Got round to a small job this weekend, replacing the steering coupling vibration damper.
The original was showing signs of cracking and with reports of steering vagueness and eventual failure of this item I decided to get it changed over. Ended up using a Citreon BX item which is a direct swap, think it was £9 off Ebay !

The actual process was a bit of a faff, tight for access and awkward to get the fixings released.
Also requires access from underneath and above, with the car jacked up quite high.
The original has two bolts pressed into the coupling. There might be a specific way to remove but I ended up with a couple of pry bars and brute force to shift the steering column upper section over and then pry up the coupling.
Once removed I pressed out the original studs in the vice and cleaned up the fixings.
The new coupling was slipped into place and bolted up, the original studs were tightened up gradually and bit into the new coupling as per the original.
Hard to tell if the steering feel has improved, could be a placebo effect but it does feel a bit more positive...

New Citreon item and Original

Original with cracking

Installed

Installed


Cheers Dave

Nicely done Dave, looks like that was well worth replacing!

Really cool. Nice one!

Do you have the heat-shield?

Thanks Steve / Jon. Definitely seemed like a worthwhile job.

Jon - I had totally forgotten the heat shield was missing until you mentioned. Seems like it has been missing for a long time. Didn't look like the coupling had been replaced before but you never know... I should probably find a spare and fit one in due course
Cheers
Dave

bogbasic wrote: ↑

12 May 2022 10:02 pm

Really cool. Nice one!

Do you have the heat-shield?

I was going to say the same but couldn't remember what the non-pas column/coupler looked like. Worth fitting if you can get hold of one I suspect due to the proximity to the exhaust.

Hey Dave, nice work! i got quite a shakey steeringwheel too; should i consider replacing this part? The steering is fine just shakes when idling. I guessed the engine mounts were old, but this could be a worthwhile and easier task than engine mounts. What do you think?

Hi, really not sure, best thing to do would be to have a close inspection of the part.
What model is your 300 ?
Mine is non-power steering and this is the standard set up, I believe power assisted is different.
As far as I know they are designed to fail safe but you will get excessive wheel movement if the rubber is cracked/unbonded.
My steering wasn't too bad before, perhaps a bit vague and I noticed the wheel had a slight movement if pulled up caused by the damper flexing. Now the steering feels tighter and there is no upwards movement.
Cheers Dave