Loose Radial Joint: Causes & Treatment

Hello everyone!

Some time ago, there was a problem with the steering system on my VW Sharan 7N, manufactured in 2015, with a 100kW TDI engine. It turned out that the torque sensor was defective, which meant that the only solution was to replace the entire gearbox. This repair was carried out by a specialized workshop.

Until a few days ago, everything was fine. Last week, while driving on a gravel road, I first noticed a slight metallic clicking sound coming from the suspension. The noise could be more or less reproduced by hitting the suspension firmly while the car was stationary. However, it was relatively subtle and quieter than what you'd expect with defective control arms or ball joints. I wanted to schedule an appointment at the workshop where the steering rack was installed, but they weren't available until next week. Therefore, I decided to go to a different independent garage. They then started troubleshooting the issue...

After some time, the culprit was identified: the radial joint on the driver's side. The part was only screwed into the rack and pinion by a few threads. This looseness caused play, which also misaligned the tracking.

My question to you – purely out of curiosity – what happens if the radial joint comes loose from its housing?
Will the wheel on the driver's side become completely unstable, or would its position be determined by the vehicle's chassis geometry (e.g., maintaining a straight trajectory)?
Would you have had any chance of keeping the car under control at 140 km/h on the highway, or would it have been game over?
To be honest, the whole thing has been very shocking to me.

Best regards,
M.

Hi there.

The whole thing is called a ball joint.

Nothing like that will happen quickly, and especially not if you listen to your car as you do and react accordingly.

Most likely, the workshop that performed the work did not have the proper tools to tighten the axial joint correctly.

Be glad that it's not worse.

There probably isn't a warranty anymore. If there is, I would take the car back to that place and request further repairs.