I have grinding noises when turning, but then sometimes they go away. Do I just expect quirky things like this or do I suspect faults? I am getting this checked out next week anyway though.

are you on full lock when this happens?

I'd recommend checking asap in case it's a kingpin climbing out of a suspension arm.
If it is that, the grinding noise is the pin contacting the outer c.v. joint housing...

ken

no not full lock, about 1/2 a turn of the wheel
odd thing is how the noise then goes away, it is a different grind turning left than it is turning right!

That's just pre-election indecision.

I have a similar sounding problem.

Take the front wheels off and see if there's any rust at all on the insode of the wheel. You often get rust causing lumps and bumps on the weld on the wheel which then rub against the bottom of the king pin housing.

If you have a friendly garage get them to hoik the car up on a ramp and youll see that there is very little clearance between the wheel and the bottom of the arm/kingpin bit (this is kinda new to me too) so any rust on the inner side of the wheel can cause grinding.

There's an older thread somewhere where this was talked about more.

sams right. sounds like wheel rims catching.

louise had this problem and did a thread (link?)

Its the weld seam of the wheel ,if it rusts it lifts just enough to clout the kingpin housing usually when under load ie when going round a bend. You can just jack the car up by the suspect wheel and spin the wheel while looking at the base of the kingpin housing to see. A temporary bodge is to whack the raised bits back down with your variable pressure applicator (hammer ) but of course the proper way is to put a decent wheel on

it seems the more I drive it the grinding noise is getting less. This car was doing very little for six months before I got it.

Well if it is the weld seams of the inside of the wheel lifting youve probably ground some off with the kingpin housing then