I'm losing my patience with this car now have had so many problems (have probably paid around the amount i bought the car for in repairs now), the most recent being the steering. Around March my steering started creeking badly and then locked up totally. Turned out to be that one of the steering joints had gone. Great steering freed up and noise gone. Then a few days later the creek starts to come back, the smoothness dissapears, doesn't lock up but is kind of rigid in its movements if you get what I mean, also developed a popping noise and the wheel wasn't straight. Got that looked at in a different garage they said nothing is wrong except suspension ball joint was gone, got that replaced, no change (I wouldn't have thought that would make any difference anyway, just probably something they noticed while they were looking). So I just left it for a while until I got round to getting it looked at again and it started deteriorating some more, latest symptom was the left indicator turning itself on when doing extreme turns to the left (not always though). Got that fixed Wednesday, turned out to be the whole steering rack had gone. So good for a couple of days, silent, lovely and smooth, but today it started creaking and stiffening up again, 2 days after I got it fixed. Still nice and smooth to turn however, just stiffer. I don't get it. Surely it can't be the other joint going? Surely they would have seen that when replacing the rack? Any ideas? 1996 P reg 1.1 LX by the way. I'm beginning to go by the attitude of it's old, live with it's creaks.

Hi and welcome to FOC,

Has it got power steering?

Nope

Nope

possibly front suspension top mounts, they are usually bearing mounted, so when wheels are turned and suspension struts turn they move freely.

the bearings do and can dry out and basically giveup.

it possible where car has been up on ramps for repair that this has released pressure on said bearings and freed them up a lil only to tighten again a few or days later, in my expirience these are what give the notchy turning with popping sound you described.

a possibility though!!!

note...it also can just be a sided problem i.e only one side effected

I still haven't had it looked at :D well I kind of did. When I put it in for it's MOT they said nothing was wrong and it apparently would have failed if something was wrong (they claimed they couldn't hear anything either - it was quieter at the time however). Anyway strangely since the cold weather my steering has shut up totally but has become really loose (put that down to the icy roads though) and feeling kind of strange on the tight bends (lots of them on my journey to and from work). It just seems to be temperamental as some days it behaves and some days it doesn't. At some point when it gets noisy again I will get a second opinion. It sounds like some kind of lubrication problem like a rubbing noise so what you are saying makes sense. It's not one sided either, the rubbing noise I get turning both ways. The steering seems to have been a very old problem (although I noticed no problems for the first few months I owned the car). I found the invoices the previous owner kept and several are steering related.

As of 19/12 the noise is back again!