2000 VW GTI GOLF VR6 w/ 79000 miles. Steering wheel sticks slightly when turning left or right, in curves and sometimes when going straight down the highway. It takes a slight nudge on the steering wheel to recompensate. The car tracks straight. Tires checked, rotated and balanced. Front end aligned and checked twice. Tie rod ends, suspension, steering linkage, etc., checked out fine by two different shops. The car has never been involved in a front end collision or any other collision that would affect the frame.
Sometimes one can have a badly worn spot on a ball joint or tie rod end that can cause this problem and the part in question may feel perfectly tight when inspecting suspenson components. The part may develop a bad burr or ridge on it and the sticking is caused by that burr or ridge digging in.
While I realize this has been checked twice already I would point out that sometimes this problem is not detectable with everything assembled and few if any shops are going to tear things apart to physically look for this glitch because the argument could be made that if they’re going to take something apart on an 80k miles car then why not just go ahead and replace it at that time.
Sometimes it does require taking something apart and inspecting the individual item by feel.
I’m not even saying this is the problem; only that it’s a possibility to be considered.