I have an X reg Avensis just coming out of secondhand 'toyota new car equivalent' warranty. It has some minor steering clunks -- it's only evident on fairly full lock at low speeds (you don't normally do full lock at high speed in an Avensis!) and can't really be felt, only heard. I thought it was just soft engine mountings until I read the HJ car-by-car breakdown.
Does this sound like it is actually the steering rack issue that is cured by re-greasing mentioned in the HJ car-by-car breakdown? Is the fix important (i.e. safety, durability) and should I be looking to get it done under warranty?
Cheers
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Should be easy to check on the ramps. If it is clunking only at full lock then it could be the 'lock stops' knocking.
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A regular clunk-clunk-clunk only at full lock, only when the car is moving with the power on, and varying according to car's speed? Sounds like a CV joint on the way out to me.
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Hi Pete
I had a 1998 avensis 2.0gls for 4 years and covered 65000miles. We had a fleet of about 20 of them at work. Clunks from the steering column are very common and cured for about 15000 miles by lubricating the bushes in the steering column. We also found the front discs prone to warping leading to a juddering or vibration on braking. They can skim the discs to cure it for a while but it often comes back. I towed a caravan with mine and found the clutch a little weak - it was very prone to smoking on a hill start! That apart I loved the car- the quietest most comfortable car I have ever had, which more than compensated for the stodgy handling.
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Thanks for that kurnal. Incidentally I agree about the comfort -- I've done several 350+ mile trips without getting uncomfortable or tired.
Did you ever get an idea of whether the steering clunk fix was important or merely cosmetic? Since the clunks are so intermittent and not very loud with no significant feedback through the wheel, I have a hunch that if you were to speak to the guy who designed the steering system he'd shrug his shoulders and say 'so what?', but I'm not a mechanical engineer so I don't have a feel for the damage this might be doing. Obvously I don't want to do anything that compromises steering performance, but I'm wondering whether there is a real issue here ...
Pete
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Pete
The clunks associated with the steering column are in the main cosmetic- when I first complained about mine on the morning I dropped it off for a service they said it is not safety critical and as they were busy they would leave it for the next service. However it did deteriorate and by the next service it felt like I was steering with a threepenny bit ( dont know if you are old enough to remember those)
If you can get it done under warranty I would , because I think it is a fiddly job as they have to dismantle steering lock, indicator switches etc. Because it was left so long mine needed new column bearings ( don't know if they are ball races or bushes- my guess would be plastic bushes), and even then it needed doing again once or twice while I had the car. By the way my new mondeo has also had the same problem, fixed in the same way with lubrication.
The most irritating thing about main dealers to me is that even if they have had the same problem hundreds of times before they always pretend that yours is the very first time anything has gone wrong with one of their precious cars and is most unusual.
Toyota were the worst for this- they stuck to this unflinchingly over the brake discs warping even when I pointed out that they had 3 of our fleet waiting for new pads which were in short supply due to the demand!
Best of luck
Alan
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Thanks Alan,
I'll try to do it under warranty and I'll post back a summary of my experiences. Given what you say I have mentally prepared myself for the dealer's expression of complete amazement/blank incomprehension.
BTW yes I do just remember threepenny bits but was never actually old enough to own one.
Cheers
Pete
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