Rubbing noise during parallel parking?

Hi, I'm responding to the part about "screeching noise", it could be the power steering (if you have it). If not, ignore the following.

If you turn the steering wheel as far it goes to one direction, does the screech appear? Relex the wheel a bit, screech go away? If so, it could be the power steering.

When you are turned fully to the left or right, the steering wheel pump is still working, but the pressure is being releived by a pressure valve which makes the noise. Or your belt could be loose on your power steering pump. When you let up on the steering wheel, the power steering pump stops trying to help you turn the wheel.

Other questions: is this a new symptom? Or always been there. It's unclear whether the screeching noise happens as you turn the wheel or if it comes on when you hit the stop and can't turn the wheel anymore.

-Tony

-------------------- snipped-for-privacy@vcn.bc.ca Vancouver, BC Canada

I had some noise at one point from my steering wheel in my '98 Golf A3 but I don't know if is the same thing. Mine sounded more like scratching or rubbing, like you had grit between two pieces of metal, a white noise with no particular pitch. My noise was coming from directly under the steering wheel, as it enters dash. There are what looks like a stack of metal rings in there and a couple of stationary contacts on the dash side - my guess was that it had to do with electrically grounding the steering wheel. I blew some compressed air in there and squirted in some dry lubricant and lost my noise.

- Mark W.

It does sound more like harsh rubber-to-rubber as opposed to anything metal and certainly no 'grit' in the noise.

That might be worth checking. What sort of lubricant would you recommend?

-Bill Kearney

It's not at the ends (lock to lock) but at the beginning of the motion to turn the wheel.

As in, it's not typical pump or belt noise.

Like I said, sounds like it's probably different but worth a try, I guess. I didn't see anything on this in the manual and so hauled out an aerosol can of a dry lubricant called EZ-Glide RD 50 - I think I picked it up at Home Depot but I'm not sure. It's not supposed to collect stuff over time like silicone and oil based sprays along the lines of WD-40 and I figured crud was my problem in the first place.

- Mark W.