I've just come back from a week's holiday during which the megane was parked in the garage. So now I've got stiff steering and what I've read to be the usual hub problems. Let me go into a bit more detail. I'm driving along and the car feels fine, go round a left hand bend then the steering will pull to the left all the way along the next straight. Vice versa for right handers. When I get to a junction and need to turn the other way, the steering will have a lot of resistance then it will suddenly release and free up again. It was really bad Monday, quite bad yesterday and this morning the effect is a lot less. What do you reckon? Dried out bearings? Wonky eps? I can sit stationary and turn the steering lock to lock and it's fine. There's no noticeable play in the steering.
Easy way to test if it's the swivel hub bearings is to take the track rod ends out and turn the hub side to side by hand. Any resistance it'll be the bearings.
its the swivel bearings. My car had exactly the same symptoms...quite scary when it sticks on lock. The reason you can still turn it easy at standstill is the power steering masks the resistance. When we stripped mine down,the roller bearings were totally worn away to nothing. And yet i had only noticed it a couple of weeks before. You just need to do the lower bearings.everyone else i know who done them, has reported no damage to the upper bearing. hopefully the metal insert that sits inside the bearing isnt to pitted up. Make sure they clean it right up as best as possible before putting it back..Its difficult to get them separately. Its a job for a competent mechanic with a press to push in/out,the bearings really. There is a full thread on this somewhere,i will find it and tag it on.
Yep, lower bearing. All the same symptoms as on mine and again it happened fairly suddenly. When we eventually got the old bearing out it was rusted to bits and fell apart on the floor. The wiper seals on the OEM bearing don't work, they are like stiff plastic (either that or they go hard over time) this then lets in water, salt and all the crap off the road destroying the bearing really quickly. Mine went in the early spring.
mine happened when it had sat for a week or so..bizarre really,as they had obviously been shot for months.
http://rsmegane.com/threads/swivel-hub-bearing-grease-bolts.13872/ Would be a good idea if you can get a pair...means you can grease up the bearing while everything is still in place.
Thank you for your replies guys. I'll get a set of the grease bolts. I'll approach Alan Jeffery at Enginetuner Plymouth as he's just down the road from me. I don't know any other garages that would strip the hubs down. Most would just fit new hubs.
