ronanharper

Ok,

so story is, my 53 reg STI was pulling me all over the road. Got 3d wheel alignment - only helped a bit. Realised then my front left strut had failed and so got the front 2 replaced on Friday last week under warranty.

Thought the steering was still a little "playful" but they gave me a brand new STI for the day while mine was getting worked on - its even in those to a lesser extent.

Yesterday I was driving home on a back road, and whilst giving her some (not mental) accelaration on a "3 left" the car nearly pulled me to the ditch. Symtoms:

• loud noise from front left and car pulled to ditch
• whurring noise
• steering felt stiff and as I counter steered, a large dull bang came from the front, which seemed to put the car back to normal
• drives ok now but under acceleration the steering colum vibrates
• you also feel a soft grinding noise when steering left
• if you accelarate again on the steering turned to the left (i.e. turning out of a junction) the same thing happens as above.

I'm not sure but I'd think it was a problem with the steering rack, or maybe more likely the front diff? Its as if the front left wheen gets 100% more power and diff allocation when this happens.

Car very unstable now.

Subaru are looking at it this week hopefully but anyone any realistic views of what has heppened?

Cheers
Ronan

chocolate charlie

sounds like a CV to me

ronanharper

Mmmm...

I've had CV joints give up on fron wheel drive cars, like the old Vauxhal Cavaliers, but they never gave these symptoms?? It was usually just a cracking noise as you turned the steering.

This is much more dramatic and, well dangerous! Even driving in a straight line at 60mph in 6th and if you accelerate the steering column vibrates with a petite grinding noise.

Subaru look at this Saturday again but keen to know what the problem is. It should be covered under warranty???

Ronan

easyrider

Ive had a dry cv joint make the car pull to one side(on a Vauxhall)-i agree,it feels/is very dangerous.
With mine it didnt pull constantly, it tugged with each revolution of the wheel.

ronanharper

Well, Subaru looked at the car on Saturday, for about an hour, and had not a clue what it was. Then they took it for a test drive and the mechanic could not believe the sensation of the problem when driving it. He was seriously concerned about the danger of ddriving with it. They had never seen it before and Subaru Technical could basically offer little advice.

So they decided it must have been the steering column or steering rack as all the driveshafts, diffs, bushings etc were fine. "That must be it Ronan, we'll put a new steering rack and column in her"...

They decided to take one last look....and here is what they found.

The week before I got my 2 new front struts and a new catalitic converter as it was rattling. If I can draw you a picture with my non-machanical mind - The exhaust manifolds come out of the engine and then there is a metal cat like pipe that feeds through the turbo before it goes through the rest of the exhaust system. Basically, that pipe has a bracket. The bracket was broke, bent, faulty or something, but basically when under accelaration the engine moves back a little, and this bracket was catching on the nuckle of the steering column!!! Thats it!

At least they found it. Problem is they should have seen that when replacing the cat the week before - this problem was not on the car then so they obviously did a "no no" then and forgot about it.

They need to replace that part now which is about 5 hrs work - strip exhaust , turbo etc. So thats it!

Thanks for you interest anyway guys, even you Chocco Charlie!

Ronan

chocolate charlie

cricky. That could have been a bit serious. hope you get some compensation out of them for the poor fitting of the cat. the consiquences don't bare thinging about.

colin