Steering wheel judder and metallic scraping noise

[Seabass]

A strange tale.

So, about a month ago I noticed the steering wheel was kicking to the left at slow speeds, and turning into a judder at higher speeds. In reverse the steering wheel kicked right!

  I drove straight to Ablefit to have the wheels aligned and tyres checked, where after finishing the alignment (which was way off) the chap refused to charge me as the problem only appeared worse.

 Since then I've only been driving around town whilst meaning to see my mechanic.

 However, last night on return from the shop there suddenly came a loud, metallic, scraping sound from under the car, I thought the exhaust had fallen off but there was nothing to be seen.

  Today whilst waiting for the breakdown service I drove forward and backward and the sound was still there. But when help arrived, voila! No noise and no juddering, kick from the steering wheel! I now have very little faith in the car even though the mechanic followed me for 2 miles and I've had an extra little drive. Can anyone make any sense of the strange circumstances?

I feel very lucky but can't believe this is the end of my months worth of car troubles!?

[sepulchrave]

Sounds like one of your console bushes has completely disintegrated allowing the wishbone to move violently fore and aft, it should be easy to spot, try another mechanic who's a qualified MOT tester rather than a numpty.