Dead spot in steering

Canadian Moose · Post by **Canadian Moose** » Wed Feb 08, 2017 5:28 pm

I am hoping someone here can lend a hand. My 2002 V70 developed a dead spot in the steering wheel last night. It happened all of a sudden without warning after I got on the highway. I noticed with steering wheel pointing straight ahead there is like a dead spot. I can wiggle the steering wheel left and right about an inch with no response from the wheels. The car steers fine otherwise. The dead spot is only present when the wheels are pointing straight ahead. This has me stumped. If it was worn out steering component I would expect it to fail gradually, not instantaneously.

I am gonna jack the car up on the weekend to see if I can determine what the cause is. Any ideas? I know on my Ford I had a similar issue when the steering shaft u-joint got rusty but it showed other symptoms like wheel not returning to center and rotating the wheel it would actually turn unevenly.

YouTube · Post by **oragex** » Wed Feb 08, 2017 8:44 pm

Not an easy one, unless something got loosen up (tie rod bolt, etc).

I'd guess a geometry or a subframe bushing gave up.

Post by **abscate** » Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:39 pm

Steering coupling and rack can fail suddenly, as can a tie rod end (any 1 of 4)

It needs to go up in the air and inspected from wheel to the ball joints.

Park it until it is resolved - steering failures are dangerous.

Canadian Moose · Post by **Canadian Moose** » Sat Feb 11, 2017 12:03 pm

Did some checking this morning. The wiggle goes all the way through the column to the steering rack. Other steering components check out fine, tie rods are solid. Ball joints appear to be good. The only things that are wasted are front control arm bushings but those were flaky for a while now.

What are the chances that it's fubar inside the rack? It steers fine otherwise.