Shakey / Rattling Steering 300 Tdi

Above around 45mph or so my steering starts shuddering and rattling and has got progressively worse. I also noticed when on a green lane last week that I could feel and hear it rattling through the steering wheel. It has recently passed its MOT without anything showing up on the steering so I wonder whether anyone could advise what might be the problem please?

Cheers

Unfortunately an MoT pass is not a guarantee that everything is good. From your description it appears that the problem is shaking the wheel in your hands, which suggests quite a bit of movement in the system. I'd get the front axle up on stands and try to rock the wheels side to side/up and down. If this seems fine, use a pry bar to check for movement in the steering joints. If this seems fine it is worth getting the wheels balanced/checked, although the low speed greenlaning vibration points against this.

You need new swivel bearings, track rod ends, panhard rod bushes, steering UJ's, PAS box, wheel bearings, cv joints, stub axles,
delete as appropriate

I would also check the front suspension bushes, particularly the pan rod bushes. That gave give some very interesting symptoms if one of those fails!

Rodeo Joe said:

You need new swivel bearings, track rod ends, panhard rod bushes, steering UJ's, PAS box, wheel bearings, cv joints, stub axles,
delete as appropriate

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stub axles??

Ok got a bit carried away

I had a brand new galvanised chassis a couple of year ago and when I had it done at Tonks, I had all new poly bushes, suspension, brakes and most other running gear at the same time. Does this narrow down any particular parts at fault on the steering itself please?

Benjamino said:

I had a brand new galvanised chassis a couple of year ago and when I had it done at Tonks, I had all new poly bushes, suspension, brakes and most other running gear at the same time. Does this narrow down any particular parts at fault on the steering itself please?

Click to expand...

check every bush its quite common for one to fail premature

I,d check the steering UJ,s first easy to do just get under the bonnet and give em a wiggle or get somebody to move the steering wheel for you.

I have had a very similar problem.

Checked front wheel bearings, found play, then replaced them. Still loads of wobble at 40+.

Checked the bushes in the steering link, found play, replaced them - bit of a job. Still wobble at 40+.

Checked the wheel balance. Found that a bunch of the weights had come off somewhere. wobble gone.

Both front wheels balanced up yesterday and although one wheel wanted 60g on one side and 120g on the other, the aggressive steering wheel rattle / shake still persists! She's in for a service tomorrow, so will get my mechanic to check out everyone's suggestions in this thread and report back! Cheers

Been to the garage for a service and my mechanic has had a real good prod around the steering and everything suggested in this thread so far, but nothing to report. He suggests it may be the front diff as there seems to be quite a bit of play in it. He drained a bit of 'oil' from it and showed me, it was pretty nasty and contained a lot of metal matter. Any suggestions whether this may be the cause? He reckoned to take it to a specialist for stripping and a re-build?

Cheers

Take off the front prop and go for a spin.

Hundreds of threads on loads of forums about this particular snag. I know, coz I had the same and did the "search". Turned out to be a shredded Panhard rod bush that was new but incorrectly fitted, so failed quickly. I had TWO landy dealers check my truck over and neither found it, but I did after weeks of trying. I'm no expert, but it suggests that the best way forward is dedicated DIY and following the advice above. Check everything, take nothing for granted.

Right; following advice from a local Defender specialist who suggested trying swapping the front wheels onto the rear and see what happens... even though I had them balanced this week, this seems Mohave been the problem! One of the alloys must be quite badly buckled, so I'll swap that for my spare when I get chance!

Is it easy to balance a buckled wheel?

Benjamino said:

Right; following advice from a local Defender specialist who suggested trying swapping the front wheels onto the rear and see what happens... even though I had them balanced this week, this seems Mohave been the problem! One of the alloys must be quite badly buckled, so I'll swap that for my spare when I get chance!

Click to expand...

OK, maybe so, but I wouldn't assume that this is the problem. Certainly, if the problem isn't there at slow speed but gets progressively worse as you accelerate (and this is hard to feel), I'd not be convinced that wheel balance is the real culprit here. I thought the same, had a "massively out" wheel balanced with a load of weights...and it worked. For about half an hour.
Have you checked the "buckled" wheel for damage? An expensive exercise to replace one that isn't broken.