Any mechanics?

[lovelyannie]

Are there any mechanics on here - need some advice from someone not involved in what we are going through.

It's in regards to a steering rack motor on a bmw - I'll go into detail if I get any responses back

I used to be about 20 years ago

@WhoKnewBeefStew so you'll still know your way about. We have a customer claiming we are owe an amount for repairs to an internal steering rack motor on a BMW series 1, 2008. We do alloys, so we took wheels off, refurbed and back on.

What's the chances this was an already existing problem or may have happened suddenly or something we did to cause ? Any advice is appreciate.

Of course we know our stand but looking for some other opinions

You wouldn't be that close to a steering rack when removing a wheel. I've attached a really simplistic photo of how steering works. Your track rods attach the wheel, but you wouldn't touch the rack when removing a wheel.

The only way of damaging something like one of the rods attached to the steering rack would be by jacking the car up on them, but you'd have to be some sort of 'stupid' to do that and you'd know as it would be very bent. Probably snap and the car would be undrivable

Your customer is taking the piss. A 2008 car is over 10 years old so highly likely to be wear and tear rather than anything you did.

The horizontal bat is your steering rack

Bar not bat

You can always get the AA, or get a garage to do an assessment on what they think happened.

@WhoKnewBeefStew that's a great diagram and EXACTLY what I'd been looking for.

That's amazing thank you. Yeah defo not stupid over here, we do plenty cars in a week and also have a few local garages including Arnold Clark's etc who use us - so definitely reputable.

The car is only worth £3000ish and they paid £2500 to get it fixed. We have the invoice from BMW which states 'internal steering rack motor fault'.

I think the AA might be a good shout, I'll give that a shot thank you again

If they are saying 'motor' it makes me think their power steering pump was the issue and that's definitely not something you'd have done..

Agreed. That's what I was thinking