Hello!
I'm baffled with this problem now. A bit of a history: some time ago our 172 developed a clunking noise when steering. I haven't had time to deal with it myself and drove the car to a workshop who diagnosed that steering rack had to be rebuilt. They've sent out the rack for refurbishing, then reinstalled it. Clunk has gone, however steering became very stiff. While I was thinking on what to do next PS belt started slipping so I've ordered a Renault belt with tensioner and idler and replaced them. This cured the slipping problem, but steering remained heavy and most of the time wouldn't center itself after turning. This weekend I've had another look at this and tried to readjust rack and pinion preload, unscrewing it about 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This made steering lighter (and no, there isn't a freeplay or clunking which may appear if preload is too light) and I've called it a day but after 2 days of driving it's obvious the problem is still there. What happens now is when the car is cold steering feels more or less ok - not too stiff and centers almost normally. But after a 5-10 minute drive it becomes stiff again anddoesn't really center itself. I've suspected that pump may be at fault, but I've always thought that when a pump starts to go out steering becomes sensitive to engine rpm, i.e. revving an engine makes steering lighter, but this isn't the case here.
I'm really puzzled now and don't know where to look or what to check next.
Rereading this, I see an obvious question may arise - why I don't take the car to the workshop where the rack was fixed. To made a long story short, they've done a dodgy job with my friend' car recently and after some heated arguments I don't want to deal with them again.
I'd very grateful for any idea.
I'm baffled with this problem now. A bit of a history: some time ago our 172 developed a clunking noise when steering. I haven't had time to deal with it myself and drove the car to a workshop who diagnosed that steering rack had to be rebuilt. They've sent out the rack for refurbishing, then reinstalled it. Clunk has gone, however steering became very stiff. While I was thinking on what to do next PS belt started slipping so I've ordered a Renault belt with tensioner and idler and replaced them. This cured the slipping problem, but steering remained heavy and most of the time wouldn't center itself after turning. This weekend I've had another look at this and tried to readjust rack and pinion preload, unscrewing it about 90 degrees counter-clockwise. This made steering lighter (and no, there isn't a freeplay or clunking which may appear if preload is too light) and I've called it a day but after 2 days of driving it's obvious the problem is still there. What happens now is when the car is cold steering feels more or less ok - not too stiff and centers almost normally. But after a 5-10 minute drive it becomes stiff again anddoesn't really center itself. I've suspected that pump may be at fault, but I've always thought that when a pump starts to go out steering becomes sensitive to engine rpm, i.e. revving an engine makes steering lighter, but this isn't the case here.
I'm really puzzled now and don't know where to look or what to check next.
Rereading this, I see an obvious question may arise - why I don't take the car to the workshop where the rack was fixed. To made a long story short, they've done a dodgy job with my friend' car recently and after some heated arguments I don't want to deal with them again.
I'd very grateful for any idea.
