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!