[Milton.Ekberg]

Not sure where to start. Me and my dad have been scratching our heads for around half a year about my E92 with steering issues.

This all started when I bought the car back in the summer of 2023. We noticed that the steering was "heavy", "choppy", "tight", and the steering wheel would struggle to return to center when you let go of the wheel after a turn. I drove it around as it was until my mom picked me up in my car after work one day and I was gonna drive back home (practice for the license). When I tried starting the car it started for a brief second followed by a loud squeal and the engine died (pretty sure I just held the button to little). When I started the car again the pump was blown and had to drive home without PS (had a good pump in my arms after lol). Even opened up the pump afterwards and there was blown pieces in the pump (both big and small).

A week went by and we had bought a new pump and a ton of oil to flush the system completely. We flushed the system of dirt and debris (old oil was dark and had a bit of metal in it), and took of the old pump off the engine. Put on the new pump and flushed for air bubbles and the system worked again. Didn't feel nearly as good as my moms E88 125i 2011-2013ish with a N52B30 (original engine), but it worked and I had PS. Even at standstill I could turn the steering wheel with one hand without much of an issue. Drove around like that since my dad didn't think it was an issue. Then I drove into a ditch a snowy winter day and my steering has been weird ever since (didn't occure at first but the problem started like 20 mins after we got out of the ditch and started driving again). Oh and the accident. No evident damage was actually made. We drove right into a pile of snow just slowing us down so no damage to the car.

We've tried flushing the system, checking for leaks, and we've went over the general gist of what would be the issues. It doesn't feel mechanical because then it would be more irregular I would think.

So to the main issue right now. The power steering is acting weird. At standstill it barely has any power to turn the wheel. If I rev the engine to 1k-1.5k I suddenly feel a surge of power steering and it's easy to turn the wheel (not entirely easy but not hard enough that I have to use 2 hands). Also when I do this at standstill there is a constant, fast knocking sound coming from god knows where.
If I am not completely standstill the steering wheel is "easily" turnable. But when I let go of the wheel after a turn it struggles going back to center too. It feels like as if it was a really tight bushing keeping it from going back. No knocking sounds when the car is in motion.

The car is in need of an alignment but I can't even begin to think that would be near the issue I am experiencing.

As said, my car and my mothers car has the "same" engine (mines, a 2.5L and hers is a 3.0L). The steering wheel and PS systems (what I would imagine) is almost identical. The feeling is so far off what hers is that my car is almost undriveable in this condition. Any help or opinions is welcome right now because I am at a complete standstill and I don't have the funds to send it to a shop.