I had the "locking up" feeling when turning the wheel on my previous 2005MY 3.2. Felt like the assistance was on/off/on/off rapidly as I turned the wheel to extremes, especially at low speeds, in car parks for instance or when the revs were around idle. There was also a bit of a grinding noise too and it happened in both directions of the wheel. It also happened on a 2.0TDI I had as a courtesy car, although not as much.
After much debate, the dealer identified the need to replace the steering rack, which apparently is one complete unit with the power steering kit, so the idea was one fix will cure it, rather than doing things piecemeal.
Unfortunately this didn't really solve the problem but then I had the car replaced anyway so, for me anyway, the issue went away. I then had a loaner 3.2 Sportback 2005MY for 4 months and this also displayed a similar assistance problem although the grinding was not there.
My new 2006MY 3.2 Sportback has none of this problem at all though (so far - only 900 miles, but plenty of car park arm twirling already), so I guess changes have been made to the system to overcome it. The steering is lighter too compared to previous car, but I understand that changes were made to the assistance levels in conjunction with the ESP set up etc on the new models.
Rob
