how to make your steering wheel more responsive?
 

so im coming from an rx8 with a really tight steering wheel feel. the slightest movement with gripping the wheel has instant feedback...

now switching to the 7 the steering wheel feels a little "loose"? kinda reminds me of the european car feel where there is a little play and wobble before the car reacts to the movement of the car... is there anyway i can make the steering wheel more responsive?
-benny

better / stiffer tires and more air pressure in them.
slight alignment changes to what you prefer (toe, yo!)
check the bushings and steering shaft coupling / u-joint.
refurb the steering rack if needed.
check your ball joints and tie rods for any play.
and on and on and on...

in FCs there were several steering racks with different ratios and some offered a much faster ratio with what you are looking for, not sure if FDs all had the same rack/ratio or not though and I dont think the FC rack fits in the FD.

remove the PS pump? :D

I've driven both the 8 and the FD and you're right the steering feel on the 8 feels better. But my diagnosis is different. IMO, what's wrong with the FD is that the power steering is overboosted. In the 99+ cars Mazda put in a restrictor valve to cut down on the amount of assist. Although I've never driven one of these cars I bet it does the trick. I've always wondered why one of the aftermarket vendors didn't offer this part as a retrofit to our cars here in the USA.

+1 steering couplers
 

The two U-joint looking couplers is a good place to start. Two bolts each and they are prone to get loose or even come off. We had progressively sloppier steering until we found that while the U-joints were still there, two bolts had lost their nuts and the other two were headed that way.

Simple fix by tightening, replacing those.

Search "steering" or "sloppy steering", that's where we found out about it.

^ +1 vote for that.

While you're in there, have a good look at the rack bushings.

David

thanks!

by the way i dont have power steering for got to add that...

Any more info regarding that?

^+1

Wouldn't a smaller aftermarket steering wheel help as well? I know that has nothing to do with the power steering, and would be interesting in learning more about the restrictor pill stated above, but this also seems like it would help mend the unresponsiveness.

Manual Steering Racks tend to have a lower geared rack/pinion. They will generally be less responsive due to this, no?

An underdrive main pulley will also reduce power steering assist.

There's a great site that specifies all the changes to the 99+ cars:


http://www.rx7.net.nz/newrx7.htm



On that site is this notation:

"a check value has been added to the power steering system for improved handling."

I thought I read elsewhere that this check valve reduced the level of power assist something on the order of 15%. If I can find that info I'll post it here.

According to a Spirit R website the change is "25% less power steering force and check valve added."

Go here and click on the "technical" tab to read about all the changes made to the Spirit R model, many of which apply to the 99+ cars:


http://www.spiritrx7.com/