Steering suddenly went extremely light.

[Destiny]

Cabby 216. K reg.
Just pulling into driveway and turning to park up, the steering wheel went extremely, overly light. While still turning the wheels.
Stationary , it is the same. There is no noise or clunking.
My Mechanic is a bit flumuxed so any help would be appreciated.
Maybe nothing to do with it but i had two new front tyres fitted the day before.

Many thanks

[1234dist]

Steering rack on its way out

[Johnny 216GSi]

Steering rack on its way out

Either that or your new tyres have been extremely over-inflated. That makes the steering light - but you'd have to have them seriously over-inflated to feel it - say 10psi-15psi over the recommended pressure at least. I suppose if your old ones were under-inflated by 10psi (never attended to or never checked, the pressure will easily drop 10psi over time) and your new ones are over-inflated by 5-10psi you'd feel the difference.

[richard moss]

Honda steering racks on 827s are prone to this - and as an early 216, it will have a Honda engine and Honda steering rack

[GTiJohn]

The steering rack on Honda-engined R8 200s, 400s and Concertos is exactly the same part.

The problem usually causing the steering to go light instantly is the breakage of the internal 'C' spring at the top of the steering pinion that gives the rack its 'Positive Centre Feel' feature.

Unfortunately it means a replacement rack...

(Richard is correct in that 800s suffer from the same problem but not that it was on 827s, that had Honda's speed proportional system)

[richard moss]

Thanks for the correction - I'm a bit out of touch after 10 years without a Rover of my own :(

[GTiJohn]

Thanks for the correction - I'm a bit out of touch after 10 years without a Rover of my own :(

I have history with these systems

[Destiny]

Thank you for all that information

Yes it has Honda engine etc.

I know it isn't the tyre thing as they are at correct pressure and it was quite a dramatic shift in steering.

So Steering rack looks like the problem. At least now we have experienced knowledge to work with. I shall pass this onto my mechanic.

Many thanks, it is very much appreciated

Destiny

[1234dist]

Now the hard part, finding the replacement.