Hello friends! This is a bit of a long post I know, but I wonder if you might bear with me, as I would be very grateful on comments and suggestions about where to go next.

 

I bought a 2014 plate Octy VRS a couple of years ago. Nice car, petrol / manual, from a main dealer, with 13,000 miles - now showing 33,000 miles. No problems with her initially, however after a short while I began to notice that the steering was letting the car down. It's always been a bit 'woolly', a bit heavy, and lacks feel. It's particularly flat feeling around the dead centre. At motorway speeds, it often feels like it's a bit too much effort to move it from the centreline for minute adjustments within the lane. Where with most other cars with hydraulic steering you can drive with your fingertips, with this you cannot.

 

I lived with it for a while, finding that by fitting XL tyres and running 40psi tyre pressures, along with keeping the geometry checked and adjusted regularly on a Hunter machine, kept it within the realms of acceptability. However I am sure that over the last few months, it has got worse. I have had the car up on a ramp and checked all the steering components - no problems or worn parts. The steering moves freely from lock to lock when the wheels are off the ground.

 

This week, I have been back and forth to my trusted wheel-alignment guy (this chap does nothing except alignment on his Hunter machine - he is well-known locally and often does main dealer vehicles and racing cars). We have tried a few different settings, mainly playing around with the front toe. We have finally settled on a front toe of zero degrees to at least get the car to drive and steer with any degree of fluidity.

 

But. It's still....how can I put it....crap??!! It just feels far too heavy, like the power assistance needs ramping up loads. It gets worse with increasing road speed, and I understand that the system is designed to change as the vehicle speeds up. This is all on the 'normal' setting under the in-car menu by the way...if I change it to 'sport,' it's ten times worse. 

 

I am at the stage that if I cannot solve this problem, then the car will have to go, it is that annoying. I have looked extensively around the forum and found a few people with similar complaints, but no real answer to resolve it. So I am wondering - is there any way the power assistance can be changed via VCDS? If so, can it also be changed to prevent the heaviness increasing with road speed? Or do you think that I might have a failing steering rack / system which needs attention from a main dealer?

 

I would be really grateful to hear other people's thoughts on this - I don't really want to get rid of the car because other than that, it's great. But this is driving me a bit mental haha!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Does it feel different with the lane assist on and off?  I'm pretty sure it was a standard feature on a 2014 VRS.

 

IIRC number of drivers have complained that they don't like the feel of the steering with lane assist enabled, as it does try and keep you where it thinks you should be.

I take you have played with the steering settings in "individual mode"

On my 2016 Octavia vRS I find in Sport mode the steering is too heavy and when it Normal its very easy to use at slow speeds, but not tried higher speeds. Have you tried all settings in the menu?

I found my 2014 2.0 TDi VRS to be exactly the same, just got used to it over time. Difference between old style hydraulic and the electric motor power steering I guess. Thing is my 2016 1.4 TSi DSG SE is much better, maybe due to a lighter engine.

 

19 minutes ago, themanwithnoaim said:

I take you have played with the steering settings in "individual mode"

As NOAIM suggests if the steering was set to SPORT in the individual mode then I find the steering too heavy and not just when parking. Seems a bit obvious but if a previous owner or the garage put it in this mode might be a good idea to try it in NORMAL. I have everything else in SPORT on the individual setting except the steering. If you're already in NORMAL setting then ignore my post.