VW Polo steering adjustment collapsed

Hi, can anyone help with the following steering problem:

The car is a 98 Polo, with height adjustment for the steeing. As I was turning the car in he driveway this morning, the whole steering column assembly suddenly came loose, moving up and down through its adjustable range, even though the adjustment lever is still closed. I have removed the instrument panel and other parts to give a good view of the steering column assmbly but I can see no obvious faults - i.e there are no bolts missing or brackets broken as far as I can tell. The adjustment lever still tightens and loosens the assembly, but with no effect on the unwanted up and down movement. It will lock in the fully up position, but collapses again with very light pressure on the steering wheel. The adjusment lever has no effect other than this.

The back end of the adjustment lever is shaped as though it should engage with something, although there are no visible wearmarks on it. Near the end of the lever is a fixed pin (which does have wear-marks). The lever comes in contact with the pin only near the top of its adjustment. My suspicion is that there is a part missing here, between the lever and pin. However I could find no part anywhere behind the dashboard or on the floor, except for a tiny piece of rubber tubing, probably un-related.

In the fortnight leading up to this, the steering had felt occasionally loose or vague (I put this down to general wear and tear (theres 120,000 on the clock) although the car has had new wheel bearings, shocks, and LH tie-rod at 100k. It felt partcilarly bad one day which I put down to high winds and low pressure in one rear tyre. Finally in the last two days I had noticed a knock when reversing on full lock - I then assumed the problem was another tie-rod.

I realise this is probably a very unusual problem, but the car is obviously un-driveable until this can be fixed, so if anyone has any ideas what could be wrong or how it can be fixed, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Reply to
KB76
Loading thread data ...

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.