BMW E92 328i Steering Angle Sensor Repair Guide

First,thanks to yikes98 member of BMW E90 forum.Using all that info I was able to put them together to share this guide artilce.I rewrite his post for purpose of making readers understand how to fix BMW E92 328i steering angle sensor easily.If you attacked by this problem,you will find DSC faults on you car.And dealership will quoted more than $900 to fix this issue.But here,you just spent only $0.02 fix it by yourself.

Note:You need to cheer up and be very carefully to deal with it,because many components are small and fragile.Try at all you own risk!

 

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How to repair BMW E92 328i steering angle sensor?

 

1.Open the trunk to find the battery and disconnect terminal,then wait at least 10 minutes to let all caps discharge.

2.There are 2 screw behind the steering wheel at 4 & 7 o’clock position, put a straight torx driver or allen key into. Feel for the spring and push to release the springs, pic#3 & #4.

3.Carefully use straight torx driver to pry connector tabs and pull upward to release locks and remove airbag connector’s, pic#5.

4.Remove the two connectors near the top of the steering wheel. Using a small screwdriver release both tab releases, they are on top of the connector, and remove steering wheel bolt. The torque spec is 46 lb-ft, pic#6.

5.Remove steering wheel, note the index marks at the bottom.

6.Now you will see hard part, splitting the steering wheel cowling. Carefully pry the inside and outside of the cowling split to release the circular tabs.

7.I used my fingers and screwdriver. Remove the lower cowling and lift the upper one out of the way..Remove the 4 torx bolts that hold the switch assembly that houses the infamous SAS. Remove the two connectors from the back; one is a tab release the other a lever release.Remove the clock spring assembly 2 tabs on the top and bottom and a tab release near the bottom of the connector. It will lift off as a whole assembly, pic #9. Don’t remove the clock spring cover tabs.

8.Put the assembly on an anti-static pad and attach yourself to an anti static strap. Note the indexing marks to the left of the unit, pic #10. Remove the SAS sensor housing cover, slowly working the tabs free. Now you should see the optical disc, pic #11.

10. Remove the IR LED cover using a t6 torx driver. Then remove the optical disc by squeezing the tabs on the back and slowly pulling the disc off the assembly. The optical disc on the face side looked like it was coated with a protective coating that deteriorated to form some crystal like stuff. This was not the problem but I clean it off with meguiars #10 clear plastic polish. Leave the back side alone as it is etched with the encoder information, pic #12.

12 .Definitely do this at your very own risk. Remove the 3 torx screws on the pc board. Slowly lift up to expose the three ribbon cables underneath. Using a small needle nose pliers pull the black cable releases down and away from the connector. The cables should be free. Pull the pc board out of the assembly, pic #13 & 14.

13.The IR LED and sensor pickup is shown in above pic#14.
14.Using an IC type tip soldering iron (very small tip pic#15) reflow the connections for the IR LED and sensor. I also did a bunch of components on both sides the board just for fun. Shotgun soldering to fix the cold solder joint problem. (Update: soldered the press fit pin connectors for the main wiring harness and jumper on the right side of the control board after the error came back after 6 months, cleaned and reassemble, no problem since. 10/11) This was the problem on my board and the solution to many intermittent electronic problems (i.e. the 3 red rings of death on my son’s XBOX360).

15.Reassemble in the reverse order note all index marks. BTW here is pic#16 of the IR LED on with the cover removed. Can’t see infrared light with the naked eye you say, hmmm my super sophisticated CCD digital camera can (pretty much any run of the mill digital camera can). Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it was hard trying to take the picture while holding a black garbage bag to block the sunlight.

17.No reprogramming the module, just keeping a grand or so in my pocket for other fun stuff. (Update: After reconnecting the battery, make sure wheel is centered, start car, turn full lock left, then turn full lock right, re-center steering wheel, SAS is re-calibrated).

18.It took me longer to write this and edit the pics than to actually troubleshoot and fix the problem. Now the turn signals turn off automatically again, cruise control works again, headlights tracks the steering wheel again, and start–off assistance works again. No fault codes on DSC/DTC. DSC/DTC works when I pull away from the car wash. Wife happy, life is good.