BMW Help

[Pearl-Jam]

First off, thanks for letting me join the forum, I know very little about cars so any help would be greatly appreciated...I have a 2007 330d coupe and when it’s been running an hour or two, say I switch the engine off to run in a shop or something, when I start it back up the power steering doesn’t work and the yellow warning symbol is lit up, yet if I leave it for an hour or two it’s starts again no problem, I’ve noticed the steering wheel will twitch when it’s started up again and then it fails.. also, not sure if related but the steering shakes under heavy breaking now too...sorry for the long first post but I’m not sure where to turn to

[E-bmw]

Couple of first pass things to check:-

Fluid level in the reservoir, it is just behind the near side of the radiator, unscrew the cap & use the lid dip-stick to check how much is in it & if it looks pink in colour.

Check around the same area and under the car around the area of the steering rack for leaks.

Let us know what you find.

[Elliot2000]

If it’s hydraulic I don’t think it would ever putting a steering light on the dash unless it also has active steering fitted

[Pearl-Jam]

The only reservoir looking thing behind the radiator is nothing like anything on YouTube videos, and it won’t budge either, I took pictures but not sure how you embed them on here

[E-bmw]

OK, I thought these were still hydraulic, I could be wrong then.

If you can't embed a pic yourself find one o't'interwebz & link to it if that is easier.

[Pearl-Jam]

https://twitter.com/neil_PJ/status/105075490067255...

[Pearl-Jam]

This is the only thing I see, obviously one is for the radiator but I can’t see any like the ones I see on YouTube vids

[Elliot2000]

The bit with the big nut on top is the oil filter. There is two places a fluid reservoir will be for that car - where the arrows are pointing in the picture. If it’s not there then you have electric power steering

[Pearl-Jam]

Yeah mine doesn’t have that...so is electronic steering likely to be more expensive to fix ? Not that I know what the problem is

[d_a_n1979]

Pearl-Jam said:

Yeah mine doesn’t have that...so is electronic steering likely to be more expensive to fix ? Not that I know what the problem is

You need to take it to a trusted Indy or your local BMW dealership and have them read the error codes stored on the ECU cache and hopefully that will throw a code or 2, to give an idea of what issues there may be lurking

It could be something simple like the battery not holding its charge/alternator failing - BMWs do not like poor battery/power supplies

Or it could be a mechanical issue which will only be found once the cars up in the air on ramps and has had a thorough once-over

[Sardonicus]

Its a known issue on these hope this helps http://www.ecutesting.com/common-faults/bmw/bmw-e9...