Infamous Steering Wheel Play Explained...

[Jr ///M5]

Through all the years of owning BMW's....you learn something new everyday. I was searching through Auto Trader looking for Lori's next car when I stumbled upon this explaination for the "play in the middle of the steering wheel"


"There's a price for this responsiveness, of course, and it's most obvious traveling at high speeds on an Interstate. Gone is the famous BMW dead spot in the middle of the 5's steering travel, that inch or so of movement each side of center where there is no perceptible change in the 5's direction of travel when the wheel moves. This was developed for decades to account for triple-digits speeds on Germany's autobahns."

(taken from a car review on Autotrader.com)


Just wanted to share that tidbit of information with those of you who have tried for years to remove the "play" only to find out that it was part of the engineering design.

JR

[GoldenOne]

ha...pretty cool...

[Jehu]

I Just posted in another thread about the hypersensativity in the Pontiac G6 i'm renting and how its the same as every other American or japanese car.The power assist is way too much .I've heard complaint about the steering box BMW used in the 540 i drive but i find that more direct,1:1 response far more natural and compatible with driving than the way American cars design the steering.

[gtopaul]

"There's a price for this responsiveness, of course, and it's most obvious traveling at high speeds on an Interstate. Gone is the famous BMW dead spot in the middle of the 5's steering travel, that inch or so of movement each side of center where there is no perceptible change in the 5's direction of travel when the wheel moves. This was developed for decades to account for triple-digits speeds on Germany's autobahns."

Actually that's what cars equipped with Servotronics do electronically. More effort is designed in to turn the steering wheel at high speeds than at low speeds. I never heard about the dead spot being normal before though. I have the inch of travel, left or right, in my 92 525iT (190k Miles) but rather than thinking it's an engineered in feature, and not a problem, I'm swapping out the steering box with a reman M5 unit. The real indicator is whether there's play in the steering through all the speed ranges. If there is it's most likely the steering box.

Paul

[Alexlind123]

I dont notice the play in my steering wheel, but its not twitchy at high speeds either. I guess it is well designed, at least it works for me anyways.

[pundit]

I dont notice the play in my steering wheel, but its not twitchy at high speeds either. I guess it is well designed, at least it works for me anyways.
I don't have any play to speak of in mine either.
I've read plenty of posts about play but I find my steers better than any previous car I've owned.

[Derek A.]

Driving my friends new Mazdaspeed6 - and going back to the 535i. There is a ton of play in the wheel and oh my god is the e34 clutch heavy.