Maruti 800 Steering Issues

[mjayanath]

When I drive my Maruti 800 on pot holes, rough roads, I hear a metal hitting sound. Altough I replaced all bushes, tie rod ends, lower arms, still any mechanic could not find the reason for this. The steering rack damper was tightened but no luck. Rack ends too seems ok. My mechanic says "replace steering rack". Milage 52k. Any comments?

[john cooper]

If you are not the 1st owner of this car, please check the middle engine support bar (with engine mount), i had the same kinda issue back in 2003 (GI number 5Speed Maruti). Problem we found, car had a accident from the front and engine move backward little. it is hard to notice and lower engine support had a little bent on it. it lack of the gap between the body frame and A/C comm with a hard movement 2 things touch togather, this is just a 1 thing and it could be something else

Cheers

JC

[harshansenadhir]

seems like you have replaced almost everything in the steering mechanism. There's a universal joint on the steering shaft. Check whether it's worn out. If that does not sort out, it could be due to worn out theething of the pinion gear or rack itself. This usually happens to the teething gears (both pinion and rack) on the center position as it's the most frequent location which gets impacts from the potholes.

if that's the cause which makes this metal sound (assuming you or your mechanic ruled out all other possibilities) some does a temporary solution by rotating the pinion and change the position of the rack slightly in a manner that different set of teething gear would engage at the center position means relatively less worn out teething.

[kelum_wj]

It could be the Strut top mounts or else the front cross bar as suggested by john cooper .Before replacing the rack get a 2nd opinion. I would advise you to get it checked by the agents.

[mjayanath]

Finally I found the solution.

The steering rack damper was stuck and I have replaced the damper.

As per the manual the adjustment as follows; "After tightening rack damper screw (3) to the tightest point,

turn it back by 0 – 90 and check for rotation torque of pinion"

Thank you all for the comments.

Edited January 6, 2014 by mjayanath