2003 Focus Handling Issues
Discussion
At the moment my car is handling like a complete pile of crap and its starting to really piss me off, especially with the fact that the two garages ive taken it to have said its fine
Basically the steering will pull to any side at any given moment, not massively like knackered Escort wishbones, but enough to need to put a tiny amount of lock on to compensate. For example last week driving down hill along a straight bit of road the car wanted to pull more right the further I went along until I went around a right hand kink where it seemed to sort its self out. Also the steering feels really inconsistent. At car park speeds the steering can tighten up a bit, whilst at 50mph+ it is massively light and it dosnt feel like the wheels are solidly connected to the ground and turning into a corner it will either turn in really sharply or again feel feel lose.
Ive replaced the drop links and had it up on axle stands where I could find no play in the suspension what so ever. All that I have found wrong is that there is a bit of a knocking noise from the rack area and sometimes from the front right when I rock the steering wheel with the engine running and the wheels are on the ground. I have also found that when I rock the steering with the plug connected to the PAS pump the engine tries to stall, whilst without the engine idles pretty much perfectly.
So would a dodgy PAS pump pressure switch be the cure of my handling problems or is it best to change that first and go from there?
I would ideally like to get this sorted before I go away on holiday in mid March so all help is appreciated.
Ally
Basically the steering will pull to any side at any given moment, not massively like knackered Escort wishbones, but enough to need to put a tiny amount of lock on to compensate. For example last week driving down hill along a straight bit of road the car wanted to pull more right the further I went along until I went around a right hand kink where it seemed to sort its self out. Also the steering feels really inconsistent. At car park speeds the steering can tighten up a bit, whilst at 50mph+ it is massively light and it dosnt feel like the wheels are solidly connected to the ground and turning into a corner it will either turn in really sharply or again feel feel lose.
Ive replaced the drop links and had it up on axle stands where I could find no play in the suspension what so ever. All that I have found wrong is that there is a bit of a knocking noise from the rack area and sometimes from the front right when I rock the steering wheel with the engine running and the wheels are on the ground. I have also found that when I rock the steering with the plug connected to the PAS pump the engine tries to stall, whilst without the engine idles pretty much perfectly.
So would a dodgy PAS pump pressure switch be the cure of my handling problems or is it best to change that first and go from there?
I would ideally like to get this sorted before I go away on holiday in mid March so all help is appreciated.
Ally
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