Failing steering system (rack? pump?)

[Steve S2]

Tricky one to describe but I’ll give it a go. On my ‘07 GTI, when I turn the steering and the car is at a standstill, the resistance through the wheel changes. It increases and decreases from lock to lock.  It’s like the level of power assistance is changing whilst the wheel turns. It started doing this about 6 months ago.

The car has 117000 miles on it and I still love it.

Is my rack buggered? Is this a known problem? Is it going to cost a fortune to fix?

[shail]

My rack needed repalcement, but for different symptoms (it was clunking).

Got it done by VW under a warranty I had at the time.  Think it would have been over £1000 there!

My local VW specialist quoted around £700 for the work, I think that includes alignment.

PS there is no pump, it's an electric motor, so now power steering fluid/pump.

[muff1991]

check all turn/swivel points, I had a broken spring on my touran and that caused different stiffness feelings through the steering when turning all the way left and right.

if all ok, then probably is the steering rack.

[shail]

Sounds silly, bit also check tyre pressures. I had hard steering 2 weeks ago - turned out one of my fronts was down on pressure. 

[pudding]

Mine does that occasionally if I turn from lock to lock very quickly.  I put it down to momentary alternator belt slip as the load on the steering motor is very high under those conditions.

And don't forget at this time of year on summer tyres, that old 'Ackerman angle' phenomenon kicks in on full lock.  Rumbling/knocking felt through the steering.  It's normal, so fear not.