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2000 E46 323ci - just bought a replacement rack today

2K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  Egon 
#1 ·
I am under the impresion my rack is fubared. so i ordered 1 today from a 2005 320d with 56k. cost me £99 delivered! well when it gets here:thumbsup
 
#4 ·
Easy enough to change them over - how are your track rods looking - both the inner & outer ball joints? I did a description on the E46 technical thread on how to swap the rack out - a very quick job when you know how (about 90 mins in & out I reckon - and I'm not a pro).

Keep us posted.
 
#7 ·
Funny you should say that, I had a clonk too and blamed it on the rack. What a hasty decision! I bought a remanufactured one and even though I SPECIFICALLY said I wanted one with the M-Sport valve, they sent me a standard over-boosted one. Needless to say, it didn't fix the clonk which was in fact the outer joint on the lower control arm (febi, fitted 30k ago, essentially crap compared to oem - you are much better to buy genuine used from the breakers, which I did). Steering never felt right since then, plus it gave up on me after about 3 months. I received another one under their 1 year warranty which started to get sticky even faster - after about 1 month. In the end I got fed up with it and bought a nice and tight ORIGINAL one from the breakers and now the car steers like a dream.

Moral of the story: stick with original parts!
 
#9 ·
did he check them properly? I couldn't detect movement either with the car up in the air. Apparently you can use a waterpump pliers to clamp the joint on its vertical axis and see if it has play. I hope you track it down, i know how painful it is :(

lemforder is oem, so if you can get those they're just as good as BMW ones.
 
#13 ·
Heh, spent 3 hours in an alignment place today, they checked EVERYTHING!
Theres no play in the arms, the droplinks, the wheel bearings, the anti roll bars, the rack, the rods, the alignment is still spot on (other than the caster being out, but no way of ajusting that)....


He did find that the top UJ on the steering column had play in it and is causing the knocking noise....(part #3)

 
#18 ·
I have a good spare joint if you want (no. 3 in the picture), it's not brand new but there's no play.

Also, I can confirm it can be replaced from the engine compartment (at least with a 4 cylinder engine). It's a fit fiddly but it can be done in 15 min., I've done it myself to isolate the rattle in the steering column.
 
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