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Steering notch?

Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:52 pm
by clawhn
Whilst on holiday if France I noticed that when driving straight on smooth surface A roads / motorways I could feel a slight "notch" in the steering but only when the wheel is in the straight ahead position. It fells like a slight restriction when making small inputs but only when driving straight. I don't do much motorway driving in the UK so hadn't noticed this before.
Has anyone else experienced this?

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:09 am
by church0708
Hi, I'm glad someone else has posted this. I noticed it on my 2019 CX3 the other week whilst driving home. Its fine around town but out on the open road it did have a "notch" as you say.
Exactly the same whilst putting only a slight movement into the wheel it seemed to "stick" and then move. I want to take it to the dealer but I know they wont be able to find the fault whilst driving out of the workshop or on the ramp!.
Maybe it is a fault but hasnt been mentioned before?

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:02 am
by Strangways
I haven't noticed it on mine, but I will look out for it. It could have something to do with the software for the G-Vectoring steering.

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:39 pm
by NeilMarshall
I noticed this on mine the other week, whilst driving on the motorway. Not a clue what it is though.

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:34 pm
by switchback
I've got exactly the same thing on my car and was going to post on here about it. I've now done 13,000 miles and noticed it a couple of months ago. I didn't know if it was something that had developed or whether it had done it all the time and I'd only just noticed it. I too was reluctant to take it back to the dealer for fear of not being able to replicate the "fault". It tends to do it when very slight movements of the steering wheel are required when going in a straight line but the camber of the road draws you to the left. You move the wheel slightly to keep going straight ahead, a slight resistance is felt through the wheel and then the wheel turns and goes "slack". I think mine is getting worse now...........Perhaps the yaw sensor needs replacing/calibrating?

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:37 pm
by switchback
church0708 can you add your car details to your posts like other have so we can see what you're driving. It looks like we all have very similar aged cars............

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 8:41 pm
by clawhn
Thanks for the responses. I was beginning to think I was the only one with this issue. Mine had it's first service last week and I too didn't raise the issue with the dealers as it's not easily replicated on a test drive. Now I know I'm not alone I will get the the dealers to check it out. Should be sometime soon as they failed to do a OS software even though they said they had so I need to return......Grrrrr.

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 9:35 pm
by HouseSpider
When I had a CX-5 as a courtesy car back in April I reported on this forum about the weird steering sensation ( I could feel the power steering trying to pull to left or right of centre with a bit of slack in the control). Whether it is the same as you are experiencing or not I don't know. But I definitely don't get it on my 2017 model.
I also felt a difference in the steering when test driving a newer CX-3 earlier in the year. The new steering didn't feel as responsive or as direct.

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:16 pm
by Strangways
HouseSpider wrote: Tue Dec 10, 2019 9:35 pm When I had a CX-5 as a courtesy car back in April I reported on this forum about the weird steering sensation ( I could feel the power steering trying to pull to left or right of centre with a bit of slack in the control). Whether it is the same as you are experiencing or not I don't know. But I definitely don't get it on my 2017 model.
I also felt a difference in the steering when test driving a newer CX-3 earlier in the year. The new steering didn't feel as responsive or as direct.
The steering on my new CX-3 is very different than my previous (66) model. The G-Vectoring has been added together with completely new suspension. It took a while to get used to it, but I find it much better. On the earlier model I was forever correcting the steering, the new set up is a lot less stressful.

Re: Steering notch?

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 6:03 pm
by switchback
Mine went in this week to have this looked at and they couldn't find anything wrong. When I was collecting the car I spoke to another technician who wants it back in to take a test drive. He seemed a bit more informed on how the steering works and thinks it could possibly be a steering position sensor issue. Apparently the sensor consists of 2 discs each with a hole close to the edge through which a light shines. As you turn the wheel the holes close up (like an eclipse) and start to block the light from shining through. This then activates the electric power steering pump. He seems to think there is a delay in this function operating.

Has anyone else reported this issue? If not, please do as it goes on the Mazda database and if there are enough reports then it will be looked at by Mazda to see if there is a common fault.