1995 M540 Steering Play Fix

[MTMnet]

After paying $400.00 dollars to have the Steering box adjusted which produced marginal results, I decided to take on the infamous Loose Steering Column Nut project myself.

First of all, I am not a very "handy" person, so this job was more then I would normally take on, but in the end it was well worth it. I am much better at the Wash & Wax then the Nuts & Bolts.

There were 6 items that I had to remove to gain relatively easy access to the Column Nut.

1st - 5" Long/tall, 1/2 Wide Black cover panel to the left of the radio & A/C button. *this gives you access to a couple screws to remove the black panel under the steering wheel. I used a small screwdriver to pop it off.

2nd - 9" Wood trim to the left of the steering wheel (pry off with small screwdriver)

3rd - 5" Wood trim to the right of the steering wheel

4th - now that you have access to various hidden screws, you can finish removing the black panel directly underneath the steering wheel (knee panel?)

5th - you also need to remove all of the screws to the other black panel directly above the brake and gas pedal (foot panel?)

6th - the final screw that allows the bottom panel to come completely out is the right knee panel

*one last thing was to remove a white clip that holds some black plastic air duct piece to the very bottom panel. (see pictures below)

http://www.mcgovernmotors.com/images/SteeringFix1.JPG

http://www.mcgovernmotors.com/images/SteeringFix2.JPG

I labeled all the screws one by one to make sure that they all eventually ended up back in the same location.

Now that I had fairly good access to the nut, I realized that I did not have a wrench big enough for the 32mm nut, so I ran out to the local Home Depot and purchased a 10" / 35mm adjustable wrench which worked like a charm.

The nut was fairly easy to turn....clockwise to tighten. I made a couple very small 1/4 turns on the nut and made sure that the power telescope steering was still working properly.

I then took it for a test drive with only the very bottom foot panel semi reinstalled and noticed a definite improvement. Then brought it back in and made two more small turns on the wrench and noticed that the power telescope was having a little bit of a problem so I back it off one small turn and took another test drive.

The steering felt almost perfect and I decided to quit while I was a head. The car now feels like a BMW again!

Time to wash & wax her.
Mike

[Kalevera]

Beautiful car, man...just beautiful.

I wish I had the telescopic wheel on mine...damn.

[MTechnik540i]

After paying $400.00 dollars to have the Steering box adjusted which produced marginal results, I decided to take on the infamous Loose Steering Column Nut project myself.

First of all, I am not a very "handy" person, so this job was more then I would normally take on, but in the end it was well worth it. I am much better at the Wash & Wax then the Nuts & Bolts.

There were 6 items that I had to remove to gain relatively easy access to the Column Nut.

1st - 5" Long/tall, 1/2 Wide Black cover panel to the left of the radio & A/C button. *this gives you access to a couple screws to remove the black panel under the steering wheel. I used a small screwdriver to pop it off.

2nd - 9" Wood trim to the left of the steering wheel (pry off with small screwdriver)

3rd - 5" Wood trim to the right of the steering wheel

4th - now that you have access to various hidden screws, you can finish removing the black panel directly underneath the steering wheel (knee panel?)

5th - you also need to remove all of the screws to the other black panel directly above the brake and gas pedal (foot panel?)

6th - the final screw that allows the bottom panel to come completely out is the right knee panel

*one last thing was to remove a white clip that holds some black plastic air duct piece to the very bottom panel. (see pictures below)

http://www.mcgovernmotors.com/images/SteeringFix1.JPG

http://www.mcgovernmotors.com/images/SteeringFix2.JPG

I labeled all the screws one by one to make sure that they all eventually ended up back in the same location.

Now that I had fairly good access to the nut, I realized that I did not have a wrench big enough for the 32mm nut, so I ran out to the local Home Depot and purchased a 10" / 35mm adjustable wrench which worked like a charm.

The nut was fairly easy to turn....clockwise to tighten. I made a couple very small 1/4 turns on the nut and made sure that the power telescope steering was still working properly.

I then took it for a test drive with only the very bottom foot panel semi reinstalled and noticed a definite improvement. Then brought it back in and made two more small turns on the wrench and noticed that the power telescope was having a little bit of a problem so I back it off one small turn and took another test drive.

The steering felt almost perfect and I decided to quit while I was a head. The car now feels like a BMW again!

Time to wash & wax her.
Mike

Nice, my e30 has the same problem...just is murder trying to tighten that massive bolt.

Might try that on the M Sport.

[infinity5]

The telescoping feature is worth nothing to me, but i'd kill for a tilting steeringwheel. I finally got around to sticking a handful of washers up under the bolts that hold up the steering colum, but before that my car felt more like a school bus than a luxury sedan.. sheesh.. do the germans all have reallllly long torsos but widly varying arm lengths? :)

[ve39]

so all i have to do is tighen this big balt on the stearing pipe to make it better ?
http://www.mcgovernmotors.com/images/SteeringFix2.JPG

[Kalevera]

Hopefully :)

Assuming all of the other parts in the system (ie - steering box, link ball joints, and idler arm bushing) are functional. If the steering box is worn out, it'll be impossible to dial out the looseness. Have to replace the box at that point, but they're well built.

best, whit

[stu1]

I spent a long time after getting mine playing with the steering box and various linkages trying to get the steering to feel right. I really thought it was me being a perfectionist, or maybe just being tired.

The final straw was crunching over the curb going around a left hander one day on the way home from work. Determined to sort it out I finally took a spanner to the big nut (I couldn't believe how loose it was :)) Sheesh; the difference was night and day! All of a sudden I had a car that would go in a straight line!

[ve39]

hey guys i can't turn a NUT at all what shell i do ?

[JonE]

hey guys i can't turn a NUT at all what shell i do ?

In another thread I gave you the link to Bruno's site about this. If the nut is tight, I guess I'd check the steering box adjustment, keep following the directions that George M. gives in his write-up. I haven't done the steering box adjustment yet, but it doesn't sound too difficult.
My steering was wandering and I tightened the column nut, it is much better, but still seems to wander a little bit. This spring I'll do the steering box adjustment. After that, it could be other suspension/steering link parts or ?
As usual, do the simple ones first then work your way up to the more difficult.
The other thing I wonder is about the tires, are they contributing to the probem you're having?

[632 Regal]

put the wrench on the nut and turn the steering wheel to break it loose, thats the only way I got mine to turn at all and it turned almost a whole turn before the telescoping got stiffer. If you grab the shaft you will probably feel play moving it up and down, thats a dead give away that its loose.