Hi all, bit of a problem: Felicia 1.3 Estate (X reg)

[Nadz1lla]

Hey guys,

This wasn't something I was familiar with, and wasn't sure whether or not it was a common problem on the Felicia 1.3 Estate (X reg).

Basically, on long journeys, about 1.5 - 2 hours into a motorway journey my steering wheel would start to wriggle quite badly, getting worse in a matter of seconds. I would have to pull over into a layby or just the hard shoulder and wait half an hour until whatever it was cooled down so I could get back on the road.

One day I was coming home in the wee hours of the morning from Bristol to Exeter, it started up again. Got so bad I was driving at 15mph on the hard shoulder just to get off the motorway, and the steering wheel was REALLY going for it, rotating itself slowly both ways but to quite an extreme degree.

I got it into Exeter and something went *SNAP*, suddenly I could steer again, so I veeeeery slowly drove it carefully the rest of the way home. Next day I decided to take it to my garage so they could have a look. Started pulling out of my road (the car was "clunking" and rattling by now) and something else went *SNAP!* again. This time everything died, I couldn't start the car, but could still steer. The guys came out and towed me to the garage.

For the life of me I can't remember what he told me had snapped, but I am leaning towards "prop shaft". Anyway, they replaced it and all was dandy.

Until last year, we went for another cheap holiday to Cornwall, halfway there it started to judder again. (Cue me rolling my eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh!). It's only happened once again since then as I now refuse to make long journeys in it, preferring to rent a car if I am going anywhere long distance.

Is this a common problem with the Felicia Estate, or just my individual car that keeps messing up? I have to say, it's pretty bloody frustrating! If it's just my car that does it, does anyone know what could be causing this to happen in my individual case? Could I have something else faulty in the chain of mechanics that could be aggravating or causing this? Seeing as it was a new part that was doing the same thing, tells me there's more to this than the same part going wrong again.

If you need to ask any questions about circumstances etc to get a better idea of what it might be, please go ahead, as I'd like to keep my cheap runner on the road as long as possible (there's no way I can afford a new / replacement car for at least another two years, damn debts!).

Cheers!

Nadz

[adurer]

Definitely it's not a Felicia generic issue. Such dangerous behavior would have ended in a massive factory recall. Most probable it's from bad driveshaft (CV) joints. I would check them both and buy new ones. Have a look at differential side gear splines also. They might be cracked too.

Have a look at this topic too: Steering/shaking/knocking

Edited 8 February, 2013 by adurer

[adurer]

Here is a video for clearing things up on driveshafts.

Edited 8 February, 2013 by adurer

[KenONeill]

With this description, something has to be getting hot and breaking down from the heat. This makes me think of CV joints, differential or dampers too.

Do you get any clonking noises or whining noises which get louder and/or more frequent when you're turning and/or going faster?

Dampers won't make any noise, but are reasonably easy to test. Lean your whole weight on a corner, then jump in the air pressing down on that corner and remove your weight as you reach the top of your jump. The car should go up once, down once, and then settle. If it doesn't, you need to replace both dampers at that end.

Also, you can inspect them visually for oily marks, which may indicate a leak. If you see oil, clean that damper, and look again in about a week. If you see freshish oil on that damper it's leaking. Again, replace both dampers at that end.

[robk1]

Hi, think replies so far are on the right track. I had very similar symptoms fairly recently that initially baffled me until a few days later the near side outer CV joint failed. As Ken says, load up each side whilst driving & see if that results in any clonking or knocking noises. The vibration was very characteristic felt through the steering wheel & this tended to occur at slightly higher speeds & in my case on a local motorway, initially suspecting the near side tyre had let go!

Shouldn't be too bad to resolve.

Rob

[Nadz1lla]

Guys, you are all brilliant, thank you! That's the kind of thing I was thinking it could be but not being a mechanic / all that knowledgable I couldn't quite put it into words properly, it was just a gut feeling I had.

If it helps, it did seem to be triggered by travelling fast along a prolonged bend in the motorway, so my steering wheel would have been in a slightly turned position for a relatively extended period whilst at speed.

I will certainly do those tests, thanks. A friend of mine at work who builds Hot Rods for a hobby also told me to take it to a car park, put the full lock on and do a few circles to see if I heard knocking, and he said pretty much the same about the C.V joints too.

Again, thank you all, this seems to be the exact problem I am having!

[robk1]

Hopefully we've hit the right area, good luck with resolving

[Nadz1lla]

Aye cheers, it's something to tell the mechanics to focus on when I take it in on Tuesday.

[adurer]

Don't forget to keep us posted about your findings. Maybe take a few detail pictures of bad parts and put them in here so we all learn from your problem.

[Nadz1lla]

Okay so I got the car put through MOT, but I could only afford for them to fix the MOT-related stuff. This problem, as far as I am aware, is still ongoing but I've not had the chance to take it up the motorway for a test recently. I did take the car to a car park and put on full-lock ion both directions for a few circles, and didn't hear anything clunking around. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough, hah!

The car itself in general is in a bit of a sorry state, so I am going to keep it and think of it as a rolling project. I intend to replace all the parts that could be causing the problem one by one over the next year, which should nullify the problem anyway. I've never "worked on" a car in my life but would love to start, as my Dad and I would some day like to restore a Mini together as a home project. So getting my welding and rust-solving skills up will be perfect on this car. She's got surface rust in all the usual places, but I know for a fact that the entire windscreen frame is rusted really badly all the way around inside, which is going to be way beyond my skills to repair, so I will have to consider over the next year whether I am going to re-MOT her again or send her to the graveyard (unless anyone has any cheap tips on how to replace the whole window section? *wishful thinking, heh*).

I'll keep y'all posted, whatever happens.