[jase682]

yesterday I drove my friends 320d se e92 and his steering felt very light compared to my 325i e92 his feels more like my wifes city auris . mine is heavy compared but I thought they would be the same . im now thinking there may be a problem with one of our cars . is this normal .?

[idnan]

Maybe its a case of hydraulic vs electric power steering? Does your car have a power steering fluid reservoir near the passenger side headlamp?

[jase682]

yea mine has fluid I checked it yesterday and its topped up . not sure what his has though

[Guvernator]

Does he have active steering as an option? If this has been optioned on the other car, this makes a noticeable difference to steering weight as it's designed to make the steering lighter at lower speeds.

If not then it may just be down to different tyre widths\pressures\make of tyre? Have you checked this?

I'd look at these before assuming something is wrong.

[xPETEZx]

If your car has the Power Steering fluid container, I recon that his does not.
The difference you felt is probably his being electric.

On a tangent, which did you prefer?
Everyone goes on about the Hydrolic being much better.
I haven't driven a hydrolic one, but love the steering feel of mine.

[dxb335d]

Both should have electric.

[Thewrench86]

i have noticed this on my car too and i just put it down to crappy run flats
ride is twitchy over bumps and tram lines sometimes in the wet. steering is heavy and can be a bit annoying when driving around town.

[oldbilly]

the 325i is 6 pot so would be heavier than a 4 pot 320d.

[makkan00]

I may be wrong but to me its diesel vs petrol thingy...
I may be completely wrong but there may be some difference.

My mate has 320D Pre-LCI and I have 320i Pre-LCI. My steering is very hard but his is very soft when you are turning.

Both of us has same wheels, rubber and profiling.

or it may be that my steering wheel hydraulic pump is dying. When I turn my steering wheel to the extreme, it does create some weird noise.

[jase682]

mine has power steering fluid not electric that may well be the difference as well as being a 6 pot . I definitely prefered my heavier steering I felt more going on with the steering if the front wheels slid on mine I would feel it where on his not so sure

[Alex.J]

Originally Posted by makkan00

I may be wrong but to me its diesel vs petrol thingy...
I may be completely wrong but there may be some difference.

My mate has 320D Pre-LCI and I have 320i Pre-LCI. My steering is very hard but his is very soft when you are turning.

Both of us has same wheels, rubber and profiling.

or it may be that my steering wheel hydraulic pump is dying. When I turn my steering wheel to the extreme, it does create some weird noise.

Snap, mine sounds awful on full lock in either way..

Mine is hydraulic but mine is a pre lci 320d!

[IanS100]

My LCI 320d was heavy on the RFTs but much lighter on Goodyear F1 A2

I've been running around in a 2013 320d SE for the last few days and the steering is much lighter & the handling nowhere near as crisp as my 2010 320d M Sport, I certainly wouldn't want to swap

[bmwak]

I've driven various Pre-LCI and LCI cars. I've also driven 3 different F30's. Here is my take on it...

From what I have been told every model has a different power steering rack. A 6 Pot will have a different rack to support the extra weight of the car for example. By the same way, petrols and diesels will also have a different rack to suit the different engine characteristics.

I've driven 6 different cars with a electric power steering rack and the 6 pots generally where heavier with a bit of vibration when turning (more noticable on the LCI models - maybe the rack design was changed?!). There is also a bit of what feels like play in the steering wheel when moved ever so slightly left to right. However if you look at the wheels whilst doing this, they do move slightly too - so actually in reality there is no play.

The 4 pots were generally lighter and had less vibration. However, I think this is because it is drowned out by the engines being less smoother (being a 4 pot). The 4 pot F30's on the other hand had similar vibrations and play like feel, more close to the E9X 6 pots.


Hydraulic steering wheels have generally felt the same, and are generally more on the weighted side.

Do note that your wheel size and tyre thread patterns will make an impact on the lightness of your steering wheel, as will your tyre pressures.

[GP87]

Originally Posted by makkan00

I may be wrong but to me its diesel vs petrol thingy...
I may be completely wrong but there may be some difference.

My mate has 320D Pre-LCI and I have 320i Pre-LCI. My steering is very hard but his is very soft when you are turning.

Both of us has same wheels, rubber and profiling.

or it may be that my steering wheel hydraulic pump is dying. When I turn my steering wheel to the extreme, it does create some weird noise.

Mine does exactly the same thing! One of the first things I noticed with it when I bought it.

[zltm089]

I reckon it's the tyres...

[djgandy]

It's electric steering right? When you can just move it with your finger like on every single rep-mobile ever made. in fact even an E550 I drove had electric steering. Very easy to drive, but absolutely no engagement with the road.

[bmwak]

Originally Posted by djgandy

It's electric steering right? When you can just move it with your finger like on every single rep-mobile ever made. in fact even an E550 I drove had electric steering. Very easy to drive, but absolutely no engagement with the road.

Not all electric steering wheels are that bad. Mine has a electric steering wheel but its perfectly weight imo.

On the other hand, my Honda also has electric steering and this can be turned with one finger and has no feel whatsoever.

[smithers-jones]

My E90 D3BT (LCI) had electric steering and felt terrific, and transmitted all of the road feel back through the steering wheel. THE BEST steering feedback I have ever experienced. In comparison, my LCI E92 B3SBT has hydraulic steering and feels 'wooly' in the feedback stakes and much heavier, especially when pushing on. It takes experience and gut feel at times to know just how much grip I have when pushing on, whereas the electric setup told me everything: always. Oh, and before anyone asks, identical tyres on the 2 cars. Electric for me on a BMW, these days.

[I6Touring]

Originally Posted by oldbilly

the 325i is 6 pot so would be heavier than a 4 pot 320d.

My owners handbook has figures for 325i and 320d listed. I don't have the figures to hand but do remember the 6 pot 325i as being the lighter car.

[smithers-jones]

Originally Posted by balernoStu

My owners handbook has figures for 325i and 320d listed. I don't have the figures to hand but do remember the 6 pot 325i as being the lighter car.

That's correct: the 320d is a few kilos heavier than the 325i, but the difference is not that great when you are talking of steering feel. If you then take into consideration the difference in length of the 2 motors under comparison, the 6-pot is longer and shifts the centre of gravity of the car slightly further forward...but again, that's a tiny difference in the real world of steering feel.

[I6Touring]

Originally Posted by smithers-jones

That's correct: the 320d is a few kilos heavier than the 325i, but the difference is not that great when you are talking of steering feel. If you then take into consideration the difference in length of the 2 motors under comparison, the 6-pot is longer and shifts the centre of gravity of the car slightly further forward...but again, that's a tiny difference in the real world of steering feel.

Yes I agree, and point is there's something other than engine weight making the 25i steering heavier than a 20d.

[kdotjot]

After a couple years of owning my E92 325i LCI M Sport (N53 B30), I was told today by BMW that my car does not have hydraulic power steering and in fact has electric power steering.

This all came from the fact I was refreshing the serpentine belt/pulleys and my mechanic said the idler pulley I ordered was not on my engine which I thought couldn't be true because the diagram showed it.

I asked BMW who said the diagrams are all generic even on their system, however the power steering pump and idler pulley are not listed as being on the car despite being on the diagram

Anyway back to the subject, it confused me because of all the cars I've driven including M3's, M4 Comp, Hurracan etc, this steering feels the heaviest even though it's electriconally assisted power steering.

I'm running Goodyear Eagle F1 A5's but when I bought the car it was on OEM Bridgestone runflats (awful tyres) and the weight of the steering was already heavy on the Bridgestone's.