Hi, I have an S4 with the vehicle speed power steering, and its great! It works really nicely when you get really lazy and such, and makes the steering feel much, much lighter than any other car I've driven. But, when driving gets serious, it kind of feels like the steering response you get from the car is really numb. Like, you can't get any feedback from the steering response or anything. I guess what my question really is, how is the power steering compared to no power steering? Do you get significantly more feel without the power steering? And is it worth sacrificing the light steering feel that the PS provides for the road feel? Thanks.

 

what are you using the car for?

if it is a street car i would suggest keeping the ps

i dont have ps and mine is a street car and i absolutely hate the fact i dont have ps. in fact when i go to the gym i make sure i dont park in a tight space due to the fact that my arms will be tired and it will be a bitch to get out of a tight parking spot.

but on the other hand i do feel everything in the road. but then again most of my driving is regular street use.... only if there was a switch where i could turn the ps on and off

 

i have a manual rack, i was a bit aprehensive when buying the car, since im a pretty thin guy. Drove the 330 miles back home with 0 problems it took a bit of time for me to really get used to it but i would trade the feedback i get for anything. (other than more angle)

 

Plus people should know, I rebuild FC power steering computers all the time, and that I get power steering computers from wreckers all the time for rebuilding, and 85% of them have problems straight off the car.

It is very rare to find a power steering computer that is working the way it should on wrecked FC's, so I must conclude many people don't even know that their power streering system is working or not working correctly.

The most common failure is for one of the stepping motor outputs to not be working, so that the power steering kicks off at the wrong time, or that the power steering computer goes into default mode, and is always boosting 40% regardless of speed.

 

the p/s should deactivate completely after a certain speed right?

 

I *think* mine is working correctly - My power steering helps out a lot at low speeds, i.e. I can fling my steering wheel over to one side at 10>mph or so and it'll stay there, while still turning the car. The boosting gradually tapers off as the car gathers speed, and becomes less sensitive. It makes turning a breeze! I'm not sure if I want to let it go, haha.

 

I would venture to guess that you have the problem Icemark mentioned about a constant 40% pressure.

However I will say that I have owned a couple vehicles without P/S...84 jetta, and 86 n/a with a manual rack put in and it really is not that hard to turn in a tight spot.

As long as you are not drysteering the car (which you shouldn't be anyways, with p/s or not since it is hard on the entire steering system) you won't have any trouble manhandling it with a manual rack.

But again the points are valid on what you are using the car for.....in a full on race app. a manual rack would be a mus IMHO...but on the street its all up to your capability/preferences and bicep circumference - lol

 

YES!~!!! Dude my daily driver didn't even have power steering, why not just gut it out? I mean is it really that hard without power steering?

 

yep, no boost at all by 40 MPH, and very little boost above 20 MPH

 

There should be no change in sensitivity at all. The only change should be with the amount of effort required to make a turn.