I just talked to an excellent mechanic (my brother) and he said that removing the power steering in my car will ruin the steering rack. Without power assist the rack and pinion see a lot more load and they will wear out quickly. Does anyone have a lot of miles on a car with the power steering pump removed? Is there a manual rack that fits this car? I have never seen a 7 without power steering. Please advise....

 

Yes, there are manual racks, and yes you should get one...I have a non p/s TII

 

yes, you'll need to get a manual rack if you want to remove the P/S. I think non P/S only came on S4 cars, but I'm not sure.

if you want a manual rack, I have an extra I can sell you. shipping might be a bitch though. let me know if interested.

 

theres no point in leaving the power steering unite in if your not using it. it weighs so much

 

You can run the PS rack w/o the pump just fine. The parts are just as strong, it just has a different (and better) ratio.

 

won't it be super hard to turn at low speeds though?

 

yes it will be hard to turn at low speeds but at a high speeds it stiffens the steering up, but it's really the same as a manual rack so i would try to find a manual rack.

 

If you can lift a 10# dumbell you can turn the ps rack w/o the pump lol. I can turn my wheel lock to lock with the car sitting completely still with one hand. I dont find it hard The ps rack is about 2.7 lock to lock, I think the manual is 3.7 l to l. The ps rack has a faster ratio.

 

So, its easy to see then, the manual rack is more precise.

 

What steering ratio do they use in F1 and CART?

 

Pi to 1.

 

Pi?

 

Something makes me think no on that one...

3.14 turns to lock on an F1 car?

 

I dont think so either. When they show the in car view of them you dont see them turning the wheel over and over to take a corner.

 

I just took my pump out and plugged all 3 hoses and my car is pretty easy to turn. My friend did the same thing in his GXL and his is noticeablely harder to turn Maybe it has something to do w/the amount of fluid in the rack.

 

Yes. If you take the bolts out and turn the wheel lock to lock a few times it gets a lot of fluid out. Air compresses easier than fluid.

 

if you switch to the manual rack,
make sure you get the brackets since the passenger side one is different.

and get an alignment after that.

Hugues -

 

I just got done taking mine out this week and it not as hard to turn as people make it out to be. I like it better w/o the PS. Oh by the way I'm insane.

 

Can you have a man rack with the ps ratios??

 

F1 steering ratios are less than 1 turn lock to lock. This is so the drivers can leave both hands on the wheel at all times. But you also need to know that F1 cars do not have to turn as tight as a street car, so "full lock" is going to be much different... discarding all the other rediculous "similarities" between a street car and an F1 car.

 

I guess you guys didnt find that one as funny as I did.

 

I like Pi

 

no you have to loop the power steering lines. cut all the lines off and loop the two bigger ones nadn cap the smaller one and keep fulid in it, there is a big improvement in it over the ps, i did it to my 10th ann.

 

Or you could remove all lines and fluid. The only reason why you loop them is so the fluid can move around. Like I said its hard to compress fluid, air is not.

 

NO.....you dont.........looping the lines will work just as putting bolts in will.....im running my p/s rack with the lines bolted...its fine...not to hard to turn...i like it much better than the sloppy p/s.