Squeaky Steering Wheel When Turning

[bmwstephen]

Hi all- I have a round airbag steering wheel retrofitedd in my 95. During the retrofit, I replaced the bearing sleeve on the upper shaft (immediately behind the wheel) but it continues to squeak. Any ideas like the clock spring?

[Braymond141]

Lower bearing on the steering shaft. It's a pain to get to, let alone replace. You best bet is to jack the car up and spray the hell out of it with your favorite lubricant. Get a helper to turn the wheel back and forth while doing it.

[BMWManiac]

As mentioned, you can always test it with WD40 and first confirm that is the source of the squeak. I say this because I've found that the wd 40 has been the easiest to target the area.

Then, get some spray white lithium grease, Tri-flow and go to town. Try your best to clean up the splatter

[bmwstephen]

finally getting around to this. is this the bearing you guys are talking about? or is it further up against the firewall.

Steering squeak

[JitteryJoe]

Maybe this bearing?

[MParallel]

So it’s a squeek and not some ‘click-ish, sound?

Cause there is also that plastic bearing right behind the wheel. (Steering spindle bearing plastic).

[jayjaya29]

finally getting around to this. is this the bearing you guys are talking about? or is it further up against the firewall.

Further up against the firewall

[jbse39]

finally getting around to this. is this the bearing you guys are talking about? or is it further up against the firewall.

Steering squeak

On my 97, the squeak went away for a while when I sprayed it with lubricant (I used WEd-40 or Kroil) but I eventually had it replaced and no more squeak since.

[bmwstephen]

How long and difficult was the job?

[jbse39]

How long and difficult was the job?

Sorry, had my mechanic do the work. I hear it is a bit of a pain to separate it from the lower connection, though.

[bmwstephen]

okay just an update on this; lubed up lower bearing on the fire wall and replaced the upper column bearing again and it still squeaked.

Turns out my problem was the area of the shaft behind the upper column bearing. So I ended up removing it, spraying silicon lube, loosely mounted the steering wheel to turn it, let it set, rinse and repeat until squeak went away.

Now I rebolted everything down and am squeak free.