Steering lag?

[i am ryan]

Now this may sound extremely stupid but I had a brown trouser moment last night so would like to hear opinions.

It would seem that whilst driving my EJ9 that if going around bends, roundabouts etc the steering seems to lag.. Now by lag I mean I can turn the steering wheel and there seems to be a second or 2 delay to the car going in that direction. It doesnt always happen and my tyres are near new (600ish miles)

Taking the above and adding that last night I was giving it a bit of the right footed plant.... took a bend at roughly 55 (road is a 50) and as I turned the wheel I went in a straight line then the car snapped the way I wanted it to go..

Does anyone know or heard about this before???

 

[tama666]

never heard of this before...
Check your steering pump and fluid levels. Sometimes the reservoir gets debris in it and clogs it up a bit...have a look-see.

also check all your linkage to the steering...

yikes

 

[Kozy]

I would be testing the steering on the driveway in this situation.

With the door open and a good view of the wheel, turn the steering wheel from lock to lock, sawing it back and forth as you do. Does the wheel motion appear to be directly linked to the steering wheel?

Next, get it up on axle stands and check for play in the bearings and ball joints. Check tyre pressures.

 

[jesse888]

I would be testing the steering on the driveway in this situation.

With the door open and a good view of the wheel, turn the steering wheel from lock to lock, sawing it back and forth as you do. Does the wheel motion appear to be directly linked to the steering wheel?

Next, get it up on axle stands and check for play in the bearings and ball joints. Check tyre pressures.

Surely what your explaining is understeer lol
Front plowing wide and then once the cars slowed catching grip again?

 

[i am ryan]

Surely what your explaining is understeer lol
Front plowing wide and then once the cars slowed catching grip again?

It is similiar to understeer but I dont slow down..

I took my little brother to work this afternoon and it happened at approximately 17mph. I turn the wheel and theres a pause then the car goes in that direction. My lil bro is an apprentice mechanic so he is going to take the car in and check the steering rack over

 

[tama666]

I would stop driving the car if I were you...get'er fixed!

 

[oifovo]

Could be a number of things, what is the tyre pressure? I get a similar thing with the Vitara, where it is caused by the soft high walled tyres that are currently fitted. Basically what happens is that the wheel turns, but the tyre deforms and it takes a while before it catches up with the new direction. Not really an issue in our small off roader which rarely hits 60mph, but I can imagine the same issue could occur if you were running standard tyres which were under-inflated? Other than that it could be worn bushes somewhere or maybe a combination of things...

 

[clockwoRk]

have you adjustable front camber arms? some funny things can happen if the sliding plate thing is loose.
It can be a little hard to diagnose things with the car up on axel stands as obviously things don't have any weight or force going through them so it might be hard to identify where movement is occurring. Sounds pretty serious as you're describing it though so hopefully it'll be something obvious.
as tama666 says, until you know what it is, I'd avoid driving it.