Death of a steering damper?

[Error404]

What are the symptoms of a dead steering damper?
I'm wondering if mine has seen better days.

I've got a couple of steering issues with the CQ at the moment - some vagueness and play in the steering, where i can wiggle the wheel when going straight ahead and have a few degs of movement before the car reacts..... From some searches I'm pretty sure a bit of tweaking on the rack pre-load will help with that one.

The other issue is the car snatching at bumps and potholes in the road - the steering jerks around a lot which my old coupes never did. I'm wondering if the damper is knackered and causing this unpleasantness - any BTDTs on this?


Cheers
Alex

[anton]

The other issue is the car snatching at bumps and potholes in the road - the steering jerks around a lot which my old coupes never did. I'm wondering if the damper is knackered and causing this unpleasantness - any BTDTs on this?

was it doing this before you fit the spacers?? they will seriously amplify any pulling, i know my old wheels did this really badly, i always wonder about the steering damper, from a performance point of view surely your just loosing feel from the steering?? for a daily driver tho i see the point. does that sound right??

Ant

[Error404]

yeah its been doing it since i had it, its just amplified it a bit with the spacers on there - not massivley though - its just spurred me into trying to sort it as its really quite unpleasant now.

maybe i just need to give potholes an even wider berth now


I'll see if I can whip it off at the weekend and see what kind of condition it in... its done almost 19 years and 170k mind, so its probably due a replacement!

[veneto rs2]

Hi Alex

Changing the steering dumper make an enourmous difference on feeling and comfort.
does'nt cost a fortune and it's pretty easy to do thing.
I did it a year ago and the change on steering (specially on road holes and dumps) was big.
If it has never been done by you or previous owner..... do it!

Stefano

[Error404]

Hi Stefano - thanks mate, it sounds like I need to do it

I was just talking to Martyn at VAGparts, for the LHD steering damper apparently there is a Febi alternative which is pretty cheap, but they don't do one for the RHD cars, so OEM it is at circa £60... not a massive amount, maybe I can buy my car an early christmas present!
Lets hope its not a massive PITA to fit with the battery tray in the way.... I might need to appraoch it from underneath.

[S2central.net]

I must do this on mine - its another variable in my suspension/steering woes that I had forgotten about...

[s2driveruk]

i did change mine last summer when i have the car in pieces and changed every component of the steering setup. Its an £80 part from audi so make sure u check VAGParts first. I honestly doubt whether it is the damper though, when did you last have it aligned and what state are the shock, mounts, bushes etc in? My car was pretty much fishtailing all over the place before i took it off the road and I'm sure half of it was tired bushes and poor alignment. Also check the steering bracket off the rack arm it on tight......any movement in the multiple links bwteeen steering wheel and road wheels will also amplify the dull feel and lack of response at dead ahead position.
They really are horrible to drive when the steering is not 'right'

[Jonnybravo]

Useful thread once again, I can't say I'm that impressed with the Quattro experience just yet, power delivery is great but the handling is a little on edge, as described above my car also seems to wonder whilst going straight, small input of steering at any point makes little difference.

After Christmas (although sooner than later would be better) I'll rebush my avant which will hopefully improve it a lot as it has done 148k now.

Maybe a thread should be started and stickied with all the the necessary parts to change to overcome these issues with part numbers if possible, it would save a lot of questions and as S2driverUK has already done most of this you could explain what you found wrong with the parts you replaced ?

Without doubt my car did not drive this way when it left the Audi dealership in 1994 although it also wasn't lowered or running on 18's with spacers

[Error404]

David, everything except the topmounts and dampers are new mate, and alignement was done a few hundered miles ago. The steering has always jolted about over bumps and contours, its got a bit worse since i fitted the spacers last week. Rack and bracket are all nice and tight, which is why i arrived at the damper as the probably cause

[panzerwagen]

Changing the steering damper on a LHD car....

is like a tour through Hell itself. I don't know what it is like on a RHD car but I can tell you from experience it is no walk in the park. A great many components MUST come out of the car before you even get close to removing the damper...and that's if you went to Church & got a blessing. My local Audi master tech. told me he would rather eat rotted meat than to attempt changing a damper on a car such as ours.

[Error404]

the hardest bit on the RHD i can foresee is getting to the chassis end of the damper mounting - its right under the battery tray....

[s2driveruk]

Maybe a thread should be started and stickied with all the the necessary parts to change to overcome these issues with part numbers if possible, it would save a lot of questions and as S2driverUK has already done most of this you could explain what you found wrong with the parts you replaced ?

In all honesty, everything was tired, simple as that. My rack was worn and leaking fluid, front wishbone bushes were shot and one mounting hole on the subframe had ovalled slightly meaning it was only ever aligned until the moment you reversed it off the ramp

I think having wider wheels only makes the problems you feel worse and i imagine adding spacers to broaden the track will probably not help too much either.

I did have an uncomfortable amount of 'flex' on the rack moving the wheel slightly from side to side at dead ahead, so i presume that the rack/pinion was worn enough in this position to give the vague feel. Add to that that the rear wishbone bushes and ball joins were knackered meant that the car had a mind of its own...think i mentioned to someone (Pete probably) that it was like I was driving with a rudder to steer

[s2driveruk]

the hardest bit on the RHD i can foresee is getting to the chassis end of the damper mounting - its right under the battery tray....

yup, the mount is under the try in the far corner and access is a biatch with aircon. even without, it's not going to be simple. have a look on my project thread as I am sure i took plenty of pics around the steering etc.....search on 'can of worms' sure it will pop up

[Error404]

Thanks mate, I'll have a look at your thread to get a feel for it

I've got to change my bomb some time soon anyway, it might be wise to try and do the damper at the same time while I'm down there.
No way i can get to it from above

[s2driveruk]

to be honest makes sense to pull the rad out, then you will have a ton more space to do the bomb and the damper. if not, bomb can easily be done from under the car