Hello, my car's steering is a bit vague in the dead ahead position but is only really noticeable at speed, it was fitted with a steering rack about 13,000 mile's back and i,m wondering whats the cause ???
TT
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It is impossible to come up with a sensible answer on the info you have given us. Need to know at least the following:
# What car is it?
# Was the steering rack new, factory recon, other recon, secondhand?
# Was the problem there right from when the rack was fitted?
# At what speed does it become noticeable?
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check all the mounting bolts - not unknown for them to work loose.
Have you checked all the ball joints?
Tyre condition?
Worn bushes?
If the car has a subframe check the torque on the mounting bolts.
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If by any chance it is a Supra twin turbo we have here, my experience is that the steering can seem a little "dead", as if slightly damped; my specimen is an import and has not done 13,000 yet; and the feeling is at low speed. "Vague" it should not be, at any speed (fortunately).
Did this start immediately after the new rack was fitted, or build up?
Tomo
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No its not a toyota ,its a Maserati, the rack was a new rack and new bushes were also fitted plus balljoints in 3/2000 since then the car has travelled approx. 9-10,000 miles.
All the tyres were replaced at the begining of this year and are Pirelli,s, the suspension Springs and shocks were all replaced in 6/2000 .It becomes noticeable the faster you go at around 3500rpm or under hard acceleration which is very rapid at all speeds...i,m begining to think its suspension related though, its rear wheel drive but its similar to front wheel scrabble that F/wheel drive suffer from albeit less severe non the less it still wanders in the same way.
TT
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Lots of useful information there. Thanks, TT.
I had wondered if there was wear around the centre position of the rack as this can cause vagueness/wandering around the straight ahead position, but this shouldn't be if it was a new rack.
Since you presumably didn't notice any problem as soon as you had the rack & bushes, etc., fitted, I assume that it has come on since then. In that case I think Cyd's first point should be looked at, i.e. are the rack mountings loose?
I had a similar effect on my Triumph 2500. After completely stripping and renovating the car, including overhauling the power steering rack, it passed the MoT with flying colours. A few months on and I found the steering to be very vague, as you describe except that it was there at most speeds. The vagueness had crept up on me gradually so I hadn't noticed it until it was getting bad.
I spotted the cause when I looked under the bonnet whilst my wife worked the steering wheel (static, of course!). Instead of the road wheels moving as she pulled back and forth on the steering wheel, the rack was moving side-to-side.
I then realised that I had done up the rack mounting screws little more than finger-tight so that I could adjust the position of the mounting brackets (these have slotted holes) and had forgotten to finally torque them up. They were tight enough for the car to pass the MoT but not enough to stop them working loose over the next couple of thousand miles. The screws were on the end of their threads, close to dropping out altogether!
If that's not the trouble with your car, I suggest you let us know and we will try again. Please let us know anyway for future reference.
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Hello again, I have since found out a few things,first of all the steering rack on these cars are hard mounted, the next two are quite peculiar to these cars.
The steering mechanism has a trailing link and steering box along with a power steering rack!!, now i do recall the Mot tester saying that he had never seen that before ,but to be honest i did not pay it much attention, so it may be possible to adjust this, also because of this design ,which incidently is designed to keep the tyre's in full contact with the road at all time's, there are 6 ball joints which apparently are not noted for there durability and can wear out in 20,000 mile's. So there is alot for me to check,i,m waiting to hear from a Maserati garage if it is possible to adjust the steering ..but i suspect these balljoints as i can only find 1 receipt from the PO verifying 1 set of track rod ends . Dizzy, the "new" P/Steering Rack was fitted when the PO owned the car and i did not notice this steering problem when i bought the car, but i did not really start to explore the car's performance until i became more used to it as it is a driver's car and require's full concentration if you really open it up ie: will wheel spin at 80mph if you floor it , also it will reach 100 in 11sec's & go onto 165mph, so great care is needed. I did not realise this when i bought the car and i used to get vibration's when i used to change into 5 gear @55mph,i phoned a Maserati dealer and explained the symptoms and he told me that i should go to 60mph before i attempted to get into 5 gear as it is geared to go to 170mph and 55mph is low a speed for top gear!!
Regards
TT
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