vague steering

[spaner]

hi all
my mg zt cdti steering is very vague sways from left to right i have changed the lower wishbones and bush,s which improved things but shes still wondering, just hoping for a bit of advice sway bars seem ok so i think it could be the tie rods or inner rods,
any advice please neil.

[RogerHeinz57]

A good check is a two mad job, one is needed to rock the steering wheel whilst you hold your thumb on the track rod end nut, and grasp the track rod inner end going into the rack gaiter. If there is play you would feel a gentle knock in the rod grasped by your hand, if you feel it on the thumb, it is likely to be the end joint.I am finding many cars with inner rod ball joint play. I think this is becoming more prominent because we have tried to traverse various speed humps in the roads with the centre of the car passing over the hump, and the impact seems lessoned to the feel on the suspension, however this is causing less obvious damage to the inner track rod ball joint, as the hump has opposite cambers to the rise and tries to open or close the joints. This is only a theory, but would cause premature wear to this item. I have a number of Rover 75's that are due to have these replaced by me when we get our summer! If you decide to change these, don't bother looking at Rimmers because they don't list them, but they are listed elsewhere ECP & Ebay to name a few!
Hope this helps.

[lightningmark]

I concur with your theory as a few years ago I moved to an area whereby I traverse these road humps a dozen times a day and in this time have had to replace the inner joint as well as having wear on the inner edges of the front tyres even though tracking was perfect. I've since stopped trying to centralise the car over the humps and just slow down....