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[Alex W]

I recently bought an old, apparently low mileage Micra to get her to work and back and keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed.

It pretty good for its age except that the steering goes very light at motorway speeds (70mph) but is fine town speeds.

On inspection the steering and front suspension look OK, there is no play on rocking the wheels.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause this effect?

Thanks in advance.

[05omegav6]

Is the front crossmember still fully attached? They have been known to rot spectacularly, which would leave the front end quite floppy

[Alex W]

Sorry for being dim but is the front crossmember  the part behind the front bumper, under the radiator? I noticed that was quite rusty when changing the coolant.

The car was in the garage having the CV joints replaced 2 weeks ago, I told them about the lightness at speed but they said nothing about the crossmember.

[05omegav6]

Sorry for being dim but is the front crossmember  the part behind the front bumper, under the radiator? I noticed that was quite rusty when changing the coolant.

The car was in the garage having the CV joints replaced 2 weeks ago, I told them about the lightness at speed but they said nothing about the crossmember.

That's the crossmember

I'm speculating as the crossmember holds the front of those together and are made of cheese...

Are tyre pressures all correct? Any weight in the boot? Was the issue there before the CV joints were changed?

How old is 'old'?  Does it have power steering?

[aaronjb]

What age and spec? The first of the 'bubble' shape, I presume, not the (really) old box shape?

The steering on Amy's is pretty light and does feel vague at speed compared to any of my cars .. but apparently that's normal (and has been like that since she's had it) - having said that it never feels dangerous, just .. light. Which I suppose it is..

AFAIK none of the bubble (K12) cars have speed sensitive steering..

[05omegav6]

I'd forgotten about your one working car, Aaron

[aaronjb]

I'd forgotten about your one working car, Aaron

  The Omega works! ... mostly. If you ignore the stench of burning oil and wandering front end..

[Alex W]

Car is a 1.0 T reg 99, 56000 miles. Brand new tyres all round,correctly inflated, no weight in the boot. Power Steering

Light steering at speed was present before the clicking cv joint.

Car MOT'd less than 500 miles ago (Nov '12) with advisory's about exhaust and a dodgy tyre (Both since replaced) no advisory about crossmember.

[05omegav6]

Reading Aarons post, that might be normal

[biggriffin]

Going that fast the front is lifting,needs a DTM front splitter tea tray on.

[aaronjb]

Almost identical to Amy's car then - hers is a 2001 1.0 'S' with similar mileage. I find it very light at speed - certainly lighter than the Omega, although when parking it's similar.

I don't feel it's 'dangerous' though, so if yours feels dangerously light it could be a problem What size tyres are you running btw? Amy has 14" wheels on hers which might make it feel more stable, I think the standard was 13"..

[Alex W]

It feels too light to me, like the wheels are barely making contact with the road. You have to slow down to get the feel back.

She only drives 2 miles to work and never gets up to higher speeds.

She's off tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll have the front bumper off and have a good look at the crossmember.

[Broomies Mate]

No speed sensitive power steering on those so it will get lighter with speed. Worth looking around the local garages for another and have a cheeky test drive to see if they are the same?

[tidla]

go slower, its what all the other micra drivers do.

[Alex W]

Turns out the crossmember is OK, suffering from surface rust in places but essentially solid. I brushed the rust off and took it over to my MOT people and they had a look and said its wouldn't fail the MOT (due next month) on the current condition of the crossmember.

Even though it doesn't appear to be the cause of the perceived steering problem special thanks to Ex Taxi for getting me to check the crossmember, now I can clean it up and get some rust treatment and underseal on it before the rust eats it all away. Otherwise I would have been blissfully unaware.

It seems from my general research that light steering at speed is a feature of these very lightweight cars, as it will practically never be expected to drive at motorway speeds and I can't find anything physically wrong with the car, I won't worry about it any further.

Thanks to all for your replies, much appreciated!