The vehicle has a serious steering problem. The steering sticks and requires constant adjustment from the driver to correct while driving. The problem is intermittent and may appear at any time. The time it appeared, I was driving on the highway. The condition did not exist at first but suddenly and without warning the steering was stuck as if the steering had a "detent". The vehicle began to drift out of lane and into the lane next to me. This required me to abruptly apply more force to the steering wheel. Eventually the steering broke free and the vehicle over compensated and drifted to the other side lane. I immediately reduced speed to the minimum allowed on the highway and was able to safely get the vehicle back home. I was fortunate that no other vehicles were on either side of me when this occurred, else I would have surely collided with them both.
2004 BMW Z4 steering complaints
Page 6 of 14: complaints 131 to 160 of 378, newest first, as owners wrote them.
After driving my z4 on a hot afternoon I notice the steering feeling very notchy. You had to put in a lot of force to get the wheel back to where you wanted it. The next morning it was fine. But I have notice any time the cabin temp gets above 88 the problem comes back. It produces a real jerky feeling in the wheel and its very unnerving to drive.
Driving on curvy mountain roads steering sticks requiring extra force to steer resulting in over correction and running off onto shoulder. Without a shoulder in the mountains this is a potential serious accident.
When I am driving at any speed, my steering wheel does not feel as though it is moving smoothly, as I would expect from a precision-engineered bmw. In fact, it sticks to the point that it will not move unless it is jerked forcefully to the left or right. This jerking is not a big problem when I am driving at 20 to 30 miles per hour. However, when I am driving on a highway at 40 or more miles per hour, the sticking of the steering wheel becomes a serious problem because when I jerk the wheel as hard as I have to in order to unstick the steering, the car swerves so dramatically that I could easily lose control of the car and hit another car, especially in rain or other precipitation, and cause property, or worse bodily, damage to others or myself. What I find ridiculous about this is that I am expected to pay $5k to replace the steering column without any guarantee that the replacement part will last any longer than the original part, at which time I will have to pay $5k yet again.
Have had the car about 8 months. Have driven it 268 miles. Took the car to work 5/30/14. It was fine driving in the morning. After sitting in the sun all day, the steering stuck badly on the way home.it feels like you are riding on a rail.have to keep moving steering wheel to keep car going straight. Feel resistance in steering. I looked online and found this is a common problem for 2003-2005 z4's. I wish I knew that before I bought the car. It is dangerous.
Steering is very sticky and hard to steer in warm weather.
I own a suspected z4 with a the federal safety agency reported "sticky steering" issue I can tell you a little more about it. The problem has nothing to do with the boost. When the car gets hot (summer hot) the steering gets notchy in that when you put the car in a slight turn, like changing lanes or going around a slight corner, the steering literally sticks in that position causing the driver to apply opposite pressure to "break" the wheel loose from the turn followed by another stick wherever the wheel is brought back to. Problem is that it causes massive over steering issues at high speed unless you are looking for it. Extremely dangerous at highway speeds! Bmw knew about it and released multiple pumas (their equivalent of a tsb) and even redesigned the suspect column, but refused to replace the older ones out of warranty. These are $3000 before labor and bmw has flat out told me that they won't cover a single dollar of it. I guess we will see the federal safety agency forces their hand! I am scared to death to drive the vehicle I had to jerk to out of another lane several times and you must work extremely hard to keep it straight. Please do something before someone gets hurt.
The steering becomes "sticky" when the weather is warm. When driving straight it resists turning and once turned tries to stay turned and the car tends to veer unintentionally. The steering will not return to center when the wheel is released and it is difficult to steer smoothly on the freeway and requires constant correction. When it is cold it steers fine and travels down the freeway perfectly with no hands on the steering wheel and corrections can be made with only tiny effort. When it is hot and sticky it takes both hands and a fair amount of effort to steer. This is a design flaw resulting in a safety issue that bmw should fix under warranty regardless of age.
This problem appears when the outdoor temperature gets above 70, or my vehicle sits in the sun all day. There is a problem with the steering at all speeds - the steering wheel feels like it "sticks" in one position and I have to force it back in the opposite direction to correct the course I'm on. Then it "sticks" in that position and I have to be very vigilant with every curve in the road. It scared me last week because it was the worst it had been since it first began doing this last year. I live in the foothills of california and curvy roads are the reason I love driving my z4. Last week, the steering problem seemed to take more energy and more corrections to force the wheel back in the direction I needed the car to be moving. When the weather is cooler, the steering is precise and effortless. I was shocked to have to deal with correcting the path of the vehicle numerous times for each curve! It was an exhausting ride home; I don't feel safe when the car performs like this.
Steering sticks when vehicle gets hot or sits in the sun.
As I began to pull out from parking lot onto roadway, the steering wheel suddenly locked up. I managed to back straight down the hill and read about the issue (it was very early in the morning). I turned the car off and restarted. It worked fine. I've since read about this issue on several blogs and have discovered that is a repeating issue. Thankfully I wasn't in the middle of rush-hour traffic.
Steering becomes dangerously sloppy and twitchy at speeds over 35mph. Correcting the sticky steering causes an over-correction and weaving on the highway making it very difficult to control the vehicle. This is a known problem by thousands of bmw owners, yet nothing seems to be in the works to address.
As I was driving on the highway when I had to turn due to a curve in the road, the steering would not return to center. I had to force the steering back to center. This almost resulted in a crash with another car. The steering is very jerky,, it sticks in one spot. Until you force it where you need it to be. This same problem has now happened many times and is getting worse. It seems to happen more, the hotter the outside temperature is.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 bmw z4. The contact stated that while driving various speeds, the steering wheel seized and became difficult to turn without warning. The vehicle was later taken to an independent mechanic for diagnosis. The mechanic informed the contact that the steering wheel would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 222,000.
Since I purchased my 2004 bmw z4 on march 13, 2013 I have experience very annoying and more importantly unsafe issues with my vehicles steering especially at high speeds. At first I thought it could have been the alignment but after doing extensive research online and bmw forums it appears this is a common problem for the e85 (2003-2005) bmw z4 roadsters. "need a new steering column to fix "sticky steering" prob with the eps @ $3,300. My 2004 z4 is a "pleasure" car with 17,000 miles. Not a pleasure to fight the steering on the road." -taken from one of the forums. Fortunately I have another vehicle I drive daily and don't have to commute daily in this vehicle. However when I do drive it it's definitely noticeable not only by me but my passengers, it's scary even. I purchased my car with 69,500 miles which really is quite low considering the year and I am very disappointed to find something that has cost me so much to obtain gives me an uneasy feeling everytime I drive it. Wish I could afford to have the problem fixed but being a college student I simply don't have an extra $3,000+ to spare to spend towards the repair. Anyways hoping enough grievances will be filed and eventually bmw will own up to the problem and be willing to work with its many unhappy customers who are literally hazards on the road due to this "sticky steering" problems at high speeds. Thank you
Eps(electric power steering), does not function properly. The steering binds intermittently,and attempts to correct can throw the vehicle into another lane or into a dangerous situation on a curve.
2004 bmw z4 purchased used in 2011 with just over 60k miles on the odometer. At just under 70k miles the driver noticed steering seemed stiff and when entering a curve the steering wheel would freeze in locked position until manually corrected upon which time it would feel as if the front wheels were on a patch of black ice momentarily! Outside temperature was above 80 degrees. Did a search on this vehicle no accidents. However it was discovered many complaints (242) on this or similar steering problems. I called bmw of north america and spoke to a public relations rep. Who informed me that bmw was unaware of any such problems with this year model steering. I replied that this seems odd since I had just looked at 17 pages of such problems on-line? I scheduled an appointment with my local dealership and asked to speak with an experienced technician concerning the problem. The service manager checked with one of their technicians! He confirmed that he had seen this before and the steering column would have to be replaced. When I purchased this car I also transferred over an extended warranty at a cost of $1,000.00. So I will only be out my $100.00 deductible. Parts and labor will be in excess of $4,000k if a dealership tech is aware of such problems with a particular make or model you would surely think that bmw of north america would also be aware of the same such findings! Something smells and its not german chocolate cake!
Steering was sticking and feeling funny. Seemed to take more force to turn the wheel. It felt magnetic in the center or ribbed like. Then it would suddenly go when turning. Had to be very careful. After doing research I find that the bmw z4's have had problems with steering columns in the 2003, 2004, 2005 and some 2006 year cars. Has to do with the metal worm gear clearance in the nylon cog gear being a poor design. On hot days the clearance goes to zero making the gears to tight. Also nylon absorbs moisture after a while which would cause the nylon gear to increase in size decreasing the clearance even more. I just purchased this car and now am somewhat afraid to drive it or let my family drive it. Bmw has replaced many of these. I hope mine can be replaced as right now I'm not sure what my recourse may be.
I have a 2004 bmw z4 with 32,000 miles on it. I have an issue with what I will call sticky steering. When hot, the steering wheel will bind and require extra effort to move, resulting in over steering in order to correct the sticking. At all speeds this can be dangerous and at highway speeds this can be particularly dangerous.
Immediately after purchasing this vehicle we noticed difficulty steering the car. The steering is very sticky and erratic. It is actually scary to drive. Has a tendency to veer off and possibly wreck. I just hope it does not take x number of accidents/deaths for the manufacture (who is aware of the problem) to fix this unacceptable steering problem. My personal research has revealed that there are many many owners of this make and model vehicle have complained to the manufacturer about this exact same problem. If any information is needed or if you wish for me to elaborate, please feel free to email or call me. Thank you.
The steering wheel sticks and it's very hard to keep the car centered. I am told it will need a new steering column and this was an issue bmw had for a couple years on these models.
Once the car had warmed up I noticed the steering would "stick"and I had to use force to get it to stay aligned with the road.
The steering is the only problem but your web site insists on my selecting at least 3 affected parts. In any case, the steering recently became jerky and notchy while driving. After several days of this, I took it my local foreign car repair specialist and they diagnosed a problem with the electronic power steering. Ultimately, they replaced the entire steering column at a cost to me of $4100. This was a very unsafe condition making my control of steering tenuous at best and one that you have received numerous complaints about.
The steering becomes "notchy" or "magnetic" during hot weather. It gets stuck in a position and requites force to move it from that position. This often happens turning the vehicle at low or high speeds when turning the wheel to change lanes, follow a curve, or make a turn. It is dangerous and can result in an accident.
Driving down the highway steering became very sticky, wheel would just jerk back and forth whenever I tried to switch lanes. Brought it to the dealer the next day who said, oh yeah that's just stiff steering. When I explained it more, he fessed up that oh yeah he had heard of that too and it was a power steering issue and not a good thing and dangerous to drive. He said that the whole steering column would have to be replaced, the quoted was $4100 to fix it! After doing some research on line I'm flabbergasted by how many people have had this issue and how many people will have this problem as this is a recreational vehicle for most people and they probably haven't driven it enough yet to find out this will occur. This should be a recall no company should get away with putting out a defective product and making the owners pay for it later.
My 2004 bmw z4 steering is choppy and sticks even when driving in a straight line. Making normal driving maneuvers to maintain control of the car awkward. Note, this car has less than 36000 miles. I took the car to the bmw dealership and without even taking it into the shop to look under the hood, the maintenance crew told me exactly what was wrong. The upper power steering mechanism is faulty, which bmw has a recalled for certain vins but not ours. Its pretty clear that this is an across the board bmw problem and such a prestigious automobile manufacturer should not have to be coaxed into doing the right thing. So I go on the web to this site and I find 233 complaints for the same problem in just this year alone. What's it going to take for bmw to do a recall and fix the problem.
Vehicle becomes difficult to steer. Steering becomes sticky at temperatures above 75 degrees f., and is jerky and difficult to steer. Bmw dealership state it was the tires. I have replaced the tires and there was no change.
First noticed the issue in 2009 after a long drive on a very warm summer day in new york. Started noticing a "sticky/choppy" reaction to the automatic steering which became pronounced while on a curve, and required quick action to "right" the wheels to avoid a crossover to the opposite lane. I became more and more aware of the problem as it seem to relate to long drives on hot days. Since this vehicle is only driven in the summer time, I can not testify to this steering problem in the colder winter months. However, I am constantly vigilant to this issue now. Contacted bmwna to check for recalls, but received no response or acknowledgement that the steering was faulty. This could be a dangerous situation, and I ask for your support in contacting them. Thankyou
The steering on the car becomes notchy and twitchy, especially at higher speeds and in warm weather. The steering wheel hangs up like there is a flat spot somewhere in the system. It takes extra physical effort to move the steering off that flat spot. The steering wheel will intermittently stop responding to driver input for a short range. Then suddenly start working again after extra applied pressure on the wheel. When the steering is in the notchy/twitchy condition it will pull to one side. This is not a safe situation because you are constantly correcting the steering to gain control of the car. I have been advised the problem is grease on a bearing in the steering column. The bearing is not sealed and the grease is exposed to hot temperatures. The problem can be repaired by replacing the bearing with a new improved version, bmw does not offer the bearing on it's part list, but does recommend replacing the steering column at a cost of $4000.00.
Steering is sticking pulls to the left then to the right very difficult to keep car straight on the road sudden jerking of car when turning the steering wheel turns but car doesn't turn with the turn you have to force the turn and then you get pulled in other direction very very unsafe! Feels like you're going to be pulled into a crash! These steering columns need recalled and fast!
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