Hi,

I am just starting to get worried.

My wife has a 2005 roadster with 20,000 miles on the clock and the more you turn the wheel the more free play you have. With 50% lock in either direction I think we have about 1" (25mm) free play in the steering wheel when the engine is running, it's worrying. The steering does not knock, it does not pull to either side and while driving straight ahead it runs true with little play. Is this normal?

For the UK boys I recently watched a program on "Dave" and he had an old Merc on the program that had developed the similar symptoms. Ed China (the name of the mechanic) tried to tighten a nut? to take up free play but could not take out enough play before the steering became stiff. He ended up changing the steering box at a cost of £500, ouch.

I suspect the nut taking up the slack on my 2005 car has slackened off but I don't know where this is situated or if it's easy to adjust for a weekend mechanic.

One other avenue for me though, we bought the car used and from a Chrysler dealer who gave us one years warranty. This warranty runs out on the 16th Nov so we have a fair chance of getting this issue fixed although I have not looked at the small print so you never know.

Anyone else suffered a similar kind of issue?

Alan...........