sprinter. stiff steering

[battwell]

i had an interesting drive on the weekend. during my 600 mile round trip the steering got heavier and heavier to turn, especially after a long distance driving straightish on the motorway. after turning a corner the usual self centreing steering just wasnt happening with the wheel having to be turned to centre. this made driving tedious!
The fault was traced to the lower joint on the steering idler which is about level with the turbo on my 312. the joint was dry and coroding. (its the double jointed arm under the bonnet, under the aluminium heatshield that connects into the top of the steering box
fixed with a liberal spraying of firstly vinegar to dissolve the corrosion then a liberal spraying of magic (wd40) and a lot of full locking turns both ways.

problem solved in 10 minutes and old faithfull is back on the road doing what it does best!

hope this helps anyone with a similar fault.

 

[Boilerman2]

Thanks for this.

The steering on my 2003 208 has been getting heavier and heavier.

Just lifted up the heat shield to reveal the steering linkage, gave it a clean and drowned it in WD40, problem fixed

Total time 10 mins, total cost 1p worth of WD.

Will clean it off properly and give it a coating of grease.

Thanks for the tip.