Play in steering - help

[Kate90]

Hi everyone, new user here and fairly new Micra owner.

Need a bit of help regarding some play in my steering. A couple weeks ago I parked in a rush and hit the front passenger side wheel on the curb. Since then there is quite a lot of play in the steering, turning a 90 degree corner now requires me to turn the steering wheel over 360 degrees. I'm sure I'm not imagining this being a lot more than before. The steering wheel also vibrates when going over 60mph.

So I need some advice on what it might be, a broken track rod end maybe? I'm not very mechanically minded but know a couple of the basics. As it's a fairly new car to me though I've barely even looked under the bonnet so don't get too technical please!

It's a 1999 Nissan Micra Profile 16v

 

[Vasily]

If you hit a curb while parking it didn't do any significant damage and is not the cause for this issue you are having and you definitely did not break anything (unless you were parking at 40 MPH ). The shaky steering wheel at speed might indicate wheel misalignment or that they aren't balanced properly. I'll start with getting an alignment done, and while you are at it ask them to check your wheel balance.

Just do an alignment for now and check balance.
I have the same issue with shaky steering wheel at 55-60 MPH and the issue is with my passenger wheel, it is almost flat first of all and most importantly has insane positive camber, it is so bad that it is visible with the naked eye and the outer portion of my tire is completely gone. Toe looks bad too, if I look at the both wheels from the front, once again clearly visible that my driver wheel has high toe-in while my passenger side has significantly less.
Any way getting it fixed tomorrow.

As for more "play" issue, I cannot help, no idea what this might be. Again unless you hit the curb at a speed there shouldn't be any damage.
I'm a learner driver so I'm a curb magnet steering is as it was when I got the car.

 

[davyboy]

You may have popped a few threads on the steering bar, that would cause a bit more over steering as you describe.
Take it to your local tyre centre to have it all checked, this is free, but you will have to pay if any adjustments are required.

 

[Kate90]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah I'll be sure to take it to a tyre place and get the alignment done.

I guess I'm just extra worried as I did the exact same thing in my last car and it damaged the steering rack beyond repair to the point it was deemed dangerous when it failed it's MOT and they advised me not to drive it home.

I did hit the curb pretty hard, it wasn't just a normal bump.
Road rage + being in a rush don't mix!

Been a while since I had the wheels aligned, how much does it cost?

 

[Vasily]

I got a quote from Merityre for £70 for all 4 wheel alignment + balance check for free. They offer a Membership card that when you get first time gets you a discount and after that you collect points or something, don't know, last time we used Merityre was in January.
Halfords does front wheel alignment for £30. Wheels Inmotion have a lot of good recommendations, but I never had any experience with them.

 

[Vasily]

Wheels Inmotion are based in Burminghamshire just found out