bent steering column?

[unknown user]

alright so i have an 1986 325e and when i turn the wheel it gets tough at certain points. pretty much every quarter turn it get tough. i thought it was my power steering going out but at closer inspection you can actually see the steering wheel turning awkwardly. i took the steering wheel off and then turned the column with a wrench and it was still giving me troubles. the car is currently on jack stands with no wheels. when i bought the car everything was fine and when i put a new differential in and took it for a drive it started doing this, so there is accident that could've caused this. the car has literally been in my garage ever since ive had it. so im either thinking its either a bent steering column or maybe a bad bearing? i plan to just replace the steering column with a used one but i thought id see if anyone on here has heard of this before or can tell me its something else.

sorry for the long post and thank you in advance.

[Gregs///M]

There is a steering linkage between the column end and steering rack. Its intention is to join the two together and break in the event of a collision. I would check that first.

[unknown user]

everything looks fine, there are no cracks or anything broken.

[bmwstudent]

You must remove it to really check the u-joints for binding. Not the easiest job but thats probably what your problem is. Don't ignore it, it could lock up mid turn if it gets bad enough.

[unknown user]

i already started taking things out today,

[bmwstudent]

If you do find that it is bad there id really nothing you can do with it. The u-joints are not meant to be serviced and they are staked in place and don't even have grease zerks. I've had to replace the one on my car and the one on my brothers car. The ones I replaced them with came from other cars we had torn apart and parted out or scrapped. I'm not sure were you can go to source a new one and I'll bet they are pretty expensive. Good luck.

[unknown user]

i sourced one that is an OEM part and its 168.00 bucks. ill have to source a used one.

[SmokeE30]

Now would be a good time to upgrade to a e36 rack while that's out

[Hooffenstein HD]

You must remove it to really check the u-joints for binding. Not the easiest job but thats probably what your problem is. Don't ignore it, it could lock up mid turn if it gets bad enough.

This is no joke, it's happened to me. Crashed a minty euro spec 323i because of it.

[unknown user]

thanks guys, im in the process of removing it now.

[unknown user]

i took the linkage out and took a look and i found this.



im currently looking for a new one to replace this broken one.

[bmwstudent]

If the u-joints are ok, there is a modification you can do to that one. Goto the diy section here and look up steering column. I believe you can remove those plastic sleeve pieces and replace them with some bolts and steel spacers. I have not done this but have seen it on some cars here on r3v. Read through it and decide if it's something you want to tackle.

[unknown user]

If the u-joints are ok, there is a modification you can do to that one. Goto the diy section here and look up steering column. I believe you can remove those plastic sleeve pieces and replace them with some bolts and steel spacers. I have not done this but have seen it on some cars here on r3v. Read through it and decide if it's something you want to tackle.

sweet thank you very much. ill take a look at it.

[Vtec?lol]

looks like an accident

[unknown user]

alright i have an update on this linkage. i found out that one of the U joints was stuck, i figured since i am pretty much going to buy a new one ill experiment. i put it in the vise and i sprayed it with penetrating oil to remove any dirt or crap. the U joint started to move a little better so i went ahead and sprayed some "all purpose" lubricant on the joint. it loosened up pretty well. i went even further and slapped some wheel bearing grease on it and it has no resistance what so ever. i would say it moves better than the over U joint.

im going to let it sit for a while and see how it feels in a couple days. part of me thinks its just an easy fix and another part of me thinks it just needed to be greased. any thoughts on this?