In memorandum, beloved mk1.

[addo]

That shouldn't be the main cause. Sometimes it can just be ancient PAS fluid that's lost its uniform qualities.

Then you can also have a dying or undertensioned drive belt on the PAS pump, or rubbish (rubber hose lining or metal particles) stuck in the control valve which is part of the steering rack, or a faulty ram (the bit with plastic gaiter on it).

At 250000 miles my van has its original pump, hoses and rack still. The pump is ageing and needs new fluid, but there is no odd behaviour. It needs rack ends, but that is different.

You should also check for vibrations when driving ahead at motorway speeds. if you get this too, it might be wear of the inner driveshaft joints and not at all the steering.

[Mary Faerie]

That shouldn't be the main cause. Sometimes it can just be ancient PAS fluid that's lost its uniform qualities.

Then you can also have a dying or undertensioned drive belt on the PAS pump, or rubbish (rubber hose lining or metal particles) stuck in the control valve which is part of the steering rack, or a faulty ram (the bit with plastic gaiter on it).

At 250000 miles my van has its original pump, hoses and rack still. The pump is ageing and needs new fluid, but there is no odd behaviour. It needs rack ends, but that is different.

You should also check for vibrations when driving ahead at motorway speeds. if you get this too, it might be wear of the inner driveshaft joints and not at all the steering.

Thanks for all the suggestions Addo! Have you ever encounted this exact problem?

There's no wobble at speed - it's actually very smooth. It's only done 56,000 and has best possible service history. I've read, in various places, of many people trying various of the possibilities you list. In a number of cases a flush and new fluid made it a bit better but didn't fix it and belts in all cases were fine. I know it's possible the same symptom could be caused by different ailments on different individuals but I'm loth to start replacing various bits, at increasing cost. Eek. I may try Kokain's idea of removing the orange bag thing to see if it makes a difference - so long as I don't break anything :justno:

Just wish it had been right when I bought it. Local Citroen garage think it sounds like the universal joint... but I'm not so sure. The dealer is saying they won't do anything about it

What's the ram by the way?

M x