Took my mates FD for a spin tonight and to turn his car around corners etc was effortless and smooth. My car in comparison feels very very heavy. Again I always assumed thats how the FD handles so I was in for a real shock after I got out and drove my car again.

What are some things I need to check? I changed the Power Steering Fluid to Redline recently thinking that would make things smoother but so far nothing.
Does it have anything to do with the steering column?

 

Have you had the alignment checked? Poor alignment can make the steering feel heavy.

 

I've had a wheel alignment about a month ago and the car drives dead straight. If I can make an analogy about how smooth my mates car is....its like having the two front tires off the ground and turning the steering wheel...its smooth like butter.

Mine on the other hand is probably twice as hard to turn. I'm running 18's if that makes a difference and the front is quite low.

Mates RS has standard Bilsteins at standard heights on 17's.

Would raising the height make any difference?

 

1. Tire type, compound, tread depth and pressure make a HUGE difference in steering effort. However, since yours are 18's and his are 17's, if anything, the 18's, everything else equal, should have less effort. Wider tires MAY have more steering effort. If your compound is softer, that usually requires more effort to turn. Worn, shaved, or "race tread" tires are higher in steering effort than tires with full depth tread and a normal tread pattern. The lower the tire pressure, the greater the steering effort will be.

2. More positive caster (kingpin angle tilted to the rear) = greater steering effort. When your car was lowered, did the caster values change?

3. Raising the height, in itself, should make little or no difference. If it reduced the amount of caster, or made something quit binding, then it could.

4. Wheels with less offset (tires further outboard from the spindle) will raise steering effort.

 

+1 for alignment and Caster. I recently went from 7 degrees caster to 6 (camber and toe stayed the same) and that made a huge difference in waking up the steering. Felt lighter and quicker.

Of course tires have an effect also.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm looking at my wheel alignment results here now.

Partial Toe: Left = 1.5mm Right = 1.5mm
Toe: 3.1mm
Camber: Left = -0 degrees 50 secs . Right = -0 degrees 52 secs
Camber Diff: = +0 degrees 2 secs
Caster: Left = +8 degrees 31 secs. Right = +7 degrees 43 secs
Caster Diff: +0 degrees 48 secs
King pin: Left = +15 degrees 37 secs. Right = +14 degrees 6 secs
King pin Diff = +1 degrees 31 secs

Sorry about the format of this. Any recommendations?

Also does adjusting the dampers on your coilovers affect how harder it is to turn. I just remembered now that I turned down my dampening a week ago to compensate for ride comfort and probably in the process made the steering abit heavier.

 

Results for the Rear.

Partial Toe: Left = 0.7mm Right = 0.8mm
Toe: 1.5
Camber: Left = -1 degrees 3 secs. Right = -1 degrees 16 secs
Camber Diff: + 0 degrees 13 secs
Thrust Angle: + 0 degrees 0 secs

 

1. The caster does seem about 2-deg higher than you want.
2. Softening the dampers can, in some cases, increase roll angle and grip, and in the process, make the steering a bit heavier. This, however, should not be particularly noticeable in normal street driving.
3. Rear alignment settings should not make much difference in steering effort.

Dave

 

Ok so how does this work....Should I just go back to the wheel alignment shop and tell them to turn down my caster 2 degrees?

 

Yes - tell them to get it closer to 5 or 6 degrees, if they can keep it equal on both sides, and not screw up anything else. You can compensate for the slight loss of camber gain with more static camber if you need it for autocross, track use, etc.

On my race car (in the avatar) I only run ~1 degree of caster to keep the steering effort at a reasonable level. With just a degree or so more, the steering was so heavy that my steering column was winding up like a torsion bar, making steering anything but linear. Of course, this is with soft-compound race bias tires, no power steering, a very fast steering ratio, and a much different suspension geometry, so it doesn't relate to the FD directly. However, the effect on steering effort would be similar.

Dave

 

I agree. 8 is very high. Although I'm not sure what the King Pin numbers refer to...


I would set front caster at no higher than 6 or 6.1 degrees and try keeping it with 2-3 tenths on each side (assuming tenths is the correct word there...) if not exact. Changing caster will probably have an affect on camber and toe.

You can also get more aggressive on front camber. I'd set it at -1 degree (negative) left and right. It looks like yours might be set to 1/2 degree negative if I am interpreting the numbers correctly.

Given my interpretation of the relatively conservative camber numbers, I may even suggest setting rear camber to negative 0.8 degrees or so. Just a bit less than front negative camber. I found that having more negative camber on the rear than in the front slightly increased understeer.

My settings are close to Pettit's specs which are either in the FAQ or the Suspension forum archives.

 

i thought more negative camber in the rear increased oversteer

 

Nope. The optimum camber for grip on a radial tire can be up to -4 deg. It's almost always more than -1 deg. But no one runs anywhere near -4 on the street because the tires would wear out too fast on the inside edge. So, within reason, more neg camber gives more grip, and, on the rear, less oversteer or more understeer.

 

aww i want more oversteer lol

 

You guys are legends thanks you again. I'll try it and let you know how it goes.