Heavy Steering

[Philm 0]

My 1987 F Reg 205 GTI 1.9 has very heavy steering.

 

She sits on normal 185 55 15 tyres but not original speedline wheels, after market Italian ones, I can't see why that would make a difference.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

has it got power steering?

[MiniGibbo 142]

Low fluid if it has pas..?

 

Low tyre pressure..?

 

 

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

low tyres pressure?

also different wheel offset can make the steering wheel very keen to snap back to straight ahead e.g the lower the offset the more pronounced this becomes

[Cameron 16]

What's the offset of these new wheels?

[Anthony 1,003]

Knackered top mount bearings are a favourite, and possibly a column UJ that's beginning to seize up.

[205kenny 7]

I had a steering column uj seize up but it would feel heavier at certain points from lock to lock.

 

Check tyre pressure first, as they make a big difference on cars without power steering.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Stupid as it may sound, could itbe the tyres? Back many moons ago when my red 205 was standard the steering was ridiculously heavy. I did try all of the usual suspects, tyre pressures, top mounts etc to no avail. A few months of massive wheelspin starts and the rock hard Pirelli 3000 it came with were no more. As sOon as the tyres were changed it transformed the steering back to something acceptable.

[PhilNW 44]

Jack both front wheels of the ground and see if there is any tigthness with no load on the suspension then do one wheel etc