Stolen BMW steering wheel

I went to drive to work yesterday morning but when I opened the driver’s door (unlocked but I’d locked it the night before) the steering wheel was missing but there was no other damage. They also stole an ipod and two £1 coins but left a pair of Oakleys! Car was parked on the drive, my bedroom is at the front of the house and neither of us heard a thing, none of the neighbors did, either.

I called the police to report it and the first question was ‘is it a BMW?’ –
apparently there has been a spate of this around my town. I’d been shopping the previous evening and parked next to a car with a couple of dodgy looking blokes in it (but that’s not uncommon). When I got back to the car there was a beer can behind it, I just thought it was some scruffy oik who couldn’t find a bin.

So it looks like the blokes scanned my key when I locked the car and left a marker for their mates to follow my car. No CCTV in the car park, unfortunately. Having just had the quote from BMW to replace it I can see why they are being stolen – nearly £3,000 parts and labour!

Where do you live? A customer came into my work last week (Harrogate) and told us the same thing happened to his BMW. Locked the night before, open in the morning, wheel, stereo etc missing.

oomidamon – Member

Having just had the quote from BMW to replace it I can see why they are being stolen – nearly £3,000 parts and labour!

Probably loads of them on the second hand market 😉

On the bright side, you now have the Ultimate Sitting Machine

but left a pair of Oakleys

probably thought they were cheap plastic tat, no idea why 🙂

Having just had the quote from BMW to replace it I can see why they are being stolen – nearly £3,000 parts and labour!

So they steal steering wheels so sell to who? People who have had their steering wheel stolen?

So they scan a key, follow the car, then steal a steering wheel? Odd very very odd.

😆

So they steal steering wheels so sell to who?

It’s all about the airbag innit!

On the plus side you can see the indicator stalk now…. 😀

j/k I own a BMW too lol

Exactly that.

Plus it’s a self serving market. Genius.

Have they come back and offered you a new tarmac driveway with a steering wheel?

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/how-relay-car-crime-works-13959300

Pretty much sums up how the oiks are doing it, best finding a reputable breakers yard to source a replacement if the insurance isn’t paying up, and get a metallic shielded pouch for the key. Unfortunately BMW’s seem big targets at present (modified insurer Greenlight won’t touch them), good luck.

It does sound like some weird self perpetuating crime.

The initial trigger was probably a crashed car that needed an air bag or someone wanting a fancy M-sport wheel…then as more people had them pinched more people where looking for them on ebay….

This reminds me of the 80s and 90’s with people using removable bosses to stop their Momo steering wheel wheel being stolen

So they steal steering wheels so sell to who? People who have had their steering wheel stolen?

Same as the market over the years for stolen alloy wheels, stolen hubcaps*, stolen car stereos etc, etc.

The black market is fuelled by people worrying about their NCB – they’ll turn a blind eye to where something came from even though it means they’re perpetuating the thefts that they’re a victim of.

If it’s any small consolation, they’re actually very easy to fit and, hopefully, you could pick up another wheel and airbag on ebay for about £200.

I’ve done a couple on E9* BMW’s of mine, changing the SE wheel for an M-Sport.

Gutted for you though.

Seems odd, didn’t think BMW had keyless entry do they? That relay attack seems to rely on this…

you could pick up another wheel and airbag on ebay for about £200.

theres every chance you’d be buying the same steering wheel 🙂

And it boils down again to the simple fact that in the UK, we are laughable lax about crime, especially crime that doesn’t “hurt anyone”..

Watch those Cop programs on the telly, they can chase a stolen car across town for half an hour, with a helicopter, 3 TrafPol cars, a dog team and 12 officers, and despite getting caught red handed, the scrotes get off with a “insufficient evidence” or “fined £12.37 in costs” etc (despite the bill to the taxpayer probably being £25k for just that chase)

And next week, they are caught doing exactly the same thing again……

Bring back Thatcher! She’d sort them out!!

I’ve done a couple on E9* BMW’s of mine, changing the SE wheel for an M-Sport.

but where did you buy them from? 😉

I live in Kent but it sounds like it’s a nationwide thing.

Watch those Cop programs on the telly, they can chase a stolen car across town for half an hour, with a helicopter, 3 TrafPol cars, a dog team and 12 officers, and despite getting caught red handed, the scrotes get off with a “insufficient evidence” or “fined £12.37 in costs” etc (despite the bill to the taxpayer probably being £25k for just that chase)

And next week, they are caught doing exactly the same thing again…..

This really boils my piss

I watched one where the police traced a stolen car back to a chop shop in a cow shed on a farm.
Despite they fact they caught two blokes in the process of dismantling a stolen car surrounded by other stolen cars waiting to be dismantled and a shit load of parts from previously dismantled cars.

Yet at the end of the programme Jamie theakstone said “ and the two men caught dismantleing stolen cars were let go with no further action due to lack of evidence” and he did not even follow it up with “I shit you not”.

Nightmare OP.

£3k for the replacement, that’s getting on for 10% of fhe cost of a new car, no ?

How does that relay thing work? Why is the key transmitting when there’s no buttons being pressed?

Cougar – Moderator
How does that relay thing work? Why is the key transmitting when there’s no buttons being pressed?

Keyless entry, you don’t need to press buttons. Just be near the car and pull the handle

Ah right, that makes more sense, ta.

Keyless entry, you don’t need to press buttons. Just be near the car and pull the handle

that sounds like a significant labour saving advance. 🙂

Was it an M Sport wheel?

perchypanther – Member
On the bright side, you now have the Ultimate Sitting Machine

Ok, that was funny! 😀

That said, I’m not laughing at you op as it’s a s*** situation.

Car crime is endemic. My car was broken into year before last. Just a bubble Corsa however. Still massively annoying though.

Pretty much the same thing happened to me, but just the airbag was taken. That said, they damaged the steering wheel, so that needed replacing as well. It wasn’t anything like £3K though, Sytner charged £1080 inc. VAT and labour. It was in 2014, but still. Shop around a bit?

that sounds like a significant labour saving advance.

Especially as the police are recommending people with keyless cars use diskloks.
Not a faf at all

No one will want mine – it is a thin weedy thing with no buttons on it! And a scratch on the BMW logo and one of the spokes 😉

Howling at the “ultimate sitting machine” comment! Well played sir.

Looks like BMW “comfort access” has to be specced.. I have a relatively new BMW but still have to press a button to get into the car. Guessing I won’t have to keep my keys in the fridge or anything like that?

Can’t believe people are stealing steering wheels or that they are easy to remove! Hard enough removing an actual car wheel with the locking wheel nut!

OP – Does your car have “comfort access”?

It’s a 2016 5 series M-Sport, not keyless entry so you have to press the button to lock and unlock it. It’s going through the insurance so the price is irrelevant, it’s been recovered to the nearest main dealer and they are sorting it all out.

10% of the value isn’t too far off, ridiculous.

Thanks for the reply. I just have a boggo standard Bmw wheel so hopefully not as desirable.
Have the poiice given you any pointers on stopping it from happening again?

No, no further contact from the Police. I left them a message yesterday as I want to give them the details of what happened in the car park so I’m hoping for a callback today.

See, I don’t get how it could have been a relay attack without keyless entry?

Its usually pretty easy to remove a steering wheel. Remove the plastic centre cover (this normally contains the airbag) and then its usually a big nut in the centre, undo the nut, give the wheel a bit of a wiggle to get it off the splines and you’re done.

See, I don’t get how it could have been a relay attack without keyless entry?

They can capture the button press (ie when in the carpark) then replay that recording outside your house

Not quite as simple as that, but not far off.

ah that makes sense

My old Merc had keyless entry and keyless start. It was great, you just walked towards the car with a credit card sized transponder in your wallet and when you touched the door handle it opened. You touched a button on top of the gear stick and it started. You walked away from the car and it locked.

It was only the one time that I had forgotten my wallet that I discovered the flaw.

My wife, who doesn’t drive, had found the second key-card and realised it was for the Merc. As she didn’t need it she put it in the glovebox so it didn’t get lost.

For 3 years my 6L V12 Mercedes CL had sat unlocked with the ignition open wherever I parked it!