Steering trouble?

[Lady Summerisle]

I've got an X reg Citroen Berlingo Multispace with 60K miles on the clock. It seems to have developed an intermittent steering (?) fault that manifests itself occasionally (has happened 4 times in 2 weeks) after driving at speed on the motorway for a few miles. The steering starts to 'judder' and I have to control the steering wheel like it's driving along cobbles or has square wheels. I've checked the tyres and the suspension and the brakes appear fine. The most puzzling thing is that this happens on a totally random basis and I can't get it to do it again travelling along the same stretch of road at the same speed etc.. Strangely slowing down or stopping and setting off again seems to cure the problem (not an option unfortunately in lane 4 of the M60).

It's bothering me a lot as I do a 70 mile round trip every day on the motorway and this problem could be dangerous. I'll be using OH's MX5 until it's sorted, but I just want to know what sort of thing it could be and if it's gonna be expensive?

[Deltafox]

Not the ps pump giving out cos of no fluid is it?

[Lady Summerisle]

Deltafox said:

Not the ps pump giving out cos of no fluid is it?

Will go check

[Lady Summerisle]

Plenty of PS fluid in there

[Avocet]

Try putting the front tyres on the back and the backs on the front for a few miles. Also check the rubber bushes in the bottom suspension arms and the track rod ends.

[Tony427]

Sounds very much like a steering control arm fault, ie has it failed or come loose?

I wouldn't drive the car in that condition until the problem has been investigated and sorted.

Cheers,

Tony

[dilbert]

I guess it depends if it's a heavy judder or a light judder.

If it's heavy, it's probably serious, and wants looking at.

On the other hand I once had the situation where, I put the front wheels on the wrong sides of the car.

Never noticed until, when on the motorway at between 72 and 74 mph (yes it was that fine) I'd get a wobble up from the wheels. Because the wheels were swapped side to side the rotation direction was wrong.

Couldn't see anything wrong, so took it to the garage, who immediately pointed out the error of my ways. Felt stupid, and wasn't at all sure that it was the source of the problem (I'd convinced myself it was much more serious).

Took it down the motorway, and just like that, it had gone!

[stub]

I'd recommend a check of the wheel bearings.

I had a car do a similar thing only within 10 minutes of setting off (I guessed the bearing warmed up afterwards) when a judder/wobble started and was speed dependent.

HTH