I recently purchased a 2016 LR4 and drove it around 1200 miles home. I noticed the power steering was minimal and took more effort, especially when at a standstill compared to my 2014 LR4. In fact, I can turn the steering wheel at a standstill or in motion with the 2014 with 1-2 fingers. I have it at an independent shop right now with a 'Euro" trained mechanic and they just called and said they can't find anything wrong with it. I discussed again with them what I notice and how it compares to steering the 2014 LR4 and he said the two model years don't have the same type of steering components. He said the 2014 was electrically assisted whereas the 2016 is hydraulically assisted and it may be more difficult to turn especially when it's really cold out. This doesn't sound right to me. I'm on roverparts.com with a tab opened with 2014 steering parts side-by-side with the parts for a 2016 and I do not see any difference at all between part numbers. The good news is, they are not making up things to change out. They told me, ethically, they cannot find anything that needs fixing. Thoughts?

 

Update: The front desk guy at the shop called back to discuss a couple of other issues and I mentioned that I did look online to compare parts between the model years and they were identical. He paused for a bit and then said he looked up the parts himself and did notice that both the 2014 and 2016 were identical and the power steering is hydraulically assisted. He said they're going to do another test drive after balancing the tire pressures as one of the front tires was inflated to 50lbs and the other was around 31 lbs. I'm guessing this could cause some of the difficulty steering and it not wanting to auto-center itself after completing a turn. They are going to add zircs to the ball joints and the tie rod ends and grease them since they are sealed and see if that helps. If ya'll have any suggestions or ideas why it's more difficult to turn the steering wheel on my 2016 vs 2014 LR4, I'm all ears.

 

There are no mechanical or system differences that I’m aware. BUT what will affect steering feel is
1 Tires, wrong kind, size, alignment, positioning (spacers) (glad you brought up pressures)
2 quality of power steering fluid. (Old or wrong fluid won’t be helpful)
3 then of course, all the hydraulic and mechanical things.

Put the vehicle at baseline with correct tires/pressures etc before going down any rabbit hole.

The vehicle is 10 years old. Power steering fluid should be changed as per the maintenance schedule. Few seldom do.

 

Could be your lower column steering joint too, they fail on these at some point and it makes the truck drive like it has intermittent power steering. If it's original which it may be it's possible it's failed