Power Steering... Or Is It Really

[Guest vin]

i have been using a pugeot 406 and the steering has been a dream. i could park the cark by turning the steering wheel with my little finger and am not exaggerating here. well now i come to the c5 2002 hdi that i recently bought (it has come up with a few skeletons in its glove boxes already). it is quite difficult to turn the steering wheel and is not all that very responsive. soon after i bought the car i saw that the header tank for the hydraulic fluid was empty. i topped up abt half tank and still fail to see much difference. could there be an airlock??? if so is there a bleed valve??? or the obvious is the steering this hard...???

[Johndouglas]

Try moving the suspension from low to high a few times.

[Guest vin]

Try moving the suspension from low to high a few times.

 

tried that a few times no diff took her into the garage and my mechanic seems to be of the opinon that that is how the steering is suppose to be on the c5 and that the pugs have a much better steering... so it is me who has to get adjusted

cheers

[techbod]

it depends on what you mean by hard? the steering is progressive at speed and light at idle that's how modern cars work, if it feels like the steering is over hard then there is a problem and probably air in the system

[myglaren]

The power steering should be reasonably light at low speeds.

I find that mine is not as light as my Xantia was but it is far from heavy - my daughter's mini is a major pain in comparison.

 

Try bleeding it by going from full lock to full lock and keeping it at full lock each time for half a minute.

 

Be sure the reservoir level is correct, that it is LDS in there and that it is properly pressurised.