This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I bought a 2005 BMW Z4 about a month ago. The first couple of weeks, everything was fine. However, as the temperature outside rose, I noticed that the steering started sticking, making it hard to drive. For example, yesterday, as I was changing lanes on a local highway, I had trouble changing lanes, and almost hit another car because of the sticking problem. Based on what I've heard, I believe this problem is being caused by a defective bearing in the steering column.
After parked in hot sun and driving on hot days, steering becomes erratic.sticks and releases when turning.slight turns at highway speed is horrible.slow driving is also bad. This problem has gone on for years.
"takata recall" my steering sticks in a position as I drive down the road and excessive force is needed to break it from the direction it is headed. This occurs under most all driving conditions and is more noticeable on highway driving around 60 mph
Steering column experience sudden jerks to the left, or to the right randomly making the car really difficult to drive safely. It's worse when driving on a highway. All tires psi are normal and tires just brand new. Car was aligned to discard everything. Even with many similar issues from other customers BMW is not accepting this failure as one to recall. But when I gets into the dealerships they diagnose that the hole steering column needs to be replaced at my expense. My car has only 86,000 miles and this is been happening since vehicle had 80,000 miles.
After the car is parked in the hot sun all day, the steering of the vehicle gets "stuck". it is hard to steer and stay smooth in the lane because you are struggling to get the steering unstuck at 70mph down the interstate. This is a very serious and dangerous problem that needs to be revisited. My car only has 31K miles on it.
- Merritt Island, FL, USA
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Above 30 mph steering sticks and requires greater effort to turn. At any highway speed this requires overcorrection and is very dangerous. This requires immediate attention and removes of thought of "pleasure driving"
2005 BMW Z4 with only 54,000 miles has uncontrollable sticky steering when ambient temperatures are elevated. Steering feels like it is in a groove and it takes dramatic effort to make a steering correction to stay in a lane. Once corrected the car swerves until you correct again. The car is very unsafe to drive in this condition. Review of complaints and available information confirm that this is a BMW issue worthy of a recall. There will be injuries and deaths if this problem is not corrected. The cost of the repair prohibit most people from obtaining dealer assistance to correct the issue.
Steering column experience sudden jerks to the left, or to the right randomly making the car really difficult to drive safely. It's worse when driving on a highway. All tires psi are normal and tires just brand new. Car was aligned to discard everything. Even with many similar issues from other customers BMW is not accepting this failure as one to recall. But when I gets into the dealerships they diagnose that the hole steering column needs to be replaced at my expense. My car has only 42,000 miles.
Vehicle steering is sticky, in center position making minor correction have to force the correction causing over correction. Driver then has to make another corrections again to bring the car back from the original over correction. This is potentially hazardous. In looking this up on google found that this is a problem for my vehicle year and BMW is aware of the issue, but no recall has been made. It is prevalent in warm weather.
When driving at slow speed steering does not seem to be a problem. However, as speed increases(around 45-50 mph), the steering gets heavier (and develops a "stickiness" at straight center which causes an overcorrection when turning slightly. The faster the speed, the more effort needed to overcome the detent resistance, to the point that it becomes easy to oversteer the car. This can be dangerous during any driving at higher speeds. The condition seems to more pronounced as weather temperature increases.
When are you going to issue a full recall for the BMW sticky steering issue! for years people have been complaining on socials media and the NHTSA that this is a very real issue and yet no recall! I have the issue. I can say at times in hot weather my car is almost uncontrollable. It is all I can do to keep my steering to go the way it is supposed to go without jerking and over correcting. I have had the car since 2013. I am the second owner. Everytime the temp gets above 80 the steering starts getting jerky and sticks. Just go to facebook. Bimmer forums. Everyone who owns a Z4 is having these same issues. It is extremely expensive to fix. BMW dealerships want to charge nearly 2000 for my 2005 BMW when this is a known issue. Unless you force BMW to be accountable people are going to get killed.
2005 BMW Z4 steering sticks while driving at low or high speed. When parked with steering unlocked you can rotate the steering wheel and feel there is a sticking issue that you have to forcibly push the wheel too far to get it to unstick. This is very scary when driving! consumers should not have to pay to fix this since many owners have this problem. Dealerships want $3500 to fix the issue. I drive a lot for work, going into a turn on the highway at high speeds and your steering it stuck is very dangerous. This happens to me everytime I drive the car. I searched the internet and there are thousands of threads from everyone experiencing the same problem. I only drive this car in the summer so I cannot say if the problem is worse in warm weather. All I can truly say is this happens everytime I drive the car. Whether short trip to store at low city speeds or very high speeds on the highway. Why is the NHTSA ignoring this? steering not working is a huge safety defect! this is not an intermittent problem, it is constant and random so no way to prepare before it happens at 80 mph or 35 mph through city streets with pedestrians and cars everywhere. This has been an issue for as long as I've owned the car and every year it gets worse.
My 2005 BMW Z4 with 47,000 miles the steering after driving approx 65 mph on the highway locks up while centered and you have to jerk it to steer straight which causes the power steering to over correct its very dangerous !!! so after doing some research on the internet it seems to be a very common problem so why is there no recall on this car before someone dies?
I experience sticking steering that progressively gets worse as I drive my vehicle. My steering tends to stick to the right and will not self align itself until I forceable center the wheel. The same problem occurs turning left but currently it is not as severe. The problem is present on city streets, highways and while turning.
While driving in warm weather steering has tight spots left and right when moving steering wheel, causing car not stay straight on road. Very dangers while driving.
Sticky / notched steering at highway speed. Feels unsafe jerks after about 30 minutes of driving. Just bought this used Z-4 in September 2016. Only has 98000 miles service mgr tells me that the only fix is to replace the steering column at a cost of $4300. Issue should be corrected by a BMW recall before a serious accidents happens. Car is unsafe to drive and parked in garage.
Sticky / notched steering. Feels unsafe jerks when temperature is hot or after about 30 minutes of driving. Just bought this used Z-4 from BMW dealer 1 week ago. Only has 58000 miles which is low for 2005. Just came back from the dealer and the service agent tells me that the only fix is to replace the steering column at a cost of $4300. Waiting to hear back from dealers management since that is 1/3 of what I bought the car for. I can not afford to pay another $4300 for the dream car I finally got and only driven one week. From what I read and after seeing all the complaints, a recall should occur. Happens under normal driving conditions. Must be corrected by a BMW recall before serious accidents happen.
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- Kenneth City, FL, USA