When I bought the gti years ago and all the suspension components were in good condition the car used to track straight and true down bumpy roads and feel very connected with the road. These days at speed on bumpy B roads it feels like its wandering all over the place and a bit sketchy requiring constant correction from me to keep myself from heading straight into a tree at the side of the road.

The car is T'99 and on 156k miles now.

Suspension component wise it has black compound powerflex front wishbone bushes and standard P bushes all in good condition, new lemforder TRE's and new lemforder ball joints. Its running on eiback pro springs at the front (lowered 30mm) with standard and what seem to be original pug dampers as far as im aware. Tracking has also been done recently.

I noticed last time I worked on her that the gaiters on the steering rack seem to be perished and need replacing. When I had a play working the steering by moving the road wheel left and right against the steering lock I didnt notice any play at all.

One other thing to note is that the steering doesnt seem to be smooth when turning left slightly its almost as if I can feel a little resistance in and around that zone of steering.


So to round up im open to suggestions on what I could replace to rectify this problem and gain some confidence in the steering feel again. The dampers are suspect. Very old and maybe loosing a bit of control over the stiffer springs causing the front end to spring around to much? Or the other contender is that the steering rack is just old and worn out - accelerated by having perished gaiters? Or am I missing something?

Open to suggestions - thanks in advance for any input

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

Well if u need a rack i have a spare one for £30 also i'm not far from u.

________________________________________

Update on this. Because I'm lanky I drive with the steering wheel adjusted all the way up. Today I adjusted it down and the steering feels much better. Firmer more positive smooth and direct feel. So this would therefore indicate that the mechanism between the steering wheel and steering rack is worn. Has anyone else had this problem? How difficult is it to replace. Obviously buying second hand seems like a false economy as the part will also be pretty worn considering the age and mileage on most of these cars now. Also there is play in the steering wheel column bearing developing. There is play when I rock the steering wheel up and down which could also be a contributing factor?

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

I put the TRE's on and both are on about 20 - 22 turns.

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

If the tracking has been set with less toe in than before this would give the feel of being harder to keep in a straight line wouldn't it?

all the universal joints from the steering wheel to the rack i think there is two

________________________________________

________________________________________

Cool i will check that out hopefully pug wont charge a bomb for it otherwise its not getting done. Im still being plagued by a starting issue and im not spending any money on other stuff until ive figured out what it is and rectified it.

Bloody car I feel like driving it into a wall sometimes so I can be done with it tormenting me

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

Ah - ha. So it is modular then! This is good news. IIRC years ago I looked into replacing the bearing directly behind the steering wheel and was told its a sealed unit somewhere in the region of 150 squid. You got a diagram of that floating around?

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

Heres a thread I started ages ago starting issue

Havent done anything with regard to solving the problem recently as you will see from the thread start date although I changed the spark plugs tonight which didnt help at all

Im now thinking it could be a fuel pump issue. I changed it for a mickey mouse Quentin Hazel replacement around when I first got the car thinking the original was making a funny noise when it primed - then the new one made exactly ther same I did keep the old pump for ages in a box and got rid of it years later unfortunetly.

Welsh pug was saying it could be the one way valve in the pump has failed so im currently sourcing an OEM second hand unit to eliminate this from the inquiry.

________________________________________

Team Peugeot Sport 308 Gti�

Black T'99 Gti - may she rest in peace - written off in a shunt on the A329m

mate tbh its a pretty standard system lol

________________________________________