Power Steering Yeah or Nay

[87turbo_turtle]

I personally dont like Power Steering. But what do you guys think?? I prefer taking curves as fast as I can with no over or understeer.

[Whizbang]

well seeing the rx7 power steering is designed to turn off after "low" speeds, i dont think it really matters. Its a little nicer for just driving around, but compared to a manual rack turbo II i had, the "at speed" performance seems the same. I would just stick with what ever has the better lock to lock ratio rack wise.

[87turbo_turtle]

yeah true... The powersteering is still on my 7

[WE3RX7]

Total choice really and what kind of driving you prefer.

Personally, I ditched it. My SE has the 15.4:1 PS rack that I depowered the cheap way years ago, and it was still tolerable to drive around parking areas but not great. I'm getting the S5 17:1 rack next, still depowering it though.

Power steering acts like a buffer wether its "engaged" at a certain speed or not - I can't tell what the tires are doing w/ PS, or at least not as well. That plus the saved weight and less parasitic draw makes it a win in my book.

It would be even better to swap in a manual rack with the 20:1, but i dont have access to one nor do some of the aftermarket parts (IE: angle spacers) fit on the manual racks.

Just food for thought.

[josh18_2k]

it kinda depends on what you're doing with the car, and how much tire you have.
i autocross, and have 255 A032R's up front with a 20:1 manual rack.. F that! i'm getting PS over the winter for sure. in tight corners, the 20:1 rack is just too slow, and yet the steering effort is brutal.
if you're just on 205 street tires or whatever, you'll prolly prefer a manual rack. in which case i'd suggest the 17:1 depowered S5 rack (2 hole rack from low end S5's)

[WE3RX7]

Fat tires in Auto-x would suck without PS... but for the road course, fat tires and no PS does just fine

Although, I'd love to get the electric PS like an rx8. I have no trouble with the 8s power steering system.

[Phoenix7]

No PS:
It's a BITCH with wider tires.
Parallel parking is a lot harder but doable.
Anything over 5 mph and you can't tell the difference.
I feel the road more

PS:
the opposite of above.
I think it allows the driver too much room to over-correct.
If you have to paralel park a lot then keep PS.

[MaczPayne]

Funny how some people can never get their hands on a manual rack

I can't seem to find anything but manual racks.

I've driven an FC with PS only once, and it was an odd feeling. Felt like I was playing Crusin' USA on the arcade machines in 6th grade.

I agree, Parallel Parking can be tough especially with wider tires, but that forced me to become good at it, doing it with the least steering input possible, haha.

Auto-x's are pretty demanding with a manual rack, but I figured if I could strengthen my arms more, I could handle it better. It's worked pretty good so far!

[firzen]

I haven't drove a manual yet but I think for our cars given the suspension geometry and weight, it's probably a good idea.

I'm actually curious about the differences between the speed-sensing PS and the rpm-sensing PS. Has anybody ran both of them before? What are the differences in terms of driving ease/control?

[RETed]

Power steering has nothing to do with understeer or oversteer.

I'd rather not have PS.

I can drive an FC running up to 255's up front with no PS.
Running over 255 wide up fronts is a whole nother ballgame.


-Ted

[My5ABaby]

Originally Posted by Low Impedance

well seeing the rx7 power steering is designed to turn off after "low" speeds, i dont think it really matters. Its a little nicer for just driving around, but compared to a manual rack turbo II i had, the "at speed" performance seems the same. I would just stick with what ever has the better lock to lock ratio rack wise.

As far as I know, only some 7's came with the speed sensitive power steering that turns off (or lessens or something) at higher speeds.

[Whizbang]

i believe its actually more a S4 vs. S5 thing since most of the S4s i have noticed it to be a speed relation where as S5s tend to be RPM. I prefer the speed sensing one. Currently, i like my P/S. I really have no reason to remove it. Now my FB has no P/S and i like it. The GSLSE power steering sucks.

[classicauto]

I've been debating it, and reached the following conclsions having driven the following setups:

S4 TII power steering (speed sensitive)
S5 N/A power steering (don't know what it was sensitive too, was my first RX)
Depowered power S5 TII
True manual rack S4 N/A with 225 series tires.

If you want manual, go to a TRUE manual rack. The depowered unit has just a little too much effort for my liking, and the unit in question was a *true* depowered version, had the little "piston" removed from the center, the whole ball of wax.

I found a manual rack on here and it'll be going into my FC over the winter....along with too much other shit that I don't have time for

[WE3RX7]

I know where I can get a manual rack somewhat locally, but the probablem is I also have a new steering angle kit that supposedly won't work with it. I am curious as to what the difference really is and if I could make them work somehow.

[yeti]

Was the rack depowered like Titanium's? I thought about depowering mine like that.. So I bought a spare.. Now I'm thinking about just fixing my current power rack.. The boot is busted and so I have been just driving it depowered with very very little fluid left. It's easy it's just sometimes it's a pain and makes driving the car less fun.