Another strange noise related to steering

[DrNick]

My W210 has always had a extra noise in the cabin when acelerating hard. It sounds like there is a route through from the engine bay to the air vent for noise!
Further investigation revealed that the noise only happens with the steering wheel in the straight ahead position. If you go around a corner then the noise goes away.

Even more investigation has showed that there is a rubber gaiter around the steering column where the column enters the engine bay, and this is torn, so I think this is the route the noise is taking.

So I need to replace this gaiter. Does anyone know if this is a major job, or indeed how to go about doing it? Does anyone know of gaiters that can be folded around and glued to save having to disassemble part of the column? They used to be available for track-rods, but people frowned upon them as you had to be careful fitting them so they didn't still leak. Not a problem with the steering column as its pretty well protected from the elements.

Thanks

Nick

 

[yoe]

recently i have encounter the noise from the steering. do you solve your problem. can the gaiter be repair?.. thanks

 

[yoe]

hi, dr nick. i have change the gaiter. it is not a big job however you must go under the dashboard in order to do that. changing the gaiter doesn't not solve this problem. it might be comes from somewhere else which at the moment i wasn't sure where the noise comes from.

 

[DrNick]

Yoe

I have not changed the gaiter yet, but I know it is split, so it needs to be done. Can you tell me exactly how you did the job?

My noise is only present when the steering is straight ahead and when you accelerate. If you accelerate around a corner you don't get it, which is why I suspect the split gaiter in my case.

 

[yoe]

it is the sympton in my case. but when i change the gaiter the noise still there.

the way to change the gaiter is by remove the connecting the steering shaft, under the dashboard where the instrument cluster is.if you remove the cover below instrument panel, you can see the gaiter straight away, the only way to remove it is by remove the connecting shaft. the connecting shaft has flexible join which you can fold and it is complete remove from the steering column. if i got time i will take photo on that and pass to this forum. the tricky part is when to assembly it back to the steering column.

 

[DrNick]

That would be helpful. It looked to me that it was necessary to completely remove the steering column to get to the gaiter. This is the gaiter that you can see when looking under the bonnet, where the steering column enters the bulkhead.
On that basis the noise wasn't that bad!

 

[yoe]

here the photo of the gaiter under the bonnet

 

[yoe]

here the photo of the gaiter under the dashboard

 

[yoe]

and last the photo of the steering shaft that connect to the steering column. becareful when remove this,it got a grove. the bolt has to come out completely and as it is hard to get it back in the right position afterward.

 

[DrNick]

Thank you for this information. When the good weather comes I'll have a go!

Nick

 

[yoe]

hi there, if you remove this column then you have to has a long clamping to clam the steering and the column back together otherwise you will notice a little bit of play during steering