Hi, new to this forum so hello!

Bought a 53 plate ka for my wife a couple of years ago, thought the steering felt a little 'tight' but with no previous experience put it down to being fairly newish and wasn't concerned. After about eight months of ownership steering felt too stiff and then read loads of stuff on here and elswhere re. steering racks failing around this year of manufacture.

So, I fitted a recon rack and the steering felt great, how it should be, however after about a year it started feeling stiff again so, I thought dodgy recon, this time I'll fit second hand from a breaker. Fitted rack from the breaker, it was great, for two days!

So I'm now into the throw parts at it syndrome (y'know like garages do!) so I fitted a second hand pump, no difference.

I have now fitted yet another recon rack and sadly no difference.

The stiffness could almost be described as a lumpiness just off straight ahead either way, while hard lock turning for parking feels adequately power assisted. The stiffness negates the self return action so the steering has to be pulled back to centre thus making a very unnatural driving experience.

Any ideas?

it could be a problem with a bottom or top ball joint, a track rod end or even the bottom steering coloum joint.