Xantia steering wheel turnes on holes

[lancia58]

My Xantia is equipped with power steering. On rough roads when the a front wheel is passing over a hole ( not too deep ) I can feel that the steering wheel is turned to the whole side. The deeper the hole the more it turns. I also have a ford focus in which that it is much less prone to this phenomena. Is that normal if not what can be the cause for this

Regards
Zohar

[Peter.N.]

This is quite normal to some degree as the wheels are pivoted inboard so any resistance to the rotation will cause the wheel to turn outward, unless you are fortunate enough to be driving a CX. The ammount of wear and tightness of the steering will have some bearing as will the wheel/tyre size.

Peter

[lancia58]

What is getting wear in the steering and what effects its tightness ?

Regards
Zohar

[Peter.N.]

Anything really but I suppose the rack is the first suspect as if it looses its preload it will make the steering lighter, does the steering rattle at all?

Peter

[lancia58]

It is not rattling but the steering wheel has a bit of freedom to move up and down ( I guess less than a millimeter ) , but I guess it is related to the steering column and not the rack

Regards
Zohar

[Peter.N.]

It may just be related to the characteristics of the steering on the Xantia, you really need to try another one for comparison.

Peter