just got a bit worst recently, so prabably the tension. I should probably take it back and ask them to make an adjustment....mmm. Will check the oil first this weekend though.

But if they didn't do it right the first time, not sure if I should take it back to the same garage.

 

[Speed Freak]

I believe you didn't had it done by BMW ? A guy here that work on BMW told me that you only use BMW's stretch belt. That thing is way too short, that's why they use a special tool. The other thing is, if they replaced your pulley with a solid one, it is likely to break your crank between no 5 and 6 cylinder. According to that guy it is best to use a genuine BMW pulley as the aftermarket rubber pulleys are not well balanced. I advice you to make sure of what I just told you, you don't want to break your crank. Good luck.
Ps: Yes, I'm talking about your powersteering fluid.
Speed Freak

 

[diekoning]

They did not buy it from BMW, they obviously won't refund me. It cost about R 4500, BMW would've asked R 8000 according to them for the same thing.

This is then a problem, I cannot spend another R 8000 + labour, for something that has just been done.....:YesNo:

I'll have to let a BMW specialist look at it then sometime next week, they should be able to see probably without removing it.

Is there any signs I can look out for in advance, to know whether it is going to break the crank between cylinder 5 and 6? I drive the car quit hard, or will it just happen...

 

[Speed Freak]

Unfortunately there is no sign. I believe that if it's a rubber pulley it's not a train smash. The reason for the rubber pulley is to take the vibration off your crank which cause more friction in your engine and probably breaking your crank. My car had a solid pulley on. I don't know when it was changed, but I bought it like that with 102 000 km on the odo meter. I was fortunate enough to find an original pulley like new for cheap and replaced it.

 

[diekoning]

How much on the ODO now and year model?

 

[Lizzard]

Here is the pulley for your car, oem

http://www.g-drive.co.za/shop.html?...commerce.tpl&product_id=1261&category_id=4488

http://www.g-drive.co.za/components...ge/product/Vibration_Damper_5523f9f839682.jpg

hope this helps :rollsmile: for next time

 

[Speed Freak]

My çar has 108 000 km on now. I bought it last year January and didn't drove much as I had an oul leak on the gearbox as well which is an auto box, but I just sorted that out as well. Mine is also a late 2006 model. My first BMW ever, so I'm still learning about it mechanical wise, but I enjoy it alot. At first I wanted to buy a 320d, but when I saw power figures of the 330d, I decided thats the one. I wanted one with a manual box, but when I came across this one with the low mileage, I couldn't resist it. I have the sport pack with carbon fibre mirrors and smoked tail lights. You wouldn't believe what this do to the looks, and of course in silver, my favourite coular. According to BMW, the 330d's are great cars with no engine, turbo or injector problems. I believe that any car is as good as the way you look after it, like for instance, if you drive hard, let it idle atleast for one and a half minute to cool down your turbo for a better life span on it and drive only on 50 or less ppm diesel, otherwise your injectors woun't last (very expensive ) and on service, use a top notch full cynthetic oil. No-one tells you this and it seems like very little people know this. Do you have a sport pack as well and in what colour and mileage ?