I'm pretty sure I have a problem with the steering rack in the grand vitara. The steering has become vague and requires constant driving now to keep her straight. There is a knocking noise when driving along over humps and bumps, coming from the front middle, which seems to be worse when going slower. When stationary there is a bit of slop and knocking when you engage the wheel back and forth. She failed the mot a few weeks back.on ball joints, where I had to replace the whole wishbone on both sides. Now I thought this was the source of the knocking, but it hasn't cured the problem. I'm just wondering why the mot never picked up on it or even mentioned anything to do with the steering? What does it sound like to any of you? Can you adjust the steering rack, or fit shims? Or a new rack?
What are the track rod ends like? Would have expected mot to look at those though. Is there any chance the rack has come loose?
Cheers BC. Gonna get underneath her later. She had track rod ends fitted at a garage about 15-20k miles ago. Shouldn't be done yet?
If they were cheapies then yes they could well be done. Check the steering box and linkages too, also check if there's adjustment in the steering box. I had to do a job like this on the Frontera but there was no knocking. I did have 1/4 wheel turn before anything happened with the front wheels though lol