Ash J
ClioSport Club Member
Sunflower Ph1 172
Guys,
I want to try and get to the bottom of a steering problem I am having.
Some of you may know my car (Black Gold 182 Trophy Spec) as I have a build thread on here fully documenting all work undertaken on my car.
Anyway, within the last 2 months, all of the following work has been done/parts replaced:
Trophy Front Dampers – Fully refurbished by BG Motorsport
Koni Adjustable Rear Dampers – New
Mark Fish Springs – New
AST Solid Front Top Mounts – New
Powerflex Wishbone Bushes
Ball Joints – New
Track Rod Ends – New
Genuine Inner Tie Rod Kits – New
Powerflex Steering Rack Bushes – New
Powerflex Inner ARB Bushes – New
Powerflex Outer ARB Bushes – New
Powerflex Rear Axle Bushes – New
Pure Motorsport Rear Camber Shims
Front Eibach Camber Bolts – New
Genuine PAS Pump – New
Redline PAS Fluid
205/45/16 Yokohama AD08R Tyres – New
Full Geometry/Tracking Alignment
Problem I am having, is that the steering does not feel connected and feels a bit loose. Very difficult to describe what I mean, but not particularly noticeable at low speeds around town. However when on the motorway, if I move the wheel from left to right a few times fairly quickly, it seems as though the car takes a bit of time to get back to centre even when the wheel is central, almost like a delay. It is difficult to describe, but it just does not feel very connected.
The guy who fitted all my suspension took it for a drive with me in the car, seeing as I thought it would be easier for somebody to drive the car rather than me trying to explain it. He put it down to the load being put into the tyre in one direction, and then quickly going the opposite direction and the tyre needing to catch up. Now he is not a Renault Sport or Clio specialist or anything, and I have to say I think this is complete rubbish. I simply don’t think he had an explanation for it, so put it down to that, but I feel as though this is simply just dismissing the problem.
I drive my cars pretty hard, so I always know when something is not right. This is something which does not give me a lot of confidence in the steering when pushing on, not good. 100% there is something definitely wrong.
I also mentioned my issue to Mike at Rentech when he changed the power steering pump for me recently, and we couldn’t really come to any conclusion, seeing as every suspension part has been replaced for new items within the last couple of months. Again, we were only going from my explanations, and as is always the case, it is very difficult to describe to someone exactly what you are experiencing and are not happy with.
The interesting thing is that I had the same problem before any of the new suspension parts were fitted to the car. Exact same issue where the steering did not feel connected, and this would confirm something is not right somewhere else, it is just trying to pin-point the problem.
The other thing I do have at the moment, is a slight knock on the steering. When I am sat stationery with the car running, each time I turn the wheel left slightly, there is knock which you can feel through the floor near the pedals. I have had this investigated, with me looking under the car also, and nothing obvious is loose or not tightened, and there was no sign of anything causing a knock visually from underneath the car.
Now, something I have been reading up on recently, is an issue with the universal joint which connects the steering column to the steering rack. There isn’t a lot of information documented on this, but I have seen a few threads where people have experienced similar symptoms to myself, and have found that there was a lot of play in this universal joint. A popular solution seems to be having this joint welded.
I did mention this to Mike (Rentech) when I had the power steering pump changed, but he was under the impression that this issue was particularly prominent to Ph1’s and was not aware it was a problem with Ph2 cars.
Can anybody recommend where I could take the car to have this looked into, as I can only think this is potentially my problem? Ideally would like to take it to someone who knows exactly what to look for and can take a look relatively easily and diagnose if there is a problem here or not.
Otherwise, I am not sure what else it could be considering every part has been replaced for new? All I will say is that it is spoiling an otherwise very well sorted car, and is not giving me a great deal of confidence when driving it above relatively low speeds whatsoever.
By the way, I have checked all other obvious things that could cause this kind of problem (tyre pressures etc), and all is in order.
Please help!
Thanks guys,
Ash
I want to try and get to the bottom of a steering problem I am having.
Some of you may know my car (Black Gold 182 Trophy Spec) as I have a build thread on here fully documenting all work undertaken on my car.
Anyway, within the last 2 months, all of the following work has been done/parts replaced:
Trophy Front Dampers – Fully refurbished by BG Motorsport
Koni Adjustable Rear Dampers – New
Mark Fish Springs – New
AST Solid Front Top Mounts – New
Powerflex Wishbone Bushes
Ball Joints – New
Track Rod Ends – New
Genuine Inner Tie Rod Kits – New
Powerflex Steering Rack Bushes – New
Powerflex Inner ARB Bushes – New
Powerflex Outer ARB Bushes – New
Powerflex Rear Axle Bushes – New
Pure Motorsport Rear Camber Shims
Front Eibach Camber Bolts – New
Genuine PAS Pump – New
Redline PAS Fluid
205/45/16 Yokohama AD08R Tyres – New
Full Geometry/Tracking Alignment
Problem I am having, is that the steering does not feel connected and feels a bit loose. Very difficult to describe what I mean, but not particularly noticeable at low speeds around town. However when on the motorway, if I move the wheel from left to right a few times fairly quickly, it seems as though the car takes a bit of time to get back to centre even when the wheel is central, almost like a delay. It is difficult to describe, but it just does not feel very connected.
The guy who fitted all my suspension took it for a drive with me in the car, seeing as I thought it would be easier for somebody to drive the car rather than me trying to explain it. He put it down to the load being put into the tyre in one direction, and then quickly going the opposite direction and the tyre needing to catch up. Now he is not a Renault Sport or Clio specialist or anything, and I have to say I think this is complete rubbish. I simply don’t think he had an explanation for it, so put it down to that, but I feel as though this is simply just dismissing the problem.
I drive my cars pretty hard, so I always know when something is not right. This is something which does not give me a lot of confidence in the steering when pushing on, not good. 100% there is something definitely wrong.
I also mentioned my issue to Mike at Rentech when he changed the power steering pump for me recently, and we couldn’t really come to any conclusion, seeing as every suspension part has been replaced for new items within the last couple of months. Again, we were only going from my explanations, and as is always the case, it is very difficult to describe to someone exactly what you are experiencing and are not happy with.
The interesting thing is that I had the same problem before any of the new suspension parts were fitted to the car. Exact same issue where the steering did not feel connected, and this would confirm something is not right somewhere else, it is just trying to pin-point the problem.
The other thing I do have at the moment, is a slight knock on the steering. When I am sat stationery with the car running, each time I turn the wheel left slightly, there is knock which you can feel through the floor near the pedals. I have had this investigated, with me looking under the car also, and nothing obvious is loose or not tightened, and there was no sign of anything causing a knock visually from underneath the car.
Now, something I have been reading up on recently, is an issue with the universal joint which connects the steering column to the steering rack. There isn’t a lot of information documented on this, but I have seen a few threads where people have experienced similar symptoms to myself, and have found that there was a lot of play in this universal joint. A popular solution seems to be having this joint welded.
I did mention this to Mike (Rentech) when I had the power steering pump changed, but he was under the impression that this issue was particularly prominent to Ph1’s and was not aware it was a problem with Ph2 cars.
Can anybody recommend where I could take the car to have this looked into, as I can only think this is potentially my problem? Ideally would like to take it to someone who knows exactly what to look for and can take a look relatively easily and diagnose if there is a problem here or not.
Otherwise, I am not sure what else it could be considering every part has been replaced for new? All I will say is that it is spoiling an otherwise very well sorted car, and is not giving me a great deal of confidence when driving it above relatively low speeds whatsoever.
By the way, I have checked all other obvious things that could cause this kind of problem (tyre pressures etc), and all is in order.
Please help!
Thanks guys,
Ash
