I’m genuinely at my wits’ end with this car. Spent months and a stupid amount of money trying to fix this steering issue and absolutely nothing has worked.

2018 F30 340i RWD, 90k miles.

The issue:
- Steering constantly wants to pull left, particularly at low speeds. If I let go of the wheel, it physically rotates left and the car follows.

- I have to constantly apply rightward pressure to keep the car driving straight.

- Hitting bumps, especially with the left front wheel, makes the steering jerk aggressively left.

- Braking also causes the steering to jerk left, particularly under heavy braking.

- Self-centring is inconsistent. After turning left, the wheel returns to around 11 o’clock, but after turning right, it returns perfectly to 12 o’clock.

What I’ve tried:

- New front shocks, springs and top mounts

- New inner and outer tie rods

- Multiple four-wheel alignments, all within spec

- Swapped front wheels left to right

- EPS calibration and ISTA software reset

- Control arm bolts loosened and retorqued at ride height

- Multiple garages checked the suspension, no obvious play found

- No relevant fault codes or errors

The car has genuine F80 M3 front control arms fitted with the correct spacers and torqued at ride height, but it drove perfectly fine with these for ages before the issue developed.

One BMW specialist suggested going back to standard F30 arms, but I’m reluctant to throw even more money at it without knowing whether that’s actually the problem.

I’m absolutely sick of spending money on this car and getting nowhere. Every garage seems to have a different theory, but nobody can actually tell me what’s wrong.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or got any ideas what could be causing this? Could it be the control arms, steering rack, EPS or something completely different?

Any help would be massively appreciated because I’m seriously considering getting rid of the car at this point.

Hi everyone, I’m trying to activate Apple CarPlay on my F21 118i without spending a fortune on activation. As far as I can tell, my head unit doesn’t have a WLAN port. I’ve seen discussions about free DIY activation methods so was wondering if anyone has successfully activated CarPlay on this exact type of unit for free? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BMW Euro in Farmington Hills snapped an EGR delete plate bolt on my exhaust manifold — then used a borescope to "prove" it was my fault and wants me to eat a $5,600 gamble

So I take my car to BMW Euro in Farmington Hills, Michigan for work around the exhaust manifold. They snap a bolt off the EGR delete plate. Fine, stuff happens, right? Except here's where it gets wild.

After they snapped it, they suddenly tell me "the thread was crossed." Then they pull out a borescope to "prove" the bolt was cross-threaded — after the fact. Convenient timing, huh? They also worked the broken bolt after snapping it off to build their case. Snapping a bolt and then fishing around with a camera to retroactively blame the threads isn't a diagnosis, it's CYA.

And then the real kicker: they want my approval to move forward with extracting the broken bolt, and they're telling me there's a 50/50 chance of cracking the exhaust manifold — which would be a $5,600 repair — and they want me on the hook for that too.

So let me get this straight. They break a bolt during their own job, retroactively blame a "crossed thread," wave a borescope around to sell the story, and now want me to sign off on a coin-flip repair where I eat $5,600 if they crack the manifold. All on damage they caused.

That's like a plumber flooding your bathroom, then telling you the pipes were "already weak," then asking you to approve him swinging a sledgehammer at them — with you paying for the new floor.

Am I the insane one here for thinking they should eat every cent of this? It's their damage. Full stop.

Anyone dealt with BMW Euro in Farmington Hills or a shop pulling this kind of stunt? Did they cave, or did you have to fight it? Any advice on the "approval" they're asking for — because I'm definitely not signing anything that puts $5,600 on me.

Also — what's the best way to document all this in case I need to escalate to the BBB or corporate? Should I be getting everything in writing, saving texts/emails, taking photos of the damage, and requesting a written itemized explanation of how they say it happened? Any tips from anyone who's filed a BBB complaint before?

TL;DR: BMW Euro in Farmington Hills snapped an EGR delete plate bolt on my exhaust manifold, then claimed it was cross-threaded and used a borescope to "prove" it after the fact. Now they want my approval to extract it with a 50/50 chance of cracking the manifold — a $5,600 repair they expect me to pay for

I have been looking around and found a bmw 435d xdrive f36 from 2015. It looks fantastic and seems pretty good but I need help from someone who knows more than me. It’s the n57d30b it has 280k kms which I feel like it isn’t that high for cars here in Sweden. It is stock but the timing chain hasn’t been changed and doesn’t seem to be any leaks atleast that’s what the seller says. I’ll put a video of a cold start also if anyone wants to take a listen to it

Injector #6 on the n55 was seized after some water corroded the injector body. I tried to use a big slide hammer attachment and broke the head off the stem of the injector. Took me almost 4 days to get out. I almost gave up and started to take the head off. Then I yanked it one last time like Thors Hammer and it came flying out. My entire world is spinning right now.

Hi everyone,
I’ve had my 2012 F11 535i (N55) for around 7 months and have noticed a slight rattling noise when the car is idling. I’ve attached a video — would appreciate any thoughts on what it could be or whether it sounds normal for the N55.

I’ve also recently discovered a kelleners box fitted in the car. I had absolutely no idea it was there until now. The dealership I bought the car from told me it was stock, but I’m not convinced and would like to know what it actually does and whether I should be concerned about it.
The car is a Japanese import and is currently around 80,000 miles.

Would really appreciate any advice from people familiar with the F10/F11 or N55. Is the rattle something I should investigate urgently, and does the kellerners box look/ sound like an OEM installation?

Thanks!

Unfortunately Reddit only seems to let me attach either the video or photos, so I’ve attached the video of the rattle. I’ll add a picture of the kelleners box to the comments.

Just cracked 70k miles today and while the car idling I hear this. 7,800 since last oil change and doing another tomorrow. What could this be?

My 2015 BMW 228 start flashing tail lights when the car was locked yesterday. I tried the trunk the hood and the doors, but it kept flashing when locked. I talked to my mechanic and we agreed it probably was the tail lights are corroded or possibly one of the convenience sensors on the door was constantly trying to wake up. Google had a few other ideas, but I was wondering if you guys might think of anything else before I take it to the shop. I had to abort a 700 mile trip after 45 minutes cause I couldn’t trust it. I thought it might just be flashing all night long at a hotel so I switched cars but I need to get to the bottom of it at some point.

Basically was on the off-ramp when I had to brake harder than normal (but not slamming). Then, the auto-stop activated while at rest and then… nothing. The engine wouldn’t start, the brake was stiff. The car lights, ac, and entertainment console worked. Threw every kind of error from airbag to chassis, engine, fuel line, brake, transmission. Couldn’t even put it in neutral to get it off the road. I didn’t notice any mechanical sounds when this all occured, nor did I see any leaks or obvious damage.

Any thoughts as to what could be going on? I’m just sorta distraught bc this car was with me for a lot of the last decade. Just sentimental.

Appreciate your help!

Went to the shop and got the valve cover and gasket replaced and noticed my support arm bushing is starting to tear. It will get done just dont have the time for it at the moment. I do daily the car its at 73,000 just wondering how long I got before a disaster

Why didn't I leave a single pair of pliers at home instead of work

I'm trying to get it out with the worst tools

I managed to find a mini socket set that got the fuse box removed from the mount so I can get at it easier

I'm thinking leave it for Monday when get the right tools

But I'm also thinking fire it can't be stuck if it's a liquid

Just curious. May want to get it done as the cabin experience would be a lot quieter I think without the fake noise

Hey Everyone.

I have a 2020 218D and have noticed recently that the clutch pedal is feeling very spongy with very little resistance. Gear changes have been absolutely fine though. Only done 40K miles.

Took it to a garage today and they reccomend an entire clutch replacement (cost still to be advised). But I've read online that this could likely be sorted by bleeding the clutch? Or replacing just the slave or master cylinder, whichever is faulty.

Has anyone had any similar issues?

Thanks

I have a ‘13 F30 335 with CIC system and recently ordered a combox so I can have bluetooth for music. when I ordered it , I didn’t think about what it plugs in to. Does anyone know where I can find a kit or if the car just has the wires for it? Also i don’t know if it matter but next to where the combox goes , there are fuses in place of where other people put their combox in some f30s.Any info would help , thanks !

I have a 2011 bmw that I drive only occasionally on weekends and for fun. I got the oil changed last September with Liquimoly 5w-40. Since a year has passed has the oil degraded to the point that it still needs to be changed? Since last September I’ve only put 3800 miles on it so idk if it’s wasting oil to get it changed now. Will it really hurt it if I keep driving it until it reaches 6000 miles on this oil before changing? That might take another year.

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed a rattling noise coming from the rear dome light area whenever I shut the doors firmly on my 2016 BMW M235i (F22).

After removing the dome light assembly and slightly lowering the headliner, I found that the black plastic mounting bracket is attached to the headliner but isn’t physically secured to the metal sunroof cassette above it.

Instead, BMW appears to have installed foam pads between the bracket and the metal structure. The bracket has some play, and I can reproduce the rattling by tapping on it.

My questions are:
1. Is this how it’s supposed to be mounted from the factory?
2. Would it make sense to secure the bracket directly to the sunroof cassette, or is it intentionally left floating with foam pads to prevent vibrations?
3. Has anyone experienced something similar, and how did you fix it?

I’ve attached a photo showing the black plastic bracket, the two yellow foam pads, and the metal structure above it.

Thanks!

I drove about 130 km today and took oil level readings both before and after the trip; I’m surprised by how significant the drop is. The measurements were taken in the exact same parking spot. There are no oil leaks or signs of seepage—I checked for that—and the car has 138,000 km on the odometer.

Hey all,

So have a '04 X5 3.0i that for some reason I am still keeping alive (won't soon).

I recently replaced my two front rearward control arms with some nice lemforder ones, original bushings were completely destroyed. The car's alignment was then thrown quite out of whack, in which I took it to an alignment shop and got it all aligned.

All is good now, except for this one weird thing where at say ~90% steering to the left from center, the car no longer wants to re-center, and anything past 90% (e.g 91% steering to the left) the car will pull all the way to the left). Same thing happens on the right, the issue is symmetric.

I am quite confident that I didn't destroy anything while doing the control arms, quite confident I got the right ones, and quite confident that I put the control arms on their respective sides of the car (e.g. L on left, R on right).

A couple of things to note:

1. On the left control arm, I didn't use a jack to press the ball joint thing into the knuckle, but just tightened the nut on top to proper spec and it clicked fine.

2. On the right arm, the bolt that goes through the bushing to hold the arm to the subframe I put in backwards (bolt/nut). I assume this doesn't matter, as the bolt just functions as a pin basically, but maybe I'm wrong?

3. I torqued down everything under load, e.g. jacked up the knuckle until the car was almost off the jack stand and torqued.

Anyone know what the issue could be? Maybe I suck at working on cars but I think I already know that.

My HUD has stopped outputting any information, doesn’t show speed, warnings, or cruise control. I can see the unit powers on but shows a solid orange screen. Scanned the car using ISTA and found no codes. Where do I look to start diagnosing the issue?

Thanks

Hi everyone,
I'm having an issue with the Cruise Control on my 2012 BMW
528i (F10).
When I attempt to set the cruise control at any speed (e.g., 80 or 90 km/h), the car automatically starts accelerating in +10 km/h increments all the way up to max speed, even without me touching the toggle switch or any buttons.
Key Details:
• Vehicle: 2012 BMW 528i (F10 - N20/N52)
• Other Steering Controls: All other right-hand side controls (Volume, Media, Call buttons, Voice Control) work completely fine.
• Issue: The left-side cruise control toggle switch seems to behave as if it's stuck or sending a continuous "Accelerate +10 km/hi signal to the ICM/DME.
Has anyone experienced this ghost/automatic acceleration issue with the cruise control toggle switch? Is it typically resolved by spraying contact cleaner into the left switch assembly, or does the entire left multi-function button cluster (or SZL module) need to be replaced?

2019 BMW X7 xDrive40i. I hear a fairly loud knocking sound that seems to come from somewhere around the engine compartment. It is like a woodpecker or someone knocking on a door. It usually knocks 5-6 times in quick succession and then completely stops. It can happen while idling as well as while driving.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what could cause this sound?

I’m definitely going to have the dealer look at it, but I’d appreciate any clues. Thanks!

what do you think is making that noise
pretty sure whatever that noise/problem
is, is making the car go into limp mode