I have a 54plate 1.8 focus and it has a steering problem, that i hope someone can point me in the right direction.

When ever I turn the steering to the left, just off centre I feel some resistance, then a clunk. which often results in the car pulling to the left sharply becasue of how hard i have to turn to make it turn left. It does this most times now and is becoming worrying that it will eventually fail.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of what i need to do so i can resolve this problem.

 

I had had exactly this problem.

I changed the lower suspension arms, droplinks and track rod ends. No cure.

In the end I changed the steering rack which did cure it.

It's quite a common problem and if you look on utube there is a video of it;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATjdVu1Ff-Q

Not my video but my car did exactly this but in the other direction.

Swapping the rack out means dropping the subframe and isn't that difficult a job.

 

cheers colin. i suspected that it would be the rack but wanted a 2nd opinion. Does anyone know the best place to get either a 2nd hand one or recon from, and what sort of price also.

Guess this will be a excuse to do the clutch as well.

 

hi,
i have just replaced my rack on my focus rs mk 1.
i contacted kelly bray steering,
got a recon genuine rack for mine at 150 plus 50 surcharge
cannot fault the service or rack at all.
contact them, and its not that bad a job to do

Mark