Technical Power steering stutters

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Technical Power steering stutters

adju

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Dec 3, 2008
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I tried to find any answers on this forum but no luck so.

When driving on a motorway after a good half hour when
making slight steering corrections its feels as if the steering wheel
is stuck and a 10th of a second later it's responding. This making driving
not as relaxed as it should be. Need to have both hands on the wheel.

I don't get any errors or warnings from the car, also no fault codes from
the power steering.

Anyone an idea and thanks in advance.
 
Difficult to diagnose from a distance (Norway is too far for me) but if it's a physical/mechanical problem then old and worn track rod ends (sometimes called tie rod ends) can stiffen and resist movement especially small corrections.
track rod end.JPG
They're not expensive and are easy to replace so if i had any doubts I might look there first

People have had a pinion gear tooth shear off on their steering rack but that's more like a clunk for every whole turn of the steering wheel

tie rod.JPG
If you mean that you move the steering wheel but nothing sems to happen at the wheels until you turn a bit further then that can also be worn tie rods ends at the inner or outer joints or even a worn steering rack.

Stand outside the car with window down, move the steering wheel and check for any lost movement at the road wheel
 
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When the car is, for example, moving slightly to the left and you want to
correct that, normally you turn the wheel slightly to the right etc..
Then I experience some resistance for only a moment and than the
steering is reacting, this of course happens every correction involved.

And only on the motorway, in the city or country roads when driving
less fast there is no problem at all.

Of course I will check the items you pointed at, and will share my findings.

Edit:
More to the point, it seems like the power steering is not working at
that moment and then suddenly starts working.
 
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An outer track rod end that is stiff to move (or is worn and has slack it in it) will feel like that as when you turn the wheel nothing happens, then you feel resistance as it takes up the slack and THEN it moves
So from the steering wheel it feels like "nothing happening- sudden resistance- finally movement"
Particularly on motorways where the steering stays fairly still for some time and you need just small corrections

It might be electrical but there are no reported problems that I'm aware of other than the ones above so I'd check the track rod ends first and change them if you're in any doubt
 
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