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Hello all,

Yesterday on the morning I just ended up with my night shift.
I let the car idle on the parking and for some reason, play with the steeringwheel.

Near neutral and by going left to right, a disgusting noise was audible.

https://youtube.com/shorts/I84AN_fgJgU

First time I heard this kind of noise.
After 60 km of highway, no more noise.

I'm not gonna jack up the car until...few days/week because of the rain unfortunately.

For info, the car just pass 171600 km and the steering ball joint are from factory.

According to some people, it's a pretty "common" failure on PQ26 platform (A1, Polo, Fabia) but they are all agree about the source:

-Steering column
or
-Steering rack

If you have any feedback, experience with this, I will be glad !

Have a nice weekend.

That sounds horrible.
From the location, I would say universal joint on the steering column.
I'm sure steering rack would sound more muffled.

If there is wear on the rack, there should be a screw down there to take up some of the wear by moving pinion closer to rack gear. Or at least that's how it's been on every car I've had.

Fun fact, no noise on this morning.

Quite strange issue.

Super weird.

2226 wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2024 7:34 pmSuper weird.

Also, on official Workshop manual from VW there is a procedure to adjust steering rack pre load to correct this noise.

Quite interesting.

That's what I was referring to. Did that on my mk1 to take up the wear.
In a rack and pinion, the rack wears out around the pinion because that's where most movement is. The teeth compress/wear down. You adjust the bolt/screw to raise the rack closer to the pinion and take up the play. Do not over-do it as this will lead to binding of the rack and pinion gear set at the limits of the steering rack.