Power Steering

[Maxtek]

I've been curious for a while now about if my E30 actually has an LSD and if so what condition it is in. I've heard of people saying a quick and easy method to test this is to put the car at full lock and floor it.

I tried this, got a little bit carried away and about after 5 minutes of actually sliding around a car park (with breaks here and there) my Power Steering decided to go, or what felt like it went (never driven a car without P.S).

The car was incredibly hard to turn at low rev's, and harder than usual at higher rev's. I stopped messing around as soon as this happened, let the car sit for about 15 minutes with the engine off. Symptoms still persisting I decided to drive home, a friend suggested driving at high speeds/revs for a while on the straight roads. The steering felt fine after this.

Now I feel like a complete idiot for doing this but would appreciate some input, does anyone know what this might be?

[German-Whips]

Does the car have an LSD after all?

[Brianmoooore]

Best theory I can come up with, based on all you say above, is that your steering fluid is low, and your silly hooning about has caused air to be drawn into the fluid by the pump, frothing it up.

[Blitz]

You could have just jacked the rear end up and spun one wheel to see if the other wheel turned in the same direction.

[Maxtek]

Whips, I'm pretty sure the car did have an LSD, unless its incredibly easy to spin the car about without one?

Brian, thanks, should I replace the fluid and/or bleed out the air?

Diable, no I didn't check the wiki or anything, it was a stupid spur of the moment thing.

Blitz, I actually knew about that method, however being the lazy idiot I am I chose this other method...

My MOT expires at the end of the month, I'll be getting it done hopefully within the next week and I've been thinking about getting an Inspection Service performed by my local BMW garage. As I have bugger all knowledge about cars I think letting a professional give the car a thorough check over will be a good idea and after that I'll teach myself to perform basic servicing.

Forgot to mention, its a 325i Sport. Thanks for the help.

[Brianmoooore]

If it's a genuine 325 sport, then it had a LSD when it left the factory, but they have been known to 'go missing' shortly before a car is sold.
Any bubbles in the steering fluid will sort themselves out over a few hours, and bleeding the system simply involves turning the wheel from lock to lock a couple of times. Check that the fluid level is high enough in the reservoir, and that the fluid is cherry red coloured, not resembling aluminium point.

[Maxtek]

I'm about 98% sure it is a genuine 325i Sport. I've used VIN checkers and most of them show it having "S335 M Technic Sportpaket" which I believe is what make it a Sport?

I also found this in the heaps of paperwork I got with the car.



The 'go missing' reason is why I carried out this silly procedure in the first place.

I'll have a look at the fluid, but as I said, it feels alright now.

Thanks