Steering issue

[Bogwhoppit]

So I just recently finished replacing brake pads on the LR4 and all looked good. To this morning -drive into DD this morning for coffee, come back out, hop in, go to drive off and nearly take out the road sign LOL. Steering is suddenly really hard to turn through 90 degrees, then easy, very notchy feeling, all the way through full rotation. I'm guessing the culprit is the lower steering shaft? No fluid leaks, pump sounds fine. No faults thrown on GAP. Suggestions?

 

[avslash]

First time you have driven it since pad change, or was it operating as normal after the pad change before this issue?

 

[Bogwhoppit]

Yeah everything was fine. No problems doing the pads, normal driving before their replacement and afterwards. I'm going to get it on stands this weekend pull the radiator skid and both splash covers and take a look. Thank god the brakes are working ok otherwise Dunkin Donuts would have lost their sign.

 

[avslash]

I would start by doing the following:

PS Fluid Level
I might dunk a magnet into the reservoir to see if the rack was making any metal
Get the front end in the air and pull tires
Check upper and lower steering knuckle joints
Check tie rod ends and ball ball joints
check ps hoses to steering rack
check steering shaft clear of obstruction

If all that looked good, I would probably disconnect tie rod ends and then see if wheels pivot smoothly by hand. If they do, you have probably localized the problem at that point to the rack itself.

Really just thinking out loud here.

 

[Bogwhoppit]

I would start by doing the following:

PS Fluid Level
I might dunk a magnet into the reservoir to see if the rack was making any metal
Get the front end in the air and pull tires
Check upper and lower steering knuckle joints
Check tie rod ends and ball ball joints
check ps hoses to steering rack
check steering shaft clear of obstruction

If all that looked good, I would probably disconnect tie rod ends and then see if wheels pivot smoothly by hand. If they do, you have probably localized the problem at that point to the rack itself.

Really just thinking out loud here.

Once the polar vortex is out of the way I'll be doing these checks. Too bloody cold outside right now. The PS fluid was good level was OK. Didn't check for metal though.