Steering problems - bad feedback from the road

[nmh1977]

Hi,
Recently bought a a4 tdi 2.0 multronic. The steering feels very over exagerated. Ie. Its hard to judge the movement i'm travelling in and seems to over exagerate a slight turn of the wheel.

Someone mentioned something about the steering fluid. It feels like I'm getting very little feedback from the road.


Also if I need to get steering fluid which one should I get ? Is this the same formulae as break fluid, ie ethyln gylcol based or something else ?

thanks

Nick

[John140]

This is an interesting problem as I have the exact opposite with my a4 TDi140. My car tends to pick up every ridge or undullation in the road and feed it back to the steering, which is a pain on some of the poor roads in my area. The steering fluid is nothing at all like brake fluid, irt is more like power steering oil actually. There are lots of different types of PS fluid now, so I would check the handbook or with the dealer before topping up. Also, do not overfill and check the level with the engine running.

[nmh1977]

Sorry I should have clarified what I meant by feedback. I get the same feedback from the road, in terms of feeling those potholes and bumps but I seem to get little feedback in terms of the direction i am steering. Ie If I turn the steering slightly it seems to turn more than I would expect ??? too light for my liking.


The bumps and feedback probably result in the suspension problems I have heard the a4's have.

[robmk2]

heard there is some issues with the steering racks on some of these models! supposidly audi knows about it and there trying to find a solution to it! im pretty sure there is a thread on this forum somewhere about it....but im new to this forum! google it 'a4 common faults' there should be a link to this forum.

[John140]

heard there is some issues with the steering racks on some of these models! supposidly audi knows about it and there trying to find a solution to it! im pretty sure there is a thread on this forum somewhere about it....but im new to this forum! google it 'a4 common faults' there should be a link to this forum.

Can you elaborate on this a bit ? I'd heard about the problem with hydraulic noise from the rack on some cars, due to a design flaw in some of the plumbing, but what other steering rack issues are known about ?

[robmk2]

well from wot i read there was a loud noise from the the pas when the car was on full lock either left or right. as you mentioned possible a plumbing issue. if i remember rightly some folk had had there steering rack replaced with an up-rated version. it worked in some way in terms of less noise. however some audi dealers swore blind there was 'no common fault' however im sure that the stirling audi delership was mentioned and they where admiting there was a problem and that it was nearly rectified! hope that helps i'll try and find the thread again..........get a mk2 no probs with my steering

[Fastlad]

I had posted the thread about the Audi Stirling dealership being aware of a common problem with the steering on these cars. Just a pity their Sales Department was not upon to speed with Audi being quite happy to sell cars with a known fault and not mentioning it at time of purchase.

It has taken me 3 months of dealing with AUDI UK customer services and finally going into full rant mode. To all of a sudden I was put to the top of the queue to get the new steering rack fitted to my car. Fitted 2 weeks ago, but I can't believe Audi were quite happy selling me and everyone else for that matter, this car when they new only too well there was an issue with it.

To be perfectly honest the whole Audi experience from Dealership to Customer services has been an absolute joke and has taken the shine off of having a brand new car. The attitude of " Nothing we can do about it until Audi come up with a fix and we will let you know when that happens. But in the mean time tough!. Is not acceptable! Does Audi not test it's products before they sell them? Apparently Not!

As for Audi Customer services, save yourself the time and energy and go find a nice looking wall and start to talk to it.....believe you me it will be a whole more productive and a whole lot rewarding.

Never again!

[shaziman]

well from wot i read there was a loud noise from the the pas when the car was on full lock either left or right. as you mentioned possible a plumbing issue. if i remember rightly some folk had had there steering rack replaced with an up-rated version. it worked in some way in terms of less noise. however some audi dealers swore blind there was 'no common fault' however im sure that the stirling audi delership was mentioned and they where admiting there was a problem and that it was nearly rectified! hope that helps i'll try and find the thread again..........get a mk2 no probs with my steering

Your kind of right there. I had the problem with my 1.9 TDI B7, and it went back several times and they said that they had fixed it. Eventually they told me it was a common fault, but it actually manifests itself as i vibration through the steering wheel. What the issue is, is there are restrictors in the PAS pipes that spped up the flow and drop the pressure of the PS fluid, and its there actually to prevent the PAS Pump from being stressed on full lock. The restrictors are too big of a restriction, and it almost cuts the flow off. This saves the pump, but will cause starvation of fluid to the end of the rack. That vibration is 'pockets' of fluid 'hitting' the end of the seal in the rack.

The new 'hand-built' racks are the same racks with out the restrcitors in the pipe.

Theres no point arguing with the idiot dealers, they fit this new rack and it really doesn't do much.

Best is just deal with it. I faught with Newbury Audi, and eventually had a 30 day exchange and got a 2.0 TDI instead. Guess what... its better but there on that too!

HTH!