Slack on steering wheel

[VenumX]

Hi!

4-5 days ago I noticed slack on my steering wheel when stationary accompanied by a "thump thump" sound.... I thought nothing of it but I remembered it.

The next day....stationary at home , I tried again.
Again ...slack....but a little bit more accompanied by a "ting ting" sound....

This time I wanted to know where that sound was coming from...

So I took a look underneath my dashboard where that coupling is from steering wheel to the wheels.
(Not a car mechanic so I don't know the technical terms)

This is what I found....

A bunch of copper/brass pins and a loose joint.

This is the backside of that joint.

So it seems a dustcap from a bearing got loose and it Spiller all its guts, causing slack on the steering wheel and noise.

Dealer said he never seen this so fast in a 2 year old car and was like ??

I must say this has been fixed in 2 days under warranty by the dealer. With replacement car. So everything fine!

Dealer : De Baets (Hasselt) Belgium ?

So if U ever notice the slightest slack on your steering wheel when stationary....check this joint!?

 

[Jto]

Hi
The bits on the floor are from a roller, bearing do not drive the car and have it relayed to the garage.
sorry did not read the whole post very quick turn round.

 

[Alb]

It seems to be a weak point on a number of cars.
As Jto points out, that was an ultra fast resolution by the dealer though.

 

[VenumX]

Yeah I just picked it up like 30 minutes ago. Yes indeed....this part is so common it does not have to come from china I guess ??

 

[Lovemyev]

This problem has been seen on the ZS EV in both Gen1 and Gen 2 models.
Which comes as no surprise as it uses the same electrical power steering system made by Bosch on both versions of the ZS.
The part that has failed very prematurely, is the lower steering universal joint ( UJ for short ).
In the photo you can see where the lower coupling attaches to the steering rack via a spline fitting and secured by a pitch bolt.
This is a very typical arrangement on a lot of cars, what is not typical is the fact that these joints are suffering from catastrophic failure this early in their life cycle.
The UJ cup contains small hardened steel needle roller bearings, these are arranged around the inside wall of the UJ cup and are packed with grease for lubrication.
The four cups are pressed into place into the yokes of the UJ over central inner male central body of the joint ( this looks like a cross as seen in the photo ).
In most situations, theses cups are held in place by a circlip.
But as these joints are so small in this case, then a “crippling” method is used to retain the UJ cups.
In each case I have seen posted, the cup has either become detached from the yoke or completely shattered !.
Looking at you photo, part of the crip is missing.
Has this allowed the cup to become detached ???.
However, there is part of the cup still preset in the UJ which suggests it has shattered and parted company with the needle roller bearings and grease of course.
This causes the excess play and the knocking noise.
I have to question if the cups are being fractured in the criping process and causing the premature failure ???.

 

[Patrick Speleman]

Hi!

4-5 days ago I noticed slack on my steering wheel when stationary accompanied by a "thump thump" sound.... I thought nothing of it but I remembered it.

The next day....stationary at home , I tried again.
Again ...slack....but a little bit more accompanied by a "ting ting" sound....

This time I wanted to know where that sound was coming from...

So I took a look underneath my dashboard where that coupling is from steering wheel to the wheels.
(Not a car mechanic so I don't know the technical terms)

This is what I found....
View attachment 19423
A bunch of copper/brass pins and a loose joint.

This is the backside of that joint.
View attachment 19424
So it seems a dustcap from a bearing got loose and it Spiller all its guts, causing slack on the steering wheel and noise.

Dealer said he never seen this so fast in a 2 year old car and was like ??

I must say this has been fixed in 2 days under warranty by the dealer. With replacement car. So everything fine!

Dealer : De Baets (Hasselt) Belgium ?

So if U ever notice the slightest slack on your steering wheel when stationary....check this joint!?

Same problem here.Waiting already more then 3 weeks for the replacement parts. Not happy with it.

 

[Eee]

Hi!

4-5 days ago I noticed slack on my steering wheel when stationary accompanied by a "thump thump" sound.... I thought nothing of it but I remembered it.

The next day....stationary at home , I tried again.
Again ...slack....but a little bit more accompanied by a "ting ting" sound....

This time I wanted to know where that sound was coming from...

So I took a look underneath my dashboard where that coupling is from steering wheel to the wheels.
(Not a car mechanic so I don't know the technical terms)

This is what I found....
View attachment 19423
A bunch of copper/brass pins and a loose joint.

This is the backside of that joint.
View attachment 19424
So it seems a dustcap from a bearing got loose and it Spiller all its guts, causing slack on the steering wheel and noise.

Dealer said he never seen this so fast in a 2 year old car and was like ??

I must say this has been fixed in 2 days under warranty by the dealer. With replacement car. So everything fine!

Dealer : De Baets (Hasselt) Belgium ?

So if U ever notice the slightest slack on your steering wheel when stationary....check this joint!?

I noticed the same thing today. MG EHS of 2 years old with <50,000 km, incredible. I had to immediately leave the car at the dealer because the dealer said it was too dangerous to drive.

 

[PedroPhev]

Off to Spain for three months shortly, can’t have this happening so Araldite now applied to all four caps to try and hold them in place. Hopefully it will be a recall in due course as it's safety related.
It looks like the each housing has only been stamped on one side, which would appear to be insufficient to retain the cap.

 

[Lovemyev]

Hopefully it will be a recall in due course as it's safety related

This condition has been seen on the ZS EV models, but to the best of my knowledge, there has no recall been released.
They appear to dealing with it on a car by car basis !.