As the title really. Over the last few weeks the car seems to have developed a real kick to the steering when you apply power or come off the power. It hasn't done this previously so I'm pretty confident it's not standard diff behaviour. Besides, it does it when you're well within the grip limits on a pretty flat road, (e.g. 4th gear at 50mph, apply about half throttle and it kicks 10deg one way, come off the throttle and it kicks 10deg back the other way). Alignment was done pretty recently and the tyres have plenty of tread with good consistent pressures. Am I looking at a swivel bearing? This normally seems to have grinding / noise on the steering at full lock but I don't seem to have any of this. I do have a whine coming from the gearbox but that's not getting worse and has survived through two trackdays now.
check your anti-twist links. Most people don't realize how important they are to the dual-axis front end. They are the only thing keeping the hub-carriers from twisting/moving front to back. The good thing is that they are one of the cheapest parts to replace on the front end.
I had a full alignment / tracking done quite recently so I'd be surprised if it's changed significantly enough to make a difference (I don't really do many miles). Anti-twist links, how do I go about checking those? Or is it going to require a trip to the garage?
Get the car jacked up in the front, have someone hold the steering wheel as solid as possible and try to "twist" the wheel", meaning toward the front and back of the car. If the anti-twist link is bad, it will probably have a bit of play. You might want to have a look under the car when you are doing to see if the anti-twist link ball joints move around....they shouldn't be any movement to the front or back of car. They shouldn't move at all except up and down to follow the movement of the lower arm. It may be hard to check. You could also inspect the anti-twist links for damage, ie rubber boot has damage. I would imagine your car is probably having tracking problems too while driving. The after marker replacements were like 25 euro each, so it may be worth just replacing them. BTW, they are easy to replace as well.
If the anti-twist links are bad, the alignment won't really do anything as the front wheels have the ability to move forward and backward which is constantly changing the alignment of the front.
I had this mate. Mine was slight play in track rod end. I replaced the item and it sorted the problem. Get it jacked up and a get a big bar under the wheel and check any play.
Not yet. Turns out my jack is broken (hasn't been used in a long time) so I can't get it up to have a play. So it's going into the garage on Wednesday to have a look and to rotate the wheels as the fronts are starting to wear. Definitely needs sorting though as it's getting worse and the steering is just feeling more and more vague.
wow, they must be pretty bad if the car is moving noticeably under power. Good that you are getting them replaced!
Just picked it up, and it's definitely solved the problem. No more tugging at the wheel under acceleration / lift off.
