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After a wheel alignment (at the local Beaurepaires) I had about 10mm free play in the steering wheel (I don't think this caused the problem, but exposed it). Asked the Skoda dealer to look at it when they do a few service items, but they said they get a local independent place to do their alignment stuff. Took it there and we (bloke was really good letting me poke about and put my two cents worth in too) discovered the free play was in the universal joint at the bottom of the steering column (in the drivers footwell behind the floor panels).
You can see in the photo there is a sliding tube (an inside tube and an outside tube) with a universal joint at either end. This is part of the collapsible bit of the column. The outside tube is too big for the inside tube, or there used to be some packing material in there, or it's just plain worn. Or at some stage it's been replaced with the wrong one (although I would think that whole assembly would come as one part).
So when you move the wheel the outer tube moves a few mm before it makes contact with the inner tube. Very odd as they look substantial enough not to deform or wear (car has only done 66,000 km).
20120419_170714 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Anyone else had this? Solution? I can think of a few bodgy ways to fix it (squash the outer tube a bit, slide some packing material up between them). Replace just the tubes would seem the obvious way, but it appears to come as part of the whole steering column from the parts catalogue.
You can see in the photo there is a sliding tube (an inside tube and an outside tube) with a universal joint at either end. This is part of the collapsible bit of the column. The outside tube is too big for the inside tube, or there used to be some packing material in there, or it's just plain worn. Or at some stage it's been replaced with the wrong one (although I would think that whole assembly would come as one part).
So when you move the wheel the outer tube moves a few mm before it makes contact with the inner tube. Very odd as they look substantial enough not to deform or wear (car has only done 66,000 km).
20120419_170714 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Anyone else had this? Solution? I can think of a few bodgy ways to fix it (squash the outer tube a bit, slide some packing material up between them). Replace just the tubes would seem the obvious way, but it appears to come as part of the whole steering column from the parts catalogue.
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