:( I have had a 'clunk' in the steering of my 2003 vRS WRC since I bought it in July 2006 with 29,000 on the clock. I inspected the usual suspects (bushes/ball joints/springs etc) but couldn't find anything wrong. Assuming my skills were at fault, I went to a friend who is a mechanic at a local garage, he inspected the vehicle and had the same verdict - no play.

Still unhappy I went to Skoda who were excellent and spent a long time looking at it with me/driving it. The service manager agreed there was a fault and after much inspection the only thing he could find was a cracked ARB bush. The ARB was replaced with slightly modified bushes (metal sleeves I think). A noise was eradicated but the clunk in the steering remained. :(

Five months on (today) I decided to go back and ask them to look again, in the hope that any fault would be more obvious now. Again they were excellent and spent a good hour looking at it. They managed to recreate the clunk and came to the conclusion that it was either the column or the rack. They tell me the noise is very hard to locate but they are fairly confident that the rack is at fault.

The cost of a new steering rack from the dealership is as follows:

Rack:

Hmm I have changed a fair few steering columns for a knocking that you can fell as well as here through the steering wheel. They do seem to sort it.

Might not be the same fault as yours but i'd suspect the coloumn before the rack.

That was what they said. With the engine turned off there is a really loud noise if you move the steering from left to right (I know you're not supposed to). They think that noise is from the rack but they are not 100%

Which warranty company is it?

Auto Vision. From the addresses in the book I have it would seem that the policy is under written by MB&G insurance services.