my steering has never been perfect esp. after having hit a kangaroo (lower control arm and castor rod were replaced). i've been driving straight ahead with a few degrees of left hand lock for while now and a whole heap of play. but just in the last couple of days when ever i input a few degrees to the right the wheels feel like they grip up all of a sudden and it pulls quickly in that direction.

any help welcome

Sounds to be like the car has tow out. Was it the left hand side that the parts where replaced because if it was tow out on the left hand side would cause the steering wheel to be left hand down.

no, the right hand side was replaced. it was over 2 years ago and the steering has only started pulling 2 days ago. nothing out of the ordinary has happened that would lead me to suggest a cause of the problem.

Yeah sorry I did mean the right side got myself confused I guess the other way to see if it is toe related would be to see the tyre wear, otherwise There could be a big split in caster. And now that I think about it check your tie rod ends and ball joints for movment.

sounds like either your tie rods or radius rods are going on the right hand side.
With the problem getting worse under braking I would def look at the tie rods. My ute was doing the same thing when I bought it, and it looks like the outers had been done at some point, but the inners looked like they were factory originals. Maybe this is common?

Check the the idler arm bushes, have someone move the wheel while you observe the what the idler arm is doing.............I had a similar thing on my car, the idler arm was moving up and down instead of side to side. In my case I pounded over some curbing in turn 5 and shortly after..........as in the back stretch the car had veeeeery odd steering, exactly as you describe. Basically there would be no steering on the wheel till the slop was taken up, then has the front end loaded up the car would snap turn.

Now of course it could be something else so check all the steering components and all the suspension bushes.

Tom

rallytwit, idler arm appears to be moving L/R as required.

i'll check tie rods tomorrow. stinkyrooster, when you say they may be "going" what would that look like?.when you say "inner" and "outer", are you refering to the tie rod ends?

more info - the right tyre is wearing evenly but certainly more than the left. under heavy braking there is also a squirmy push to the right.

btw what are the radius rods?

Let me know what you need Jason

cheers buzz. looks like i'll have a bit of work to do over easter.

Maddat sell a front end rebuild kit for 520