Hi,

My Focus has developed a horrible sand papery metal to metal rubbing noise when I turn the steering. I have not yet had time to fully investigate so I was hoping someone here would have a good clue as to what the problem could be so I can save time & get straight to the problem.

The first thig I thought was fluid but there appears to be no fluid bottle on the car & I cant find it in the book.

2011 Focus Mk3.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There is as far as i aware no fluid because its electric power steering, sound like it may be the rack

Possibly grit has got under the seals.
Also could be suspension strut top mounts.

Sent from my SM-G965F (S9+)

I've seen mk3 with the exact setup in my 1.6vvti

if it has any hydraulic assistance, sounds like its out of PAS fluid... common issue, driving with that noise add lots of iron filings to the oil,

if its elec only something else is wrong

It's a full electric system on the 1.6TDCi.  Might just be the noise of the motor if you're previously used to hydraulic pumps?  If not, it could be the top mounts as Stoney suggests.  Racks are also a common failure on the Mk3 though.

It only started making the noise after it had been parked up for several weeks.

Is it the same rack as the petrol versions? There are some on EBay but they don't give this info? If not, does anyone have a part number please?

If it'd been parked for several weeks, I'd definitely check the top mounts first.  

The rack is the same across all versions with fully electric steering.  The only exception is the 1.6 Ti-VCT petrol engine which still uses the older electro-hydraulic rack.  If you have large alloys from the factory (18"+) then you will have rack limiters on the rack which will need to be swapped to the new one.

Thanks