Problems!

Since buying the van in January, there has been a wobble in the steering wheel when going around corners. After taking the van to Kwikfit (for convenience as there is one near my work), I was informed that I needed new CV Joints and tracking rod ends.

I caved and let them install, for an outrageous £271!!

The steering wobble got much better, but didn't totally go away, and I spent 6 months ignoring it whilst I fitted out the van, sorted the EGR valve, got it through and MOT, fixed the driveshaft seal, broke down in a McDonalds drive through, and much more. Starting to get expensive, but as I have started to use it more in preparation for our trips, I decided to get it looked at. My suspicion is the tracking needs doing, which my mobile mechanic has confirmed, but it also turned out some of my wheels are basically 50p shaped, definitely not round!

To counteract that I have swapped the 50p shaped wheels with straighter ones, as I won't feel the rough edges on the back particularly, and it made the wobble go away a little bit more.

The other possibility is that the inner CV Joints need replacing, but as I have researched, its looking like the only way is to replace the drive shafts on each side. £60 each plus fitting, its starting to look expensive again!

SOO...I have decided to get it tracked and balanced, and then not worry about it for a bit. I probably won't do enough miles this year for it to matter, I have four brand new tyres, that probably won't even see any odd wear. Eventually I might replace some rims, upgrade to alloys, and replace the drive shafts, but I have decided not to worry about it, as I've been assured that its not dangerous at all.

Life's too short, I've been working for 6 months to prepare to chill for the summer, time to enjoy the van and stop worrying. It must be the equipment manager inside me, its my OCD and what I've been doing at work - keep all equipment in good working order all of the time. Shame I can't afford to do the same as quickly as I can at work, but as I said, I'm going to stop worrying.

Sorry this wasn't particularly interesting, but it should get much better once were in the Isle of Wight.


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