heavy steering

Unread post by **froggy** » 23 Jan 2015, 10:59

Hi, my S1 Xantia, just lately I have found the steering a little heavy and not as light as it used to be! Tyres pressures are ok. Can anyone give me any guidance on where or what may be causing the " heavy steering". many thanks in advance Terry.

ekjdm14 · Unread post by **ekjdm14** » 23 Jan 2015, 11:18

Only thing I can offer is perhaps the tracking has been knocked out, this can give the impression that the steering is heavier (or lighter depending on if it's toed in or out). Someone who knows what they're on about will chime in though I'm sure, to be honest I just wanted to ask about your ZX, with the mileage I'm guessing it must be a diesel, or at least an XU petrol? If that's running a TU motor then its bloody impressive though!

edit-: Just a thought, has the Xant' been standing a while? if it has, it could possibly be seized balljoints/TRE's or even top mounts maybe? (that would usually require the dust boots to have been damaged for a while and all the grease to have escaped the balljoints/road crap to have got in... (Or I don't know who does the work/servicing on the car, but could a garage have topped up the PAS reservoir with ATF? I've got a Volvo V40 that takes LHM for steering fluid & that came with ATF in, the pump was louder than usual though as well as steering being heavy at tickover, it got easier if I revved the engine though so guessing ATF is thinner than LHM?)

Unread post by **RichardW** » 23 Jan 2015, 11:35

Lower UJ on the column. Multiple threads on here about it....

ekjdm14 · Unread post by **ekjdm14** » 23 Jan 2015, 11:45

RichardW wrote:Lower UJ on the column. Multiple threads on here about it....

Told you someone who knows the things would know lol, still interested in what motor that ZX is pulled by though

Unread post by **froggy** » 23 Jan 2015, 11:50

diesel non turbo.....cracking car !

Jaf · Unread post by **Jaf** » 23 Jan 2015, 16:15

Just double check LHM level too. My car steering gets heavier when the level drops.

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 23 Jan 2015, 16:43

If it uses a single 'V' belt drive to the pump, check that its not slipping.

Peter

SwissSPEC · Unread post by **SwissSPEC** » 24 Jan 2015, 23:30

Not sure if Xants are the same as BX, but if the lhm pump starts getting a bit tired the steering gets heavy. Also if the lhm filters get dirty, this can also cause similar symptoms.

chinkostu · Unread post by **chinkostu** » 25 Jan 2015, 12:48

ekjdm14 wrote:
RichardW wrote:Lower UJ on the column. Multiple threads on here about it....
Told you someone who knows the things would know lol, still interested in what motor that ZX is pulled by though

This will suprise you. Had a Saxo VTR with 176k on the clock. Thats a TU lump

ekjdm14 · Unread post by **ekjdm14** » 25 Jan 2015, 13:20

chinkostu wrote:This will suprise you. Had a Saxo VTR with 176k on the clock. Thats a TU lump

Not so much surprise, but impressive yep... they are decent enough motors but not a patch on the XU... Only my opinion of course, and with decent maintenance any motor's likely to last 150k plus. I guess it's just testament to the XU's durability that they seem to still do ridiculous mileages even given infrequent servicing and abuse. (having said that, if the VTR is a TU then they must be able to stand some hammer as well!)

chinkostu · Unread post by **chinkostu** » 25 Jan 2015, 13:29

No doubt an XU on the same mileage would be tighter though. A friend ran a few TUDs to over 230k, but they were properly ratty by that point!

And on the same note, my little TU1 in my first saxo only got to 137ish before it was properly fubared!

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