Steering rack OEM BMW or OEM Mazda

Proper depowered rack in my NB, I love it. You don't really notice it when you're moving.

I bought a used manual steering rack instead, and absolutely love it! Moderate low speed effort with precise high-speed inputs and feedback. I think a manual rack from the factory is the way to go, if you can swing it.

spacers definitely weren’t there. Unbolted rack, bent tabs down, put spacers in, bolted it back up, good to go! Shocker - much smoother ride and quieter engine not that it’s not sitting on the rack/subframe

I run stage 2+ on e40 and daily it. Nobody needs this amount of power for a daily (500hp 3.4s 0-60). Also just hit 100k miles and I drive the hell out of it; just routine maintenance.

nothing has made as significant of a difference as the E46 ZHP rack swap. The biggest night and day difference of any part I've replaced on the whole car.

I went with the E46 ZHP rack (second fastest) as my very first "quality of life" upgrade and it dramatically improved the car.

I did the depower and its hard to turn standing still but once you get moving I can one hand it even in a parking lot but I still use the factory wheels and steering wheel.

The sticky steering became such a problem (despite the worm gear recall and greasing), that they now have to replace the rack/pinion.

E series steering feel and steering rack put my new 2025 bmws to absolute shame. I can't stand the constant small corrections on the hwy. The steering feels lighter than a cheap Kia. All three 2021 to 2025 feel unstable at speed compared to my E92.

I just went back to power steering. I depowered it proper, cut the plunger off and welded the pinion but no matter what the adjustment I did I still had this really odd play. Other than that the steering was great, driving felt smooth the feedback felt great