smokenbaby 0 Report post Posted August 25, 2006 (edited) While doing my 2.5 conversion, the mighty E30 was stationary for a little over two weeks (waiting for lost parts to be either replace or turn up). In the process or the conversion I thought it a good idea to locate and fix a couple of water leaks in the front. One of the leaks was around the steering column mount at the firewall. There is only a foam gasket that is for sealing, this was shagged and the only thing I could do at the time was use urathane as a sealing medium. This meant removing the mount and applying urathane to the firewall and re fixing the mount.The following day when I took the car for it's first drive I could hardly turn the steering it was so tight. After a bit of movement left to right I decided it free enough to drive home from the workshop. After about 20 minutes it was that tight I thought the end was neigh due to acident. Managed to get it home safely. Now, I was fully expecting to find urathane had seeped into the lower bearing and causing it to become tight. After pulling the column out I soon found no trace of urathane. The bottom column bearing had actually siezed in the two weeks the car had been off the road. The source of water getting into the bearing is the sock drain on the drivers side of the scuttle panel. The water runs out of it and straight into the column. Water getting stuck in the bearing had caused the seizure. I would seriously recommend all you E30 owners to check this and clean and grease the bearing. This has now made my steering super smooth and what was once irratically thight is no longer. Edited August 27, 2006 by smokenbaby Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bravo 35 Report post Posted August 27, 2006 Hmm worth a try on mine. I havn't properly diagnosed the issue yet, but was thinking rack - maybe it's that bearing cheers. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
