Brought her to mechanic 2day, trying to figure out hard steering / clunk & tiny play when changing steering direction.

just looked, clunk coming from inside steering rack . Listen closely you hear a grind in there. Mechanic aays shpild not be so hard to turn wheel (holding tire) by hand in lift engine on.

I don't recall any discussion about this, any thoughts?

this could explain it's reluctance to center on turns and feeling of hard steering.

power steering fluid ilevel s ok. Thoughts coaching perspectives welcome. Thanks!

John

 

Could variable steering assist be part of this? IOW, what if that fuse blew, what would it feel like?

Follow up: The guy adjusted the toe so the steering and wheel are both straight at same time. Believe it or not this whole issue is diminished. Doesn't feel too hard to steer. Didn't have a chance to push it and see if steering returned to straight all the way when released after a left or right turn but just wanted to share the update.

I'm going to go check the fuse for steering assist.

John

 

The inner tie rods look like they are "inside the rack" because they are inside the boots, but they are actually a cheap, replaceable part you can swap in your driveway with a large Crescent wrench.


My inner tie rods were dead. Clunky, floppy, dead. Some people spend big buck replacing the rack, when tiny bucks and a hour's worth of satisfying driveway work will fix the issue.

 

"Could variable steering assist be part of this? IOW, what if that fuse blew, what would it feel like?"

I think so. If not centered you would be fighting the power steering to keep the car straight.

 

Thanks for the great input. Is click thanks on the latest comments but my phone has defaulted to mobile mode to display our site and I can't find thanks or the show normal mode button.

looks like I'm going to evaluate the variable power steering module today. Looks like that's a lot less expensive than the rack, so fingers crossed.

I'll launch a new thread on that if questions come up.

thanks all, john

 

RESOLVED. - Problems cleared after reseating fuse #12.