steering Wheel became Hard to turn

[EVMan]

Today morning , suddenly the steering wheel became hard. Like when the car is off.
I stopped the car for 5 mins and then it seams to have become better. But it still may not be 100% as good as before....

Any idea , if its a mechanical issue or electronic .
Should i go to the dealer ?
Thx

 

[alohart]

Might be an electric power steering problem although I would think a warning message would be displayed. Others have reported a similar temporary loss of power steering with no explanation that I'm aware of other than buggy software.

 

[EVMan]

Yes. It seams to have fixed itself. Likely a software glitch.
Basically the power steering was not working....

 

[Tacfoto]

I had this same thing happen last night. Left work, it was perfect, stopped at store. Left store, steering was heavy, notchy, did not seem to want to center itself. While going around a slow flat turn I could let go of the wheel and the car just continued in the turn. Lasted the whole 10 miles trip home.

This morning, no problem. 2017 Rex with 4500 miles.

 

[Marty]

Same thing happened to me today. Shut off for 5 minutes- seems to have rebooted. Fine now?

 

[i3LINY]

Has anyone received a resolution to this problem? It happened to me on a turn as well and now the car is fine. Dealer can't find anything wrong, I feel this is very dangerous.

 

[alohart]

Has anyone received a resolution to this problem? It happened to me on a turn as well and now the car is fine. Dealer can't find anything wrong, I feel this is very dangerous.

There have been quite a few reports of this problem, but only recently which makes me suspect a bug in a recent system software version. It might be time to start reporting these incidents to the NHTSA to get BMW's attention and hopefully a fix.

 

[dsgold]

I've experienced this issue 2x over the last couple months. Same issue, same resolution in terms of turning the car off and restarting. I took the car in today in hopes of getting to the bottom of it but there's no fault registering in the on-board computer. Tech said they will try to replicate the problem, which is a fools' errand given how intermittent the issue is.

Sounds like we're mostly in agreement here that this is likely a software issue. I'll let you know if the dealer comes back with any more helpful info.

 

[viking79]

The steering is electric assist, which uses a steering sensor and an electric motor to help turn the wheels. My hunch is a software glitch reading from the sensor or controlling the motor or an issue with actual sensor or motor, more likely sensor. I have seen it once in 6500 miles as well. Given how it goes away with a power cycle I want to think software.

Best bet to try to recreate is mess with the steering while powering on the car and see if it is an issue with a calibration routine. If it happens during operation I am more inclined to think issue communicating with the sensor or motor. Mine occurred at power up and lasted the entire driving cycle.

 

[MrW1zard]

I’ve had the issue a few times in the last few months.

Hit again today. It’s truly a safety issue as when making a turn the electric assist comes and goes giving a jerky scary experience.

Issue resolved by turning off for a few minutes.

Anyone make any progress on this with their dealer?

Thanks!
Jeff

 

[vic55]

Got the same today, the first time in 2 years. Hopefully, BMW reads this forum. I don't believe it is possible to reproduce in a dealer's environment.

 

[Xsbank]

My car, a 2017 with 3000 km just had this same steering failure and I have sent it to the dealer on a flatbed. If there is anything to report, I will get back here.

 

[gps1539]

I had this problem once (in 3 mths) and thought I had a flat tyre. I stopped the car to check the tyres and then all was fine when I drove off.

 

[Cmack]

This exact issue happened to both me and my wife on separate occasions. She was driving last Thursday and the power steering failed. I was driving Friday and had to pull over thinking I had a flat.

Getting nowhere with the dealer as it’s not readily reproducible and there are no error codes.

It’s a pretty dangerous situation turning a corner into traffic to have this happen. :shock:

 

[EVBob]

There have been quite a few reports of this problem, but only recently which makes me suspect a bug in a recent system software version. It might be time to start reporting these incidents to the NHTSA to get BMW's attention and hopefully a fix.

I think you may be right on this. This has happened twice on our i3 that had the safety recall (the one addressing if your a small woman not wearing a seatbelt recall) , but has never happened in the other i3 that we didn't update....

 

[dhrubinmd]

I too have had a loss of power steering on the i3. From other posts, it would appear that this is not unique for the i3 but may be pervasive problem in BMW. Disconcerting and potentially dangerous. What are they doing to fix this problem? Wait for highway fatalities?

 

[RRBerman]

Happened to me too today. Lost power assist while driving at 50 MPH. Not a very comfortable feeling, the car had no sense of direction. Once I came to a stop, power steering started working again. My warranty expires in 10 days. After reading this post, I'm guessing it'll probably take weeks before the dealer can duplicate the problem. I'll call and let them know anyways...

 

[CanisLupus]

This happened to me just yesterday . I had no problem exiting our parkade but after turning onto the street , the failure occurred . I thought for sure that I had a flat or very low tire . There was a strong pull to the right side such that I had to work against it to go straight . This carried on all the way to the Stop sign - T intersection at the end of my street . I was stopped for a few seconds . Upon turning left , all was well again . No trouble since . I will tell my dealer about this and/or make an appointment . I think that it needs to be on record that this issue has started occurring while under warranty .

 

[EVMan]

The only way to fix this for me is to turn off the car for few minutes and turn on gain.
Just tuning off and on in a few seconds on STOP SIGN , did not resolve the issue.

 

[ronbot]

While my i3 is still in the possession of its current owner (I haven't bought mine yet) I have a suggestion....

You all seem in agreement that it is resolved by turning the car OFF, then back ON... how about NOT doing this, and heading over to a BMW dealership while it's still doing it... and be sure to NOT turn it OFF when you get there...?

Just a thought... but it does require spare time to do it, and close enough proximity to a dealership... and preferably a phone to make a call to the service manager saying "Hey, I'm coming in with this steering problem but I can't stop... meet me in outside when I get there"... or something similar.