Hey ORGers,

I've been noticing that on cold mornings, when I start up my car and turn the wheel side to side, the wheel feels really notchy. Like I can turn it an inch and suddenly it takes a lot of force to turn it, then once I get over that notch, it goes back to normally again. These "notches" seem to occur every 20 or so degrees of steering lock.

Once I get moving, this feeling tends to go away in under 10 seconds, but it's still very unnerving...

Any suggestions?

 

If the rack works like most, there'll be a valve body inside that basically diverts the fluid one way or the other depending on the direction you're turning. When the valves get worn they cause the steering to behave as if it's losing power assistance. Your symptoms aren't quite like that but the Max's system is pretty complex what with the variable steering rate feature, so I'd look into that or the rack. If you can get at the rack and temporarily loosen the input shaft so it can be rotated without moving the wheels, you could check if something was not by chance fouling the shaft. Another thing you might try is to put the car up on stands or lift it with a fork lift truck, and run the motor with both front wheels off the ground, turn the steering each way and listen carefully for any sounds in the hydraulic system that might give you an idea where the problem is ocurring.

 

My car has a variable steering rate??

 

Good luck with the problem I have a clunk sound everytime I turn my wheel about 1/2 inch right or left... still don't know what the f it is.

 

It's been a while since I read up on that, but yes, I believe so. The amount of power assist is related to the road speed, it's maximum while parking but progressively reduces as speed increases.