Removing friction from steering system

[jonnyvtec]

CRX is designed and geared for non assisted rack unlike the insight, the double wishbone helps reduce effort aswell as its pivots on two balljoints rather than than having to rotated the top mount bearing that's holding the corner mass of the car.


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[olrowdy01]

Originally Posted by samwichse

I thought that caster is the primary driver, but no toe-in and especially toe-out reduces self centering.

Toe out could tend to make a car feel twitchy (in straight line driving) but it's chief use in FWD cars is to reduce tire wear and in racing to increase turn in when cornering. I never heard any reference of it directly to self centering.

Here are two a good references of what the various alignment settings do.

Caster, Camber, Toe

Tire Tech Information - Alignment

[pascal28]

I removed the EPS motor a week ago along with pulling out the green connector on the EPS control box. To keep dirt out of the EPS housing a 3mm sheet of CFRP was cut to shape and screwed on (a small bead of silicone sealant was used around the edge).

Pros:
1) 1.8 kg weight saving
2) Small electric load decrease
3) Nicer (less floaty) steering feel at speeds
4) No EPS warning light (due to pulling the connector)

Cons:
1) Significant increase in difficulty turning at very low speeds (even with high tire pressure) - makes parking more of an effort. (Advice: Trying pulling the 40amp EPS fuse to see it you are ok with the load increase before doing this mod).

[retepsnikrep]

That's quite radical and keen Thanks for the pics.

[olrowdy01]

Originally Posted by pascal28

Cons:
1) Significant increase in difficulty turning at very low speeds (even with high tire pressure) - makes parking more of an effort.

My car felt like I was trying to park a loaded truck w/o the fuse! Way too heavy a feeling even with 45 psi in the tires. How Honda managed to make a 1805# car feel so heavy is a feat in itself.

The previous owner put 175/65R14 tires on the car so that might contribute to the heavy feeling too. But I've got 205s on my Lotus replica and it steers much easier.

[MN Driver]

I don't think the steering feels heavy at all. In fact with parking I stopped noticing the extra steering effort when parking when I pulled my EPS fuse. I really don't think that power steering is needed with this car, it's there because it is expected and I'm sure someone who is particularly weak, has the wrong tires, low pressure, or has an RSI injury like carpel tunnel would want to keep it. In general I've kept mine but 1.8kg is 4 pounds and that's something to remove, especially when I am converting one of mine to electric when I want as many parasitic loads and weight removed from the car and could probably find a use for that space too. I might just do this.

[tadpole]

I'm currently trying to figure out where the stiffness in the steering is coming from on one of my gen I Insights-the one I use in winter and is exposed to road salt. Today I did just a preliminary test jacking up the front wheels and moving them left and right by hand, with the steering wheel, then repeating the test with the engine and PS running. Just a little easier with the PS running. I'm guessing that I will really need to uncouple each wheel from the steering rack to find the source of the trouble-tie rod end, upper or lower strut pivots, or the rack itself. Any suggestions?

[olrowdy01]

Originally Posted by tadpole

I'm currently trying to figure out where the stiffness in the steering is coming from on one of my gen I Insights-the one I use in winter and is exposed to road salt. Today I did just a preliminary test jacking up the front wheels and moving them left and right by hand, with the steering wheel, then repeating the test with the engine and PS running. Just a little easier with the PS running.

The EPS torque sensor shouldn't normally see much steering resistance with the wheels in the air and wouldn't try to help in that case. And if you didn't feel much steering effort change with the motor running then I would also guess that you really don't have much steering resistance from tight parts.

I'm guessing that I will really need to uncouple each wheel from the steering rack to find the source of the trouble-tie rod end, upper or lower strut pivots, or the rack itself. Any suggestions?

Before you go to the trouble of disconnecting things read my post #32 in this thread.

Review of that post:
I pulled the EPS fuse and drove the car to get used to how it feels without the EPS working. I especially tried to get a feel for what it felt like when making small steering corrections while traveling straight down the road at 45-50 mph (when I notice the most "stickiness" with the EPS working).

When I stopped and plugged the fuse back in and tried the same small corrections I felt the steering effort before the EPS starts assisting was the same as with the fuse removed for that small steering wheel movement. It's only not assisting a few degrees of steering wheel movement with the EPS available and it is a very noticeable heavy feeling. Hence the "sticky" feeling. Once you start thinking about it the affect can be very annoying.

With my CRX (a very light steering effort car) you make corrections without really thinking about it. With the Insight you have to make a definite movement to get small corrections. And I notice that I am zig-zagging down the road.