need a steering colomn guru

[virtualfern]

My chim started off with quite heavy steering beyond say 20 degrees. It then eased up for about 2 weeks and felt like driving a different car. Suddenly this morning I was literally wrestling to get the car to turn into bends (nearly dumped it into a mondeo on the opposite carriage way). Any ideas?

Is the steering colomn about to implode?
air pocket with the PAS fluid?
TADTS?

HELP!!

Thanks all

[victormeldrew]

Proof positive of the advantages of PAS equipped cars! (Not!)

Maybe its not the PAS (though it does sound like hydraulic pressure loss and probably a pump problem). Perhaps its just the UJ in the steering column seizing, which to be fair can affect non-PAS cars too!.

[mark c]

Could be the bearings in the steering column - mine are stiffer around 0 deg. I've heared of a case where they failed so bad that the steering column shifted in the bearings enough to suddenly pull the car to one side - much like the feeling of getting pulled into a rut in the road.

Also worth checking the universal joints...

Regards,

Mark