Stiff steering after hitting curb?

[quinnolson]

Hey AZ, this winter I ended up sliding into a curb going around a corner. The car ended up with toe in and a bent front passenger side outer tie rod. I pulled apart the front end, replace the outer tie rod and took it to a shop. Once back from the shop they told me I needed an alignment and steering looked fine. However when I turn my steering wheel at highway speeds, the wheel will not return to its place. I can turn my steering wheel at 65 mph going around a turn and let go of the wheel and the car will continue to turn as if there's no power steering. I checked my power steering fluid and still at perfect level. I got an alignment and to no avail is my steering fixed. My question is what should i look for now to fix the no power steering feel at high speeds?

[egovreau]

My thought is that you stressed the steering rack and it's binding internally.

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[B5carl]

If you hit a curb your knuckle(Upright) and lower and possibly upper control arms are most definitely bent. You should be able to see that something is bent out of place. No way that knuckle took that hit well, expecially If it's the aluminum which I think all the b6's have then lucky you it didn't snap. Id check it out again. You could have also damaged with rack but I would check knuckle and control arm first.

So that stiffness could indeed be the rack. You have to take both wheels off the ground and turn it both ways to see how it feels while inspecting control arms and the knuckle

[JDCinATL]

My guess is primarily the rack is damaged internally, but if the control arms are bent that could bind too. Check both thoroughly as a huge wreck is quite possible if any of the above fail at speed!!

[Kevin C]

Visual inspection and an alignment check. A bent arm will mess up the self centering as will a damaged joint. If it took a hard enough hit to bend a rod end the aluminum upright and all arms are suspect. Lower arms in particular as well as the upright.

[Turbo510]

You might tear a bushing before an arm bends, but same solution (replacement). I would probably get the front end off the ground, then try the steering engine off and engine on. With the PS pump running, the steering wheel should have very little resistance lock to lock.

[EuroxS4]

Inspect/measure all arms and compare to non affected side. Normally a arm will bend before a bushing tears. This is normal behavior in terms of impact damage. Poor returnability is usually one of these 4 things.

Possible Cause #1: Friction in your steering system — steering gear, linkage, etc.
Possible Cause #2: Friction in suspension system requiring lubrication or replacement of components.
Possible Cause #3: Excessive negative camber.
Possible Cause #4: Issues within power steering system.

As mentioned you need to check check the suspension of the damaged side before ruling out the power steering rack. I would check everything else before condeming the rack.

[quinnolson]

Thanks all for the input, im gonna bite the bullet and buy 034's front control arm kit as I was already planning on that at some point. Ill put all that on and see if it fixes the problem, if not ill do a power steering fluid flush then if problem is still there ill replace the steering rack.