[mrbitsbyte]

Just thought I'd share my experience with replacing my steering column.

I've been dealing with soft steering input for a while now even after replacing everything else with used and new components.

I finally pulled down the kick panel and inspected the column and found a fair amount of play. If you move your PS res and insert your arm you can check the play at the top U joint. A healthy column shouldn't allow the U joint to shift up and down more than maybe an 1/8th of an inch or so. Mine was shifting in excess of 1/4".

I have a lower miles parts car so I pulled the column from it and installed it. It's really a straight forward job, only real struggle is fitting the boot back on should you choose to remove the U joint by pulling the boot back. Next time I'll just remove the cowl like I have in the past.

The newer steering column does not have a steering lock, and I found my car would not start without it. SO I will try to relay a step by step guide on how I flashed my CAS to make it work. I have a CAS3 (C4), unsure of if this works with prior versions.

First you need working standard tools and E89 datens. You need to use WinKFP to flash the CAS with different software. I had 9389115 and flashed 9389116.

First things first, in your E89 datens, E89/data/CAS3, copy all the files from there and put them in a folder called in EC-APPS/NFS/DATA/DEVELOP/. The location of EC-APPS can vary based on your install but for me it was in the root of my C drive. Create the develop folder if it does not exist.

Additionally, if you haven't done it already, use the easy update sp-daten update tool to make sure all your datens are installed. Open up said tool and under the settings drop down, do the first three options to select the paths for the tools. WinKFP should be EC-APPS/NFS. Then hit the "Select SP-source" button and open your E89 folder. Then hit update SP daten and after that, update winKFP.

OK, now that we're prepared, open up winKFP. You need to use expert mode, otherwise it won't let you flash the correct file.
Select PABD: 08010100CAS3.ipo
Select S-SGBD: 10flash.prg
ECU address: 40 (I don't know if this could be different for you)
Program file: 9389116C.0pa

Then press done. Then press program, and programming will begin. Took approximately 5 minutes for me.

I will also note that programming with the key in the car gave me an error. I removed my key and attempted to program again with success. My car started perfectly with the new programming.

I hope this helps someone.

[lowrydr310]

This is amazing!!! Where was this writeup 8 years ago when my old 325i steering lock failed? I searched everywhere for coding information but came up empty, best I could find was a $50 ELV emulator which worked 99% of the time but one out of 100 starts it would give the yellow steering lock warning. Coding is a much better solution.