Strange noise when turning the steering wheel?

[alanm_3]

Hello all, My 2005 545i sport is making a wierd noise when I turn the wheel either when the car isn't moving, or turning to park ie driving slowly. The noise isn't apparent when "making progress"!
It's almost like you would imagine a spring to make when it's being wound up and released. There are no clunks or knocking noises to speak of.
The story starts a few months ago when the offside front wheel went into, what I can only call, a crater in the road. This resulted in a bent alloy and a broken spring, both of which were replaced. During this repair the bottom ball joint was also condemned for too much play. All seemed well until the offending noise started, and by coincidence this was when the MOT was due. The car was failed for excessive play on the same wheel as had all the work done on it. The bottom suspension link was identified at the culprit, was replaced and MOT cetificate supplied.
The thing is, this bloody noise just won't go away!
There doesn't seem to be excessive play in the steering, but I'm damned if I can find where it's coming from!

Anybody got any suggestions?

Thanks

Alan

[Nick M]

Could it be the ARB or the drop links ??

Sounds like it's happening when there's more steering lock being applied which can put the ARB under tension and if one of the bushes is shot then it might make a noise.

Only way I can think to test it is to jack the car up (and put it on stands so there's less load in the suspension) and then get a lever of some sort and see what moves, what doesn't and what makes a noise when you apply steering lock.

[alanm_3]

ARB sounds a good starting place. I'm guessing that it's just more of an after effect of the pothole incident, which looks like costing a small fortune to sort out!!
Question is though, would the MOT inspector not have checked the front suspension components as part of the test? He did spend a long time with a big metal bar pressing and prodding during the test and From experience, this guy's a real stickler for finding problems.

Thanks for your suggestion.............

[MazDave]

I had a similar noise on my 2005 525d E61. You could feel it through the steering too though. Only occurred during low speed manoeuvres, pulling on to the drive, that sort of thing, felt fine at speed or if turning lock to lock when stationary. Turned out to be a column problem covered under warranty - fortunately for me.

You could ask on E60.net if you need more opinions.

Dave