I'm not sure whether my EL Ghia has got some slight steering problem or not but I'm certainly hoping to prove it one way or the other.

Fact: I run standard 15" rims with 225's fitted.

Question: There are times when I drive on a seemingly even and reasonably flat piece of road but my steering sometimes seems to pull the car into a road indentation or climb the worn areas on the road with some serious force and which causes me to have to exert a firm grip on the wheel to keep it driving straight. In my old XF with its crappy recirculating ball steering design, it was understandable and expected that the freeplay in the steering wheel made precise driving an effort but I wasn't expecting to have to fight my EL's steering wheel to keep a straight line. I can't feel any slop or freeplay in the steering wheel nor do the front wheels have any lateral freeplay in them. I am at a loss as to whether its normal or not. I do know that driving an old stock EA steers far better than my car with absolutley no tendency to wander at all which is really disappointing to me.
Any thoughts on this?

Vic check if the the tie rods and stuff are nice and tight. and the steering column where the universal joint is. thats what the manual says anyway. mine does the same and has a lot of freeplay. when i get that checked ill get back to u on what might be wrong with urs. I agree with u on the fact that my EA has way better handling then the EL.

phong =P~

How are the struts (soft/bouncy) have the Castor checked (wheel alignment)

first thing i thought of was tyre rod ends and wheel alignment. Women tend to make the wheel alignment go out

Ha ha, nice generalisation. I love it.
Has it always done it Vic, or is it a recent thing?

225's on a standard rim can cause this problem as they move around too much on the rim. 225's are for 8 inch rims not 6 or 6 1/2 standard rims.

Getting hard to remember a time when it didn't do it.



I see the logic of this reasoning and it certainly seems possible. I guess if I had access to another set of wheels with matching rubber for the size of the rims that I would put them on just to see if this explains it.

Something else I noticed. When the car has just been started and I drive off to work, the steering actually feels good and the steering wheel doesn't fight me at all. But when the car has warmed up, it kind of feels as though it's more sensitive and will react to the slightest bump in the road.
What is there in the steering that can be affected by temperature? The power steering fluid??

probable that tyre realated cold air in tyres when thay warm up a bit that might help or nto

how old is the fluid in the power steering system? i replaced mine recently cos it was black.... put a litre of fresh fluid thru it and it feels a lot better

hey Big fella
change your speed sensitive solenoid
and put some fesh oil in as said before me

Okay I'll do that, thanks.

your tyres at the same pressure ?

what sort of condition are all of the front end bushes in?

most of the time they may look ok and not have play when you check them by hand. but when you put them under the forces they see in driving they move around alot.

Tyre pressures are currently sitting on 34psi. Bushes are tight so hard to say what else it could be. It just feels as if I don't have power steering because of the way it reacts to the slightest bump in the road.