Quick-Links : Components Over/Under steer Steering angle
The M3 steering needs to be sharp. Over time the sharpness may gradually vanish and you find yourself in a great car – with a sloppy steering. Fix it and get the joy of driving back.
The steering is influenced by several factors. Tires, wheels and alignment are obvious. Next are front and rear wheel controls bushings etc. Finally are the conditions of the steering rack and the steering column.
OBS: When you do work on front wheel suspension or steering be aware that the car has a Steering Angle Sensor, which must be kept correctly aligned.
Over/Understeer:
Several components and conditions influence how the car
handles in term of oversteer and understeer.
Oversteer is when the car follows a path which is more
narrow than intended – understeer is when the path is
wider than intended.
The shown table explains which factors that influence
the over/understeer.
To some extend you can “modify” the cars steering
behavior by adjusting tire pressure, wheel alignment etc.
However there are limits to these possibilities imbedded
in the cars original design. Weight distribution for instance
may not be changed a lot by the owner.
For possible wheel alternatives see 18 Wheels
Steering Angle Sensor:
If there is some misalignment you will get a warning like this ( Three lights)
The reason for this is that the input from the steering angle sensor is processed to verify that the wheels rotations correspond to “should be” values. If the Steering Angle Sensor senses You are steering in a straight line and the left and right wheel do not rotate synchronously, something is wrong – tire pressure or some misalignment. The latter could be that you have changed the steering column coupler and installed it twisted in the splines.
It is strongly recommended that you find and correct the error rather than trying to “compensate” the error. The later will only cause you more trouble in the longer run.
HOW TO KNOW IF STEERING ANGLE SENSOR IS BAD / GOOD BMW E46
Perhaps the next video provides an easy way to calibrate the steering Angle sensor (I’m not sure this works)
How to calibrate the Steering Angle Sensor on any BMW
HOW TO CALIBRATE RESET STEERING ANGLE SENSOR BMW E46
If the steering angle sensor is bad here is how to replace it:
BMW E46 STEERING ANGLE SENSOR REMOVAL REPLACEMENT
This thing sucks to replace! - E46 Steering Angle Sensor DIY Replacement
The last video actually also gives you a method to detect bad modules if readings on the OBD2 do not provide an answer.
