Good morning,

A few weeks ago I hit a pretty massive pothole with the passenger side of the car. The tire immediately showed a bubble in the sidewall so I had that front pass. tire replaced that day.

After that I noticed anytime I would accelerate, the car would pull to the right pretty quickly. I took it to the dealer for an alignment. After the alignment my steering wheel was off center to go straight, and it would still pull to the right when accelerating. I took it back two times to have the alignment adjusted, each time my steering wheel would still be off center and the third adjustment really messed up the car where it just felt unstable.

Not trusting them to fix the problem I took it to a recommended independent MINI mechanic. He said the passenger front control arm was bent and they really screwed up the alignment trying to compensate. He replaced the control arm/bushing, moved the new tire to the back and did an alignment. Now the wheel is still off center in the same direction, and it will still pull to the right when i accelerate unless I straighten the wheel.

This is really driving me crazy and I don't know what else could be broken to cause this, or if multiple people just can't straighten the steering wheel when doing an alignment.

 

BMW has some strict replacement advice for impacts and damage - I know because of the damage on our Countryman - it can get expensive.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...nit/1VnXrEldWe

 

Thank you,

Finally someone with some information. I'm going to start an insurance claim tonight as I've had the tire replaced, 2 alignments, the control arm replaced and my wheel is bent and the steering still is weird.

 

Mention what you've done to rectify it this far, I know my insurance will reimburse those type attempts in some cases.

I'd be looking at the remaining portions of the front suspension on that side possibly a bent strut, tie rod/end, or knuckle.

 

Oh for sure. I'm bringing printouts of the receipts to the damage inspection.

Also to add, it bent the wheel as well, so I will be giving that estimate to the insurance company along with the $1100 I've already spent.

The current situation, after two alignments, having one adjusted twice after the fact and a control arm replacement is the steering wheel is about 5-6* off center to the right to go straight. If i straighten the wheel, it pulls off to the left hard, if I accelerate hard, i can straighten the wheel to go straight, if I put it back to its cruising straight of 5* off, it will pull hard to the right when accelerating.

 

when I did something similar I had the car towed straight to the dealer and the final bill was over $2000 .... aside from the suspension parts, wheel and tire suspect your hub (bearing) is toast too. I even needed a new rotor.

Actually have had this twice - but fortunately about 30 years apart!! If you bend the wheel and burst the tire it can get ugly $$ fast. When you look at the wheel and can SEE it is sitting further back than it should be .... Houston, we have a problem.

 

Figured I'd update this.

After having the control arm and bushings replaced and another alignment, the issue was still there, no one being able to center my steering wheel along with just weird steering pulls to the passenger side and weird feeling in the steering system to that side.

I took it to a collision center, they did another alignment and scanned the steering system for errors. It wasn't as bad now but still was off/felt off.

After living with that for a few months, one of my tires wore the inside edge off down to the cords. This was due to one of the alignments where they put a lot of toe in on the rear.
I then had all the tires replaced as they were due, and another alignment at the dealership. Steering still felt off and I was ready to trade the car in as I couldn't deal with it anymore.

Few days ago, after test driving cars and none of them living up to the Mini, I decided to really try and get this fixed. I found what I think is a legit shop, the owner of the shop felt what I was talking about with the steering. He said per BMW, if any part of the suspension is bent or a wheel, the steering gear/box is supposed to be replaced. I knew of this from finding the documentation on the internet, but no one would believe me.

He said in order to accurately figure this out they will need to get the wheels off and remove the tie rods and manually inspect the ball joints, tie rods and steering rack, which as far as I know, no one has done up until this point yet. While I was there, he checked the top strut mounts for looseness or being broken which they weren't.

Today I reopened my insurance claim for this and dropped the car off with them to really have the steering system taken apart and the issue hopefully found and fixed. Also having a Forge FMIC and powerflex engine mount bushing installed while it is there.

 

Has anyone attempted to reinitialize the steering rack motor (EPS)??

 

I don't know for sure, but I figured either the dealer or the collision center (mini certified) did that.

 

It tool me 3 dealer visits to finally get a tech to reset it.

I was getting a hard pull on acceleration, and steering would not easily recover from a right turn.
Its a software reset to reinitialize the electric power steering motor.

 

Yeah if that is all it is, I might just loose it hahah. Anyway, the shop the car is at is a very experienced BMW shop so they might do that in the course of things. If not I'll suggest it.

 

Heres some documentation you would be interested in:

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f...g-unit/2TXkQwa

 

The shop just called and said Geico approved a new steering gear.

They are now going to take apart the other parts related to the steering system and check those for damage as well.

I am so happy this might finally be over.

 

Yeah I was getting the same things, hard pull to the right on acceleration which would shift back to center/left after letting off gas, and the steering wheel wouldn't return to center from a right turn, it would stop about 5* from center. Turning left it would snap back to center easily. There was also a numb spot from 0*(if top and center) to 5* right, where if I turned the wheel there, the car would not rotate as quickly and snappy as it would when turning to the left.

The new steering rack is in the car now, and the shop checked everything else for damage and didn't find anything. They are going to program the rack today and do an alignment and hopefully all will be fixed. If not, time to start replacing other stuff.

 

Alright so, I picked up the car yesterday with the new steering rack. First thing was the alignment the car came to their shop with was way off, and that was from the dealership 4-5 weeks ago so the dealer's machine is off bad.

The alignment is great, and the rack is new (confirmed via date stamp on the electric motor). The steering feels better, it doesn't pull to the right except for a little torque steer. The only issue is it still won't return all the way to center from most right turns, it comes about 95% of the way back (couple degrees off center). Turning left, it will snap right back to 100% centered.

The shop inspected the rest of the front suspension and didn't find anything of issue so I don't know what else it could be. I've got none of the audible or visible signs of a bad cv axle or hub bearing.

 

Have them recalibrate the EPS once more, and reteach the end stop. Also SAS "Steering Angle Sensor" recalibrate.
The EPS (Electric Power Steering) also compensates for torque steer, by steering assist countering it..

When in a straight line the EPS is inactive, when the sensor "senses" you are turning the EPS goes active.
When releasing the steering wheel The EPS releases assist to allow caster to return steering to center.

 

Publish the "after" alignment measurements here.