97 A4 Steering Problem

My 97 A4 2.8Q has 95K and the steering seems to be having trouble. At slow speeds the steering creeks when turning and steering in a straight line has become difficult and sloppy. I checked the power steering fluid and that is fine. The steering wheel has a lot of play in it even when making little steering corrections at any speed. I know this will cost me an arm and a leg, plus I have read about this in the past, but thought it would never happen to me. Any ideas on what the problem may be and the possible cost? I'm calling my dealer in the morning to set up an appointment.

Daryl

Reply to
Daryl H.
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New sterring racks are not overly expensive, the fitting is fairly costly, expect to pay about £450-5£500.00 the rack is £250.00 for a recon unit from Audi.

Thats about $700 us roughly

Ron

Reply to
Ron

Thanks , I was thinking it was going to be well over $1000.

Reply to
Daryl H.

I wouldn't assume that the steering rack is the problem.

Just helped my son replace the tie rod ends on his '98 A4 which had the same sloppy steering problem. That fixed the sloppiness completely. The ball joints have a nylon sort of liner that compresses over time and causes the slop.

Squeaking is a common problem with the front suspension in the A4s. Shop will replace the lower suspension arm for about $400 per side in parts plus labor. This will fix the squeak.

OTOH, drilling a few holes in the nylon bushing and injecting grease with a needle point adapter on the grease gun will also fix the problem for a DIY cost of about $%10. Also inject grease into the lower ball joints too.

T> My 97 A4 2.8Q has 95K and the steering seems to be having trouble. At slow

Reply to
TonyJ

Daryl,

I suggest that you stop whining and get a real car! :)

Reply to
Noah Cushing

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