Hey guys

Just been for a brief country jaunt combined with checking out a few lanes locally that I haven't done yet. I have been aware that my steering has become a little bit vague over the last week - feels fine, but basically I have to move the wheel further than normal in each direction to achieve the required lock. When straight ahead, I can turn the wheel maybe 30degrees in each direction from centre with very little steering happening - maybe before this around around 20degrees.

Did a couple of lanes and no problems, just vague steering as described.

On the return jaunt, hit about 45mph on a straight country road, surface was a little bumpy which sent the steering wheel into a firm shake and the whole vehicle was jumping around. The sensation would not stop until I was below 10mph regardless of bumps, I think the road was smooth aside from the initial patch that set it off.

I'm assuming my steering box is totally kaput, but i'm very open to insight and experience on this. Of course if a repair or adjustment is outside of a junior mechanic's skill set i'll book it in for Safaris to deal with!

I have recently been trying to adjust the steering box with with the allen key bolt and locknut as this is meant to adjust the centre vagueness - I had another thread on here about that. Haven't had a chance but the nut/allen bolt is seized but frankly if it sounds like the box is trashed i'll not bother with that and get something new sorted. Cheers!

is it the box or a track rod end ,worn uj in steering linkage,loose drop arm ,worn swivels etc

Right - i've had a diagnose. I was thinking most likely steering box, of which I have checked and indeed has some slight play in the UJ. Not much through. The real shock was actually checking the pan hard rod. This is something that has just had new bushings installed as part of quite a large rebushing job at my local LR specialist - the bushings have totalled shredded and collapsed. There is tons of play in there and of course now i'm concerned about the quality of the job that has been done on the majority of the underside of my vehicle at reasonable expense!

I'll get that sorted - give them a chance to redeem themselves and sort it out... And then return to the steering box UJ and tighten or replace...

what colour are the bushes in panhard rod

Believe they are black... not that theres anything really left in there.

I appreciate that this image isn't that useful for the pan hard, but the trailing arm bushes were done as part of the same job and you can see the side which I believe is black

must be very cheap parts

Absolutely - they'll be getting a call first thing tomorrow. Only been on the vehicle for around 200 miles, most of which is road miles