random e39 question

[angrypancake]

So my parents went out to dinner, and therefore left me with the house. Game on. A few phone calls and a special friend is on the way over, but oh wait. Mom calls, and says dad can't start the car? So I drive all the way out to the resteraunt and the steering wheel is locked. No big deal right? But it wasn't the normal lock, where there is maybe an inch of play and when you turn the key it unlocks. It took ~15min of screwing around and finally got it to unlock with Dad (really strong) pulling with two hands while I turned the key. What could have caused this? Should I even be concerned, as in was this a one time weird thing? Thanks.

edit: 2000 528iM.

[joshua43214]

If you butt the wheels up against a curb stone it can jam the steering wheel. or sometimes if you shut the car off while turning the wheel the residual pressure in the power steering can let you turn the wheel a bit to get it just past a lock point, but not enough to turn the tire to free it up.

This can happen to any car, probably not worth worrying about, just make a habit of taking your hands off the steering wheel before you shut off the car. I have noticed large people tend to use the wheel as a crutch to get out and often do this.

[SchnellE34]

Game on. A few phone calls and a special friend is on the way over, but oh wait.

haha, thats good pancake

[Ausmpower]

Pretty common for many bimmer models to do that.

The steering lock pawl can wear and jam up or the key barrel it's self can play games when worn.

The first time you notice is the first time your key won't work (neither will any spares you have).

Usually if the barrel is sticking it happens without the steering lock engaged or the key stops just after the steering lock is released.

flush the barrel out with contact cleaner and once dry lube it with dry graphite powder, this usually fixes it for a while but a new barrel may be needed if it continues to lock you out.

My E34 has done it once with out warning and it took me about 45 mins to get it to behave (at a busy service station no less!). My key would turn about 1/2 between locked and position 1 and move no further. I tried literally everything bar ripping the column apart!

I had a bit of a brain wave and decided to flush the barrel out with wd-40, being carefull not to mess up my interior. I used the straw nozzle to spray directly into the barrel and paper towel to catch the out flow. Quite a bit of crud came out and two attempts later everything was back to normal!!

There was no warning prior to my lock out (the barrel was smooth and the key is new) and it feel the same now...... "Just one of those Beemer 'things'!" is how a tech at my dealer put it (he's the one that told me about the contact cleaner/ graphite trick).

HTH
Ross