DangerousTheory
Passed Driver's Ed
- Location
- UK
A couple of weeks ago I suddenly noticed very stiff steering after stopping at some traffic lights, which continued for the rest of that journey (just a few miles around town). I booked it in to VW and they test drove and checked diagnostics and said they couldn't find anything abnormal.
So literally right after I collected my car, the steering was heavy as soon as I left the dealership, I drove around a few streets and took it straight back. They got a technician to test drive it there and then and he could definitely feel it wasn't quite right. So they kept it for about a week, ran diagnostics again (no fault codes), compared it to a like-for-like GTD and then reprogrammed the steering rack characteristics (in case they had somehow changed).
Since then I have noticed the steering intermittently becoming heavier and then normal again (I'm talking about standstill / low speeds here). It's not consistent and doesn't happen on every journey and therefore I haven't taken it back to the dealership yet because I'm almost certain they'll tell me it's fine.
This is in the Normal steering setting btw, and has the same effect whether in Eco, Normal or Individual where steering is also set to Normal. When the issue is occurring and I'm in Sport Steering it's even worse, it feels like a car without any power steering. What I can't understand is because it's drive by wire, it can't be a hydraulics fault which is what you'd expect. My suspicion is that it's not a software problem, but a dodgy sensor or relay that is tricking the steering control into thinking it's going faster than it is, and therefore stiffening the steering.
Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. I'd like to think I'm not alone but the dealership had never heard of the issue with any MK7 and I can't find anything online...
So literally right after I collected my car, the steering was heavy as soon as I left the dealership, I drove around a few streets and took it straight back. They got a technician to test drive it there and then and he could definitely feel it wasn't quite right. So they kept it for about a week, ran diagnostics again (no fault codes), compared it to a like-for-like GTD and then reprogrammed the steering rack characteristics (in case they had somehow changed).
Since then I have noticed the steering intermittently becoming heavier and then normal again (I'm talking about standstill / low speeds here). It's not consistent and doesn't happen on every journey and therefore I haven't taken it back to the dealership yet because I'm almost certain they'll tell me it's fine.
This is in the Normal steering setting btw, and has the same effect whether in Eco, Normal or Individual where steering is also set to Normal. When the issue is occurring and I'm in Sport Steering it's even worse, it feels like a car without any power steering. What I can't understand is because it's drive by wire, it can't be a hydraulics fault which is what you'd expect. My suspicion is that it's not a software problem, but a dodgy sensor or relay that is tricking the steering control into thinking it's going faster than it is, and therefore stiffening the steering.
Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. I'd like to think I'm not alone but the dealership had never heard of the issue with any MK7 and I can't find anything online...
