X Reg Ford Ka. Has anyone experienced this noise?

[George]

My wife's car has just started to produce noises that can only be described a strange, from the Steering Wheel. When it is turned it sounds as if the re is a small wire brush inside the area just below the actual steering whe el containing the Air Bag. I have removed the cover and tried to pin-point from whence it comes, but it does not seem to be at all localised. I thoug ht that maybe a piece of cellophane sweet wrapper had got into the works so mehow.

I does not seem to change anywhere the wheel is turned to and I have tried an air pressure line to try and dislodge anything stuck in a crack somewher e, to no avail.

The local garage has offered to dismantle the steering head assembly and ch ange the spiral connection that they say feeds connections to the horn and the air bag, but the charge would be more than the car is worth.

My reaction to this is to turn up the radio or always to travel in a straig ht line, however neither of these solutions are really satisfactory. I woul d really like to hear if anyone has heard this before or has any idea what it might be. Is it likely to a. get better, b. stay the same, or c. set of f the airbag or the horn at the most inconvenient time.

Any comments would be welcome. Thanks George.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Power steering on the blink? Check fluid levels.

X reg is pretty old... all sorts of stuff start happening to Old Cars..;-)

[Richard]

This maybe?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Except on no account expect WD40 to lubricate anything..

silicone spray is better

[Tim+]

Any help?

Tim

[Andrew]

In my experience, they rarely get to that age before the sills and other important bits rust away.

[George]

ed a strange, from the Steering Wheel. When it is turned it sounds as if t here is a small wire brush inside the area just below the actual steering w heel containing the Air Bag. I have removed the cover and tried to pin-poin t from whence it comes, but it does not seem to be at all localised. I tho ught that maybe a piece of cellophane sweet wrapper had got into the works somehow.

d an air pressure line to try and dislodge anything stuck in a crack somewh ere, to no avail.

change the spiral connection that they say feeds connections to the horn an d the air bag, but the charge would be more than the car is worth.

ight line, however neither of these solutions are really satisfactory. I wo uld really like to hear if anyone has heard this before or has any idea wha t it might be. Is it likely to a. get better, b. stay the same, or c. set off the airbag or the horn at the most inconvenient time.

[George]

ed a strange, from the Steering Wheel. When it is turned it sounds as if t here is a small wire brush inside the area just below the actual steering w heel containing the Air Bag. I have removed the cover and tried to pin-poin t from whence it comes, but it does not seem to be at all localised. I tho ught that maybe a piece of cellophane sweet wrapper had got into the works somehow.

d an air pressure line to try and dislodge anything stuck in a crack somewh ere, to no avail.

change the spiral connection that they say feeds connections to the horn an d the air bag, but the charge would be more than the car is worth.

ight line, however neither of these solutions are really satisfactory. I wo uld really like to hear if anyone has heard this before or has any idea wha t it might be. Is it likely to a. get better, b. stay the same, or c. set off the airbag or the horn at the most inconvenient time.

The noise is so different to the normal knocking or grating or screaming th at I was sure someone else would have experienced it and have the answer

I took the whole plastic cover of, Two halves and now I am having difficult y in getting it back on, however I shall try the spray solution tomorrow an d also tap the holes for the screws that hold the bottom cover on so I can use longer screws to attach it, someone has used several incorrect self tap ping screws and damaged the fixings, I was thinking of attaching some foam to the inside of the cover to deaden the noise, but I think that a silicone squirt will work. Luckily a friend of mine is a really good MIG welder, - far better than I but he has not got as good welder as I have and he did a n extensive job on all the rusty bits and it passed the MOT 2 days before s ome twerp backed into it in our dentist;s car park and did £700 worth of damage just before I re- registered it. His insurance would not pay the cost of the repairs, only their estimate of it's value of £500, so I h ad to cough up 200 quid, to get the car back. This does not seem fair as it was not my wife's fault and I feel it should have paid up as they would ha ve had third party cover at the very least. Thanks for all the helpful re plies. Regards George.

[Brian Gaff]

If the car is powered down, and the steering is thus now manual, does the sound still occur, if it does then it aint the power steering. Many many years ago, and I mean many, my late father had a sound like this. Of course this in this case is very much dependent on what you describe here, and 6 weeks later the fuses were blown for some of the devices controlled from the stalk on the column. It was so old that the car was scrapped as loom issues can be very dangerous.

Brian

[GB]

If the crash damage had cost say £7000, instead of £700, I'm sure you'd have agreed it would be daft to repair the car. You do have to mitigate your loss. So, you can't expect more than the replacement cost of the car. But that can be the price off a swanky dealer's forecourt.

I doubt that anyone can say within a couple of hundred squid what the car was worth. If it's not too long ago, you can still complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service that the car was really worth over £700.