Heavy steering feel 2.0 HDi 2005

[dwr400]

Hi
My 127.000 mile berlingo developed occasional heavy steering feel.
It got worse, and goes from heavy to normal in increments.
It also tends not to self straighten after a turn.
Similar problem led a friend to replace his servo pump for refurbished unit, and it corrected it for a short period, but he sold the car soon afterwards.

I swapped mine with a used, low mileage pump, and problem still persists.
Only idea now is that steering rack is to blame. Are there any other issues to look at?
Guess this is a common problem for most lingos.

[Tomcat3]

Have a look at the u/j joint on the bottom of the steering column behind the engine, they tend to dry out due to heat from the engine. Use something like motorcycle chain spray to lube it and have a look at the one up under the dash it may be dry to.

[big_chris88]

agree with tomcat.
check the U/J in engine bay and under dash.
i had the same issue and greasing them sorted it instantly

[cancunia]

I found 2 issues with my steering, like the problems posted above it was often very stiff & often failed to return to the centre with some days better than others.
Firstly the oil was old so not working as well as it might. The oil is fairly easy to replace, but takes some repeated effort to replace via the reservoir.
The second issue was the UJ at the bottom of the steering column. I tried a couple of times to spray with chain grease but it made little difference. I found that I needed to get the car on axle stands at the front, then I used WD40 to free things up turning the steering lock to lock. Once it was turning more freely, I used the chain grease again. It's been fine now for about 3 months.

[dwr400]

I already have different pump, with new ATF, but that made no difference.

Currently waiting to get things WD'd an reshaked, than relubed, as per cancunia's advice.

[cancunia]

Hope it fixes your problem. I was surprised at just how much extra resistance that joint can add to the steering.

[dwr400]

So far so good, 3 days, all simptoms gone.

[Chuckmcd1984]

Hi not sure if this the right place to post this, but have a problem with my steering also 2007 1.6hdi 150,00miles, a couple of days ago it emptied half the power steering fluid out of the bottle and seem to leak it out just below the knucle on the steering rack, toped it up since and did around 100miles but never lost any since!! Have sprayed oil / wd40 on the knucle joint too...but is there a permanant fix? Thanks

[GraemeT]

Hi - had similar with ours a few months back, leak kept returning and eventually just had to fit a new rack - the seals in the 'lump' that the bottom part of the knuckle goes into fail over time and you get this problem. Did try some of the snakeoil stopleak things but they did not help.

Sourcing the correct rack may prove to be a nightmare as there are a number of variations that seem to involve different pipe routings. the one we ended up with was still wrong and I ended up just stripping the whole 'lump' off the new rack and swapping it for the original - no leaks.

[Chuckmcd1984]

Hi - had similar with ours a few months back, leak kept returning and eventually just had to fit a new rack - the seals in the 'lump' that the bottom part of the knuckle goes into fail over time and you get this problem. Did try some of the snakeoil stopleak things but they did not help.

Sourcing the correct rack may prove to be a nightmare as there are a number of variations that seem to involve different pipe routings. the one we ended up with was still wrong and I ended up just stripping the whole 'lump' off the new rack and swapping it for the original  - no leaks.

Cheers for reply, so it must be the rack is at fault?