IanMetro wrote:

The more I read the highlighted paragraph in my previous post the more I believe it is a faulty Steering Pump.

The variable displacement is controlled internally in the pump using an analogue hydraulic system without any external inputs.

From your reported symptoms it does not look like the pump is changing displacement at low RPM.

I noticed a post from Andy131 in this linked thread which said that early FL2 Steering racks suffered from heavy steering due to welding splatter.
It is towards the bottom of the page (127)

May be worth PM to him to ask for more details.

https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic20945-1875.html FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

Thanks for all the help guys, looks like I'm going down the route of a returned rack, wish me luck lol.

So I've now replaced the rack, flushed the fluid for a second time, a second reservoir in case first was contaminated and I'm happy to report it seems to have cured my steering issue. I now have a terrain response fault but my the steering is no longer heavy at idle or low speed.

It was a fiddly job and it wasn't helped with the lashing down rain all day but got it done