Sloppy steering

**TDiBoraSam** · 07-03-2008,08:25 PM

The last three cars (including my present Bora) I have owned have all developed sloppy steering within 6 months of use. My last Bora did the same, as my current one is now beginning to do....

Usually, the steering feels tight and precise, with no play or wander noticable, however yet again, a sloppy, dead/slack zone is starting to develop around the centre position, and I'm having to turn the steering wheel a bit more to achieve the desired turn. Also, the steering wheel has started to get dragged around by imperfections in the road, whereas up until a couple of weeks ago I couldn't feel anything coming through the steering wheel, and it didn't get dragged around by road bumps or ruts etc. Similarly, the car is now being affected by road cambers, whereas previously it never did, and requires frequent correction or pressure applied to the steering wheel.

Today, I accelerated reasonably hard from standstill, and the car was quite difficult to control, the steering was very vague with some vibration coming through, and just felt unstable.

The only common cause I can think of is the many speed humps in our area, both regular ones and those horrible square ones that are impossible to straddle properly......so, after all the above waffle, my question is....

What components would get damaged/worn out with repeated impact with speed humps? Something is causing free play to develop in the steering of yet another car!

**dirtyderv** · 07-03-2008,11:59 PM

Track rod ends possibly? If you turn the steering wheel one way to another quickly, can you hear a knocking?

**TDiBoraSam** · 08-03-2008,01:43 PM

No, there are no abnormal noises, apart from a slight whining sound on full lock.

If trackrod ends were worn, would that mean that tracking would keep going out quite soon after having it realigned etc?

**Col** · 08-03-2008,01:55 PM

It will be your lower arms.

In particular the flat voided bush.

You can fit new arms complete, about £40 a side plus labour.

Or have the flat bush renewed in each arm.

I changed these bushes / arms three times on my Golf until I finally settled on upgraded Audi TT bushes.

**TDiBoraSam** · 09-03-2008,12:08 PM

OK, thanks for that. I'll have the lower arms looked at. I presume a decent garage can detect wear/play quite easily?

**m0cea** · 09-03-2008,02:03 PM

Have you checked your tyre pressures?

Seem to remember a tyre guy telling me that VW's known for leaky rims once they are a few years old.
The bottoms arms are a safe bet though I'm just about to do mine.

**TDiBoraSam** · 10-03-2008,01:03 PM

Yes, I've checked tyre pressures and they're spot on. Tyres are also nearly new.
I think I'm going to have some uprated powerflex bushes fitted.

Just so I'm clear....Is the lower arm the same thing as the wishbone?

**m0cea** · 10-03-2008,05:50 PM

Yes the lower arm is the same as wishbone.

You mention that you have had new tyres different brands and models of tyre can cause under or over steer. I went from Mitchelin Premracy to Goodyear NCT5 Touring and it was like steering a tanker with the Goodyears on and I never felf confident with them on. I'm now on Continental Sport contact 2 now which are an improvement over the Goodyears but still not in the same league as the Mitchelin. Still have Mitchelin on the rear tho and are still legal after 60k.

**TDiBoraSam** · 13-03-2008,08:15 PM

I've been doing a bit of research into this steering problem, and now I'm getting a bit confused! Is the track control arm the same thing as the lower arm, which can also be called the wishbone?

I'm looking at getting a specialist to fit some powerflex bushes to the front to attempt to tighten up the steering. Can anyone tell me which particular bushes are most likely to tighten things up? There is an entire front kit of bushes available, but I don't want to buy a whole kit if I actually only need one type of bush.

Something has definately happened, because the steering was fine until about 3 weeks ago, and since then it's become progressively "looser" and unstable, especially in windy conditions and when cornering. I'm having to make exagerated inputs at the wheel to achieve the desired amount of turn and everything feels out of sync.

**TDiBoraSam** · 18-03-2008,05:37 PM

Just a quick update...

I had the car checked over today, and it seems nothing can be found wrong with it. No play in any of the bushes etc, everything working OK, tyres OK.

So, I now have a mystery as to why the 'feel' of the steering has changed in the last three/four weeks and why the steering wheel seems to have lost it's 'tight' feeling around the centre area...ie if I waggle it, the steering wheel moves a lot more than it previously did (with the same amount of pressure being applied).

I have read on a Skoda forum that a lot of people had similar probs with Octavias..ie garages say there is nothing wrong with the car, yet the steering feel has definately changed, and become vague and 'floaty'. Like myself, people also describe difficulties keeping the car steady in winds, when accelerating moderate/hard and when driving in ruts, such as those found on the slow lanes of motorways etc.

There doesn't seem to be an answer as to what is happening and how it can be sorted. It's sooo infuriating to drive the car now!

I'm hoping something in all that long-winded waffle above might just trigger something in someone's mind..and put me out of my mysery!