Disco steering failure / excessive shudder

[Pitters]

This time last year, I was on my way home, towing the jet ski after a great few hours afloat. We had queued patiently behind large agricultural vehicles for a few miles who eventually pulled over and let us pass. A very short distance later at less than 30 mph my Disco suddenly veered left and right, bouncing off the earth mounds either side of the lane before eventually stopping astride one earth verge (only prevented from rolling down slope by the weight of trailer and jet ski...).

The fault was rapidly identified by the Police as the shearing of the bolt which keeps the steering column attached to the horizontal bars linking both wheels..... thus the wheels moved in unison, at will, while all movement of the steering wheel had zero effect. This was rectified by the local garage who replaced all components and the Disco was soon back on the road as trusty steed.

Unfortunately, in the last few months, I have suddenly and unexpectedly experienced the Disco severely shuddering and shaking at random speeds between 45 mpoh and 70mph. The only way I have been able to control the situations has been to brake carefully and once the speed was down below 15 mph the shuddering ceased. This has happened about 4 times now... and I have not been able to identify the cause....

Different roads, different surfaces, all during dry weather... it is not like wheels being out of balance... it is horrendous..very scarey spice stuff.

Any ideas?????

[western]

start by examining the radius arm bushes at axle & chassis, panhard rod to axle, all the steering joints, swivel bearing pre-loads,wheel bearings,steering box attachment to chassis & then move to the rear axle & check all the bushes there.

[errol209]

The fault was rapidly identified by the Police as the shearing of the bolt which keeps the steering column attached to the horizontal bars linking both wheels..... thus the wheels moved in unison, at will, while all movement of the steering wheel had zero effect.

Which model of Discovery? I can't follow the description above either, unless I'm missing something?

You could do worse than have a read down this too (some of it won't apply)

[western]

Disco has a track rod end fitting on the drag link to the steering box drop arm, so if that broke, the vehicle would be unsteerable.

[errol209]

Disco has a track rod end fitting on the drag link to the steering box drop arm, so if that broke, the vehicle would be unsteerable.

Ah, gotcha.

[Pitters]

Disco has a track rod end fitting on the drag link to the steering box drop arm, so if that broke, the vehicle would be unsteerable.

Thanks Western... as you may guess I am not a motor technical wise person...I describe what I see, not what I dont know..???? Anyway, what you said reminds me of what I was told at the time.

[Pitters]

The Disco is booked in with JSF (Norwich) this thursday to hopefully they will identify and rectify the fault.

[Pitters]

Just back from JSF in Norwich.

They identified a slightly loose swivel joint which they tightened up; the main fault we believe layed with a sloppy steering damper, which would not have given much adverse effect around town, but once settled as in a straight run, it lost all effectiveness, so they replaced it. At the same time they replaced rear bump stops which had gone..... and more importantly identified a serious anti-freeze leak which was leaving a deposit on the manifold down pipe... not visible if one had been laying on the ground looking upwards... so all in all we are very happy that we took it to JSF.

As the steering problem was intermitent (not a constant shaking) only time will allow us to relax and enjoy the comfort of the discovery. The ride home was incident free and the steering actually felt more positive with not as much free play and the motor did not appear to wander from side to side.

Thanks guys.And thanks to James who carried out all the work.