PhillStorm

The lower arm ball joints, There's a sticky on here somewhere about how much they can affect the handling on corrados

Update: I needed new tyres anyway and when I had the wheels off to change the tyres and with no weight on either wheel it was easy to see the play I could feel was the lower ball joints. It's definitely worth checking because I had a very similar problem to you and they are cheap. I paid £18 per side for lemforder. It was actually only one side that needed doing/causing the steering problem but I changed both. Just as a note about PAS pumps. Mine sprung a leak after being damaged by a speed bump and I ran it dry for a couple of months (easy install but expensive part). Just before I bought a new one I patched it up with some quick steel. It ran like new until the quick steel failed. There's a lot of talk about damaging PAS pumps with the wrong fluid or with low levels but I didn't see any of that after driving daily without any fluid for a good while. The reason I mention it is because at no point did it affect the steering. Sure the steering was heavier but there was no sensation of drift or un-steer. The reason I suspected a bad rack for this steering issues is because I ran it without fluid for so long, however after diagnosing the ball joints, the rack seems completely unaffected. Good luck anyway.

Hi Dave, I was just wondering what your steering problem turned out to be, I have the same symptom combined with a knocking/grinding noise. There is side to side play in the wheel and I'm sure I can feel movement at the rack end of the track rod bush , beyond the inner rod joint. I know this seems unlikely but I'm thinking new rack? Also, I've checked the bolts that hold the rack onto the subframe too, they seem plenty tight enough.