New location
2nd of January 2012
A few changes have been made under the bonnet. This forced the power steering pump to be relocated. If I am correct, most OEM vehicles with electro hydraulic power steering also place the pump in this location. I can say it just fits. Why want more?
Power Steering is a creature comfort Id preferred to stay with the conversion to electric. Electro-Hydraulic pumps have been around for more than a decade now, so finding one that works should be possible for everyone. I chose an Volkswagen Polo TRW pump initially, but sadly the unit was CAN based and would require CAN packets from the VW motor management system to start up. Tempting as that sounds for me I decided not to continue that path and choose to return the pump and bought an Opel Astra G steering pump.
The Volkswagen Polo pump fitted perfectly onto the BMW hydraulic hose, but the Opel Astra had a much deeper thread preventing the BMW hydraulic hose gasket to be compressed when tightening the bolt.
A solution would be to buy an adapter, or let a custom hose be manufactured. Or what I did, use a piece of copper pipe, cut a ~ 4mm piece of pipe, make a cut in it so it fits over the BMW hydraulic fitting , presto!
Enjoy Electro Hydraulic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrHW7RXHHZY
UPDATE 31 May
Aluminium Bracket
Aluminium brazing is not easy, its even harder to make a tidy result. But what counts most is that it fits perfectly.
When tightening the bolts of the pump bracket I realized that I started assembling the car again. This resulted in a little moment of joy :-)
