Hi,
When driving yesterday, I suddenly noticed that the steering has become looser than it usually is and that the whole car feels a bit like it’s “swimming” or “floating”, meaning that the steering is not nearly as direct as it usually is. Before that however, I was driving the whole day without any issues, it suddenly started while driving on a straight road without any bumps. I did change my rear tyres yesterday, but at the beginning, there was no change from the usual. Could that be due to an alignment issue, or did something somehow go wrong with a part of the steering system? Seems weird to me
Any advice/historical knowledge about this issue is appreciated! Hoping to not have to change the whole steering rack
That makes sense, but why would they suddenly drop? So far I’ve only checked what the iDrive tells me, which is ‘all good bro’, but haven’t checked manually. In any case, I had new back tyres put on today, and there were no issues while driving for a few hrs in city speeds. The floaty feeling started after driving highway speeds for ~30mins. I’m not personally sure, but would that be enough for the tyre pressure to suddenly drop?
Hydraulic steering? Then as a first step, suggest to ask your shop to check the power steering pump belt tension.
Another idea, seems unlikely the new rear tires would cause this symtom, but something steering-related could have been damaged at the front end when the car was lifted to install the new rear tires.
Will try asking whether any shops nearby have slots for me, as I have a 170 mile roadtrip on Friday
About the front-end: seems weird that the issue only showed itself after about 60 miles of driving, not immediately. Had to change the rear tyres due to the previous ones failing state inspection (well the equivalent of what we have in Europe) and they didn’t spot any issues, and they also check wheel play, shake the car to see any issues, etc
This would make sense, as when driving in lower speeds, the steering seemed closer that to what it should be (e91 BMW’s usually have very heavy steering, especially when compared to more modern cars, where you can steer with 1 finger, in e91’s it takes a lot of strength)
Any way to check this by myself to see if that is the issue?
Can’t speak to your car, but my older Corolla the idle rpm increases enough to notice when I turn the steering wheel, related to the power steering fluid pressure. If you’ve noticed that on your car before, try it again. Does it still behave the same as before? Easy enough test to do anyway.
I’ll do it tomorrow and let you know, it’s 1:35 AM in Europe right now, but I’ll see if the steering angle changes the RPM. As far as I could hear, while making very slow turns, nothing changed as far as I could notice, no sound out of the ordinary
@everyone, decided to swap over the front and rear tyres and noticed a huge improvement overall. Seemingly I’ve bought tyres that are a bit too soft for a RWD car (interesting, I know)
The engine idle speed is computer controlled, turning the steering wheel should not cause the idle speed to change. This has nothing to do with traction or loose steering.
Kind of thought the same, and, anyway, the rpm did not change in a noticeable way. I assume when I turn the wheel while stationary, the rpm increases to compensate for the fact that the wheels aren’t straight, but to one or the other side instead, there’s more rolling resistance that way
This brings up the point that you’re supposed to have matching tires on all four wheels for the best safety. Do you? Furthermore, you’re supposed to have the tires with the best tread on the rear. I’m guessing that after swapping the tires you might not.
