Wife was driving her BMW (04) to work yesterday--having travelled 13 miles on a
fast heavily travelled parkway and was pulling into her parking lot. As she
tried to turn the steering wheel, it suddenly went loose and she could
literally
spin it around and around with ZERO effect on the wheels!
AAA to BMW dealer. Found that the bolt holding the steering rod to the
steering
rack, via a universal joint, had completely backed out and fallen into a tray
below it and the rod had separated from the rack UJ!
They are still trying to find out why it came out and as yet, no findings.
I sent a note to Corporate BMW and they have asked for VIN info and said they
would review the issue. We will see.
I shudder to think what would have happened had it dropped out and the rod
separated from the rack while she was at 70MPH on a morning rush hour traffic
route. Not to mention that she was on about 2 miles of city streets with ped's
around.
Heck--even the old XKE's may lose a bolt out of this area, but I believe the
steering rod would stay inside the rack UJ giving you control over the wheels.
We will see what happens.
tom
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