Never had an issue until i misjudged a curb in a car park and clunked it pretty hard going over a small curbed section in a car park at relatvily low speed approx 10mph max.

Doing no apparent damage to the arm/strut/shocker/wheel/tyre. The car has been geo'd and everything seems to handle quite well, better than i expected really. Especially in the wet ( after i replaced the snapped wishbone),

I've noticed that whilst parking or making quick movement onto full lock at low speeds results in the steering going quite heavy, im starting to think I may have stressed the rack out (I dont believe its bent though).

As everything seems quite smooth whilst driving without alot of steering lock, and moving the steering pretty steady whilst doing turns in the road.

Also sometimes now whilst performing turns in the road or general driving the steering wheel seems to becoming offset to central, cornering in the opposite direction with some force seems to straighten it up.

I know it doesn't sound too safe, but i've had the car checked over after the bump with the curb. Theres nothing apparent, or any knocking or loss of feeling/play through the steering.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

Browny_37

Heavy steering when doing quick lock to lock turns seems to be a trait of electric power steering systems and i've noticed it on all the cars I've had with electric or electro-hydraulic racks. My dud battery seems to be making it worse as well

Hitting a kerb at 10mph is still exerting an enormous amount of force onto the steering components and your 18/40 tyres will do little to absorb any of it

Have you run a VCDS scan on the car? there are all sorts of torque and angle sensors on the steering system and one of them might be out of kilter maybe. Either that or you have actually over stressed a component in the rack itself or the steering column.

Its the torque and angle sensors that tell the rack how much assistance to provide and for how long.

I had the ABS/TC give up the ghost just before christmas, i had the fault codes read.

And nothing that i didn't know about came up (glow plugs and a problem with convienience unit throwing a wobblie because of my clifford alarm) the only other thing was the rear left speed sensor.

Which was the cause of the problem.

I've often wondered about the battery myself, as i do have warm starting problems and it really does struggle to start when the weather is really cold. I was expecting the starter motor to be the cause of the warm start trouble.

As for the steering moving slightly i've wondered if ive overexerted the brackets/bushes holding the rack to the subframe/car.

Im wondering if having another adaption for the steering angles and torque sensors would be a idea?

I find it rather hard to understand that you cant check/fill the PAS fluid up on these cars, why having a sealed unit is of any benefit i dont know.

Edited 20 February, 201016 yr by Browny_37

Running another adaptation can't hurt can it. If a sensor is out of whack it might be adding slight power assistance when it isn't needed under certain circumstances - it's only a theory though.

My rear lights go very dim when performing a quick steering manouver in a car park for instance, if I leave my car sitting for more than 24 hours the starter motor is very reluctant to work, as is the lift pump when it primes with the ignition. Warm starting is almost instant on mine so I know the starter motor is good.

As far as I know the steering rack is electric only, there isn't any fluid to check and/or top up.

Edited 20 February, 201016 yr by dstev2000

I wouldn't say the lift pump struggles, you can certainly hear it prime up. I find my car is also reluctant to start after being stood for say 15-18hours in relatively cold conditions.

The lights do dim whilst moving the steering wheel on my car, but doing a little reading this can put a current draw of 80amps at 12.5V this could be the equivalent of 1000W.

My next thought is to try and keep the revs up quite a bit so the altenator has got a chance to help out.