[cheerio]

Has anyone else had a loose steering rack? Haven’t been able to find much on the internet about this.

There’s a bit of play in the steering, which is infuriating for highway driving especially.

I thought for sure the play was somewhere in the steering column, but when looking closer, I could see the rack input spline moving with the steering wheel.

The little wiggles you see in the video aren’t turning the wheels at all. After turning a little bit further, the rack “bites” and the wheels start to turn. The amount of play doesn’t vary with position of the steering; it’s the same from lock to lock.

I’ve tried the rack preload adjustment, which didn’t seem to help - even with a lot of preload, the same amount of wiggle would be present, despite the rack feeling very stiff when actually moving the wheels.

I assume a valid fix for this is “replace the rack”, but this being a RHD car, a remanufactured rack will be either very expensive or hard to come by. Has anyone worked on an E9X steering rack before? Any thoughts on what’s causing this? Is it fixable?

Thanks

[Tambohamilton]

I'd guess you need to get the 8 sided socket and add some preload to the rack. There are a couple of threads on here about it.

[cheerio]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

I'd guess you need to get the 8 sided socket and add some preload to the rack. There are a couple of threads on here about it.

Thanks, already tried this though. Adding preload makes the rack feel tight when it's "biting" and the wheels are turning, but doesn't do anything for the play that's present.

I think the play is coming from somewhere in the input shaft of the rack, rather than from between the rack and pinion gear.

[Tambohamilton]

Oh yeah, sorry I skimmed your original post.

No chance the play is in any of the splined joints? Checked all the pinch bolts in the column?

[cheerio]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

Oh yeah, sorry I skimmed your original post.

No chance the play is in any of the splined joints? Checked all the pinch bolts in the column?

Yep, already checked the upper and lower steering column, and the two pinch bolts. It's a bit hard to see in the blurry YouTube video, but you can see the splined shaft on the rack wiggling with the steering wheel/column.

I just found this video explaining some of how the rack works (it's another ZF rack in the video, not from an E90):

Don't quite understand how this could relate to my problem though. Would be great to get some insight from someone who has rebuilt one of these racks.

[cheerio]

Just for reference:
I ended up replacing the steering rack with a cheap used one from a 320i. "New" rack works great and the play is gone.

[charlie_m]

Thanks for following up with a solution, wish more people did that.

Will you disassemble your old rack to find out the root cause? I would, but maybe my idea of fun is not everyone's ....

[cheerio]

It would definitely be interesting to see. I’ve got too many other projects afoot to bother with it right now, but I will definitely make a post here when I get around to it!

[Jaronbwall]

Figured that as soon as I read the OP. I would have done the same thing. cheerio pick one up on eBay or from the forums?