general problems of the 2006 BMW Z4 - part 1

The electronic steering has failed several times while driving. This makes it very difficult to maintain a lane and avoid other vehicles. This problem continues intermittently. Thousands of Z4 owners have reported the same issue in online forums.

In hot weather, the steering binds, making keeping the car in the correct lane extremely difficult. The car will dart from one side to the other. The car will be nearly impossible to keep in the correct lane.

When the car gets hot (parked in the sun) the steering becomes knotchy or sticky and the car becomes difficult to control. No problems whatsoever when the car is cool or on a cooler day. This problem has been witnessed by a BMW technician and there are no warning lights. This appears to be a fairly common issues with these cars.

The steering wheel gets hard, looks like power steering gets disabled automatically while driving, making it almost impossible to steer. This has started to happen after hot weather had started few months back. I have tried to reproduce this issue several times, but it happens randomly and not all the time. I don't drive the car much. But this is definitely a serious issue, I checked the BMW community and a lot of people are facing this issue. Not sure how many have filed a complaint here. But this definitely should be addressed by BMW as this is not just one person facing this issue, there are hundreds and thousands of them. Level of severity is high, as someone who might have not faced this issue yet might suddenly face it on the highway could result in an extremely fatal accident. Havent reported to BMW yet, but found this issue is being faced by alot of people I thought to file my complaint here. I will soon get it repaired or replaced. There were no warning lamps or messages prior to this. It started happening in September 2021.

When the outside temperatures are warmer (mid 80's and above) the steering wheel will stick in the center position and require it to be jerked a bit to keep control. This occurs at all speeds, but does not seem to be the case when stopped. Since it requires the steering wheel to be jerked to correct, it can cause the car to swerve. I have had the car for several years began noticing the issue once the weather got warmer. The date entered below is today's date, but I have had the issue for perhaps 5 years.

During warm weather the steering will momentary stick while driving which requires additional force to overcome. This happens at all speeds but is more noticeable at highway speeds while trying to maintain vehicle in driving lane. There are numerous complaints of this on the NHTSA site. I have written to BMW north America about this safety problem and mentioned the multitude of similar complaints but they refuse to address the problem and suggest I purchase a new steering column at $2500+!.

Vehicle steering becomes "sticky" after vehicle has been exposed to warm temperatures. This causes the steering to center and require greater than usual force to off center the wheel, causing the car to be difficult to control especially at highway speeds.

Very sticky steering, dangerous in hot weather, this happens at all speeds. It sometimes requires significant effort to correct it. This is a serious safety issue.

Steering appears to be sticking or staying at a certain point in the steering radius. I almost veered into oncoming interstate traffic. I compensated immediately, but it released its "stick" and turn to much and almost veered into traffic I was in. Very scary, very dangerous. There was a possibility of much injury or death because of this issue. Bad.

Recurring problem with steering input effort when driving on highways. The steering sticks when in the center position. Resistance is felt and is difficult to return back to the center position. Sticking problem seems worse at higher speeds and with warm outside temperature above 80 degrees. 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 real scary during avoidance maneuvers and quick lane changes.

Steering is extremely notchy and unpredictable, especially on hot days. When in motion, the steering wheel requires force to turn, and sometimes will turn slightly without driver input. It appears that the power assist steering is actuating when it should not be, causing either resistance to steering inputs, or applying force when no steering input has been applied. When the engine is not running, or at very slow speeds, noise can be heard from the power assist motor. It actuates when no steering inputs are being applied. When steering inputs are applied, too much resistance can be felt and the motor makes additional noises. I purchased the car in February of 2016, and this has been happening since approximately spring of 2016. It has been getting progressively worse.

During weather above 80 degrees, the steering becomes "twitchy" or "notchy," no longer smooth, but requiring additional effort to turn the steering wheel, at which point, the tires move more than needed, requiring a steering adjustment the opposite direction. At the same time, the car does not hold a "line" as well, requiring a series of small left and right steering corrections.

Faulty steering with our 2006 BMW Z4. The steering is very difficult due to sticking steering in hot weather. This makes the vehicle very unsafe. BMW is aware of this problem and has avoided a recall. A recall is warranted.

In higher temperatures the steering wheel has a very sticky feeling, feels unsafe. Steering will not return, without assistance when going around curves.

My 2006 BMW Z4 has an issue with the steering getting stuck or notchy during warmer temperatures. The steering seems to get stuck. It sometimes requires significant effort to correct it. This is a serious safety issue. Many Z4 models suffer from this issue and a recall should be issued ASAP before someone is injured or killed.

Steering is "sticky" when driving straight. Feel a resistance when making a slight adjustment thus resulting in oversteering.

Faulty steering. Steering is difficult because of sticky steering. In hot weather the vehicle is unsafe. Steering is much worse.

Very sticky steering, dangerous in hot weather, this happens at all speeds. I have 65k miles on vehicle. I have been trying for over a year to get this problem resolved, no accident.

The problem of the sticky steering of the Z4 is related to the worm/reduction gear mechanism that transmits the torque from the electric motor to the steering shaft. The circular reduction gear has a nylon crown with teeth. All the surrounding parts are metal (steel or aluminium). The thermal expansion of the nylon is 3x bigger than the surrounding parts. To compensate for this expansion, there should be a clearance between the worm gear and the reduction gear. Unfortunately BMW and their steering supplier zf nacam chose this clearance too small. When the nylon gets warm, the clearance with the worm gear becomes zero and the reduction gear is stuck with the worm gear. The friction increases dramatically and you will then "feel" the engagement of the individual teeth of the reduction gear. This is a defect in the car desigen and needs to be recalled.

Steering is difficult to control when ambient temperature exceeds 85f. It is not speed dependent. When steering in either direction there is a sticking feel the results in potentially dangerous oversteer. It appears that this problem is not uncommon based on BMW owner forums and is well document in the NHTSA complaint database. It is only a matter of time before this issue results in injury and/or property damage.

I was backing out of my garage one morning and noticed a slight sticking feeling in my steering. Thinking it was a tire, I ran my errand and checked my tire inflation. One week later we took a short trip (50 miles) and the further I got down the road, the more I felt this notch in the center of my steering. When one tries to overcome this notch, you overcorrect the steering and could possibly dart off too fast. This is a dangerous situation. Again we checked our tires which seemed to be fine, then determined it was in the steering. We researched for similar situations on line and found there was an issue with these cars prior to 06/2006. Our car was mfg. 04/2006. Is there a recall in place for this wide spread problem?.

Eps suddenly disconnect the power steering, difficult to steer.

At 5pm I drove the car to market. Steering felt stuck in the middle or null point. It took some force to move steering wheel past the stuck feeling and then the same effort to return to the straight ahead position. This has happened many times before when the outside temperature exceeds 80+ degrees f. It is a very uncomfortable and unsafe problem as the correction can cause the car to swerve into oncoming traffic or the swale or curb.

Got in the car and started it and the light for the power steering came on and when I turned the wheel it was very difficult to drive. Went home and looked online and found that is a common issue with this model and that you guys have been looking in to it. Plan to call the dealer tomorrow.

The steering on the BMW is extremely jerky and erratic. It seems to jump and does not steer easily. It's hard to keep the car on the road because it all of a sudden will turn rather . Quickly. The steering sticks, and then all of a sudden will jerk to the side that you were trying to steer too. It's extremely dangerous and BMW needs to have a recall on these vehicles and get the problem fixed before someone dies. Once someone gets killed, I can see a huge lawsuit against BMW because they know they have a problem with these model of cars but won't fix the problem. Please make them recall the Z4's that have this problem and let them fix this dangerous problem. Thanks.

I picked up this car used with 57000 miles on in may 2013. The steering has always been 'touchy' but the dealer told me that it's because it's a sports car. When driving car in temperatures around 85 and up the steering gets really 'jerky' . This started in June 2013 as the weather warmed up. It's my 2nd car so dont drive it every day and did not notice this problem until the weather turned hot . High 80's into the 90's. I didnt use it much during the really hot weather last year. But the problem was there. I thought it was the tires, had them checked and had no issues. Took the car in for an alignment in the spring. These past few days the weather has turned really warm. I drove the car to work, left at 4pm yesterday with the temp over 90 and thought I was going to have an accident! the steering wheel would not glide smotthly left or right. It's like it gets stuck, you pull it back causing you to oversteer, you pull it back the other way. I fought this all the way home for 23 miles. The temperature and the erratuic steering was so bad yesterday that I will not drive it. It is sitting in my garage today. I called the dealer, tom bush BMW in jacksonville FL, to inquire about the service bulletins I found and this website where others are reporting it. I also called BMW na and they told me I had to go to the dealer first. I have left 2 messages and I have a feeling I will have to keep calling. They are aware of this issue. You cannot keep the car going straight without jerky it back and forth when outdoor temperature is above 85. This causes you to oversteer and drive erratically. It's very hard to control the car. I live in florida. This is a safety issue! why is there no recall? does someone have to die first? there have been numerous complaints, what has the NHTSA done to investigate?.

This 2006 BMW has the "sticky steering" problem that has been previously reported to the NHTSA. The problem occurs 100% of the time. When driving, the steering wheel will not turn without applying excessive force to "unstick" the mechanism and have the steering wheel, and in turn, the car steer properly. The car should not be driven as is. There can be a delay when reacting to corners, on coming traffic or any number of normal driving hazards.

When the car is driven on a warm day, the steering becomes very rigid and stiff. When driving and trying to make small adjustments in the line of direction, the car does not respond. The alignment has been checked and the tires replaced. Something is clearly wrong with the steering mechanism and the car becomes hard to manage. Accidents are going to happen because when the driver can't make timely adjustments to course. Please look into this. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

On hot days (85f+) the steering seems to "stick" requiring more than normal force to "break" the stick and resume normal steering. This can be very disconcerting as it feels like the car does not want to move. This issue does not occur in the winter.

The steering wheel intermittently locks up at higher speeds (50-70 mph). Usually the issue happens when the temperature is above 85 degrees.

The steering becomes difficult to control when temps are above 90 degrees. There is a significant difference when driving at any speed. When trying to turn the steering wheel to either side there is a quick over steer at the slightest movement causing the driver to try and correct which then causes a reverse over steer. This problem has been well documented by other owners to NHTSA and Bmwna but ignored or viewed as not a safety issue. I beg to differ. I've experienced first hand the cause and affect of this steering issue when trying to avoid an object on the highway that only required a relatively easy turn of the steering wheel. However, because of the "sticky steering" the minor maneuver became a major control issue to bring the car back to a normal steering path. This problem is known throughout BMW z model owners as "sticky steering". I will not let my wife drive this vehicle because of the problem. It is just too dangerous. Why is this issue not being addressed. It is so wide spread and it is a safety issue.

Steering wheel tends to 'detent' in one position until moved to another position. Steering response is not smooth and linear. Vehicle steering is 'darty' and unpredictable - more pronounced on crowned roads. Lane control is difficult and requires constant steer / counter steer to prevent lane excursions. Higher ambient temperatures tend to compound / amplify problem. Vehicle build date is 05 / 2006.

The steering pseudo-locks (has a "tick") and its nearly impossible to hold the vehicle straight. One is continually fighting the steering tick/lock to keep the car going straight.

Steering is jerky from center position. Extra effort is required to move sterring wheel from center position causing over correction in either direction. Sometimes this extra effort puts the car into oncoming traffic or the ditch. This is a very dangerous situation an I am afraid to drive in this condition. BMW wants to replace the steering system (expensive). There should be a recall for this item because there are too many complaints for the same issue.

On hot days, the steering on my BMW "sticks. " this is becoming more and more of a problem. I just drove the car home from the mechanic on a 60 mile trip. The problem causes me to have oversteer and over-correct when changing lanes. It's increasingly difficult to maintain control of the vehicle. Furthermore, I now drive with my forearms completely tense in an attempt to compensate for the problem which results in undue fatigue. My mechanic suggested tat the only remedy is an entirely new steering rack, in excess of $2,000. The car only has 52,000 miles though it is out of factory warranty. A quick search online, indicates that this is a common problem. The problem has been occurring for some time (at least 25,000 miles) but I'm beginning to feel at more and more of a risk. I mentioned it to the dealer when it first began happening, while the car was still under warranty, but they told me nothing was wrong.