Hi.. I've been experiencing a disconcerting sensation in the past couple of days with my MkIII golf.. a looseness in response between steering and wheels. Noticed this when turning at low speed, esp. on uneven ground. It's unnerving, so I'm not driving it.
Got all new tyres at correct pressure, no obvious problems with power steering, no loose wheel bolts. Any ideas? I wonder if the front struts/support assembly may be a bit tired.. could that be it?
TIA
-- S i g n a l @ l i n e o n e . n e t
On a second generation Jetta, I saw the rack slide back and forth......................its bolts were loose. Check yours out and check the u-joints at the bottom of your steering column near the brake pedal.
Of course check all suspension parts including the wheel bearings carefully!
As VWDOC noted, it could be those things, but on mine it's been the control arm bushings and the strut bushings. I'm betting the strut bushings. They only seem to last about 40kmiles, but the struts go for a bit longer 50-60kmi.
If that's it, since it's all got to come apart anyway, may as well replace the struts too for the small incremental cost. Otherwise in about 10kmi you'll probably have to pay the labor all over again for what's basically the same job. And the labor on this job if the main part of the cost. IIRC ~US$500. I think that's about a CAN$25. :(
The control arm bushings aren't part of the strut/strut bearing replacement, but you may as well check how much it would be just to swap 'em anyway. Had mine done at about 90-100kmi.
But yeah, get under there and shake stuff around. Could be anything but my experience has been those go first.
Mark '95 Jetta GLS
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