Knocking sound fixed, but new problem with steering - please help!
 

Dear all

After recently buying a 2008 RX8 i noticed a knocking noise when going slowly over potholes or speed bumps. The dealer i bought the car from had the car in a few times over a few days and couldn't find the issue. After reading online about a guy whole had a similar issue and it was fixed by replacing the steering rack, I told the garage and they replaced the steering rack under warranty and it fixed the knocking!

Unfortunately on picking the car up the steering was screwed - turning to the left was very light and turning to the right very heavy. At speed it was worse. I tried the reseting of the ECU, etc with no luck. I took it back to the dealer and over a day they "recalibrated" it, although they couldn’t say what the mechanic actually did. But the steering weighting is now the same both directions.

However, I now have another issue at speed on the motorway. After driving for a while i notice that when the road bends one way and i turn, I feel resistance in the steeling. I have to push to turn through the resistance, as though the car is tramlining and caught in a groove on the road. Once I push through the resistance the steering turns fine and smooth until i have to change direction, when it does it again. When the road straightens up and bends the other way I get the same resistance the other way. It’s basically when I turn the car and I go past dead centre to change direction I get the resistance. It’s like the steering is stuck and I have to push through. It only seems to be apparent around 70mph and only after driving for a short while. When i push through the resistance i can move the steering left to right and the car responds normally, its only after driving with the steering in the same position for a while that it happens. The faster the speed the more the resistance is. It may do this at slower speeds, but I only really travel in a straight line for periods of time on the motorway.

I suspect the steering geometry is out, but i’m not technical with cars so don’t really know (its the only thing i can think happended when they replaced the rack). Can anyone tell me if this is the sort of thing that bad geometry would do, or is the steering rack or power steering screwed by them replacing the rack? It was fine until the rack was replaced – i did lots of motorway driving before and everything was fine. The car had new tyres and alloys on when i bought it done onder warranty (low tread and corroded alloys), and the tryes have a couple of thousand miles on them now. The rack only got replaced in the last few days.

Something else that may be relevant – when i am stopped and the steering is turned one way and i set off, the front tyres squirm and scrub until i get more than a few miles an hour. It’s as though the car wants to go straight and doesn’t want to follow the tyres. This may be normal for this car, but i’ve not experienced it on other cars so thought i would mention it in case it relevant. It’s been like this since i got the car, before the rack replacement. It’s only at very lows speeds when it set off and the steering is not straight.

Can anyone help me and tell me what might be wrong? I don’t want to take it back to the original dealer as i have no confidence they will fix the issue. I will take it to another garage but would like to be able to give them an idea what’s wrong, as i don’t think they will take it on the motorway for 20 minutes to experience the issue.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Cheers
JP

Hard to diagnose problem without feeling the issue.
You taking it in for a second opinion seems like the best move.

Was the car ever in a collision? It smells like your front end suspension/steering geometry is off.