light steering at speed scary

S

sidbrown

Member
 oakham leicester
Hi All

quick question . When travelling at speed say :wink: 90 plus or even slower sometimes, I just don't trust the steering at the front. I think its the front as it just feels really light and unsafe.

If I am taking a long corner on say the A1/M1 it feels weird. I find myself gripping the steering wheel and not relaxed at all. :?

Any suggestions welcome. lowered on H and R s new 19'' csl reps tyres have been on a couple of months oh and 12mm spacers on the front.

cheers
 
I've been quite some way over that... ( at track)

and i can say I've felt this at all.

my car is lowered, track biased top end coilover system, semi slick tyres on light weight wheels. It could be the mods thats masked this characteristic however but i definitely don't experience the same.
 
Have you had the tracking checked recently?
If not have it reviewed. The front end is very sensitive to geometry changes and has a big impact on the Z's steering if it's out :wink:
 
Hi Guys I had the tracking checked on hunter laser equipment so not sure now. :roll: could it be RTAB?
 
Mine feels very stable at those speeds, and above. I assume you had a full alignment done after you lowered it, changed the wheels and put spacers on ?

Also, tyres can take 300 miles to scrub in, but I suppose you've done more than that.
 
thanks again but tried all the above. loads of people have spacers on without issues .hmmm just what I need all this hassle. the car was nearly finished. Had planned to go to the nurburgring in summer. looks like im going to have to throw more money at it to sort this. :(
 
Have the rear bushes in the front wishbones checked...

If you have had good 4 wheel alignment,i cant think of much else that would cause your fault....
 
Sounds good will get that checked again. Kwik fit had a look at them by grabbing the wheel and shacking it. He said they seemed fine but wasn't sure about this testing method. :? Thanks
 
Good chance this could be rear trailing arm movement. It's been well recorded that, even with new rubber bushes there is quite a lot of movement still, which can alter rear camber etc as the car is being driven. I have even read a comprehensive report that shows that it can result in something similar to rear wheel steering which causes a scary loose feeling front end requiring constant tiny opposite steering wheel input, exactly as you describe. One major cause is that the OEM rubber type bushes, when the cage is bolted on, do not locate against the inner cage walls at either end allowing a lot of movement The solution is to fit shim limiters (rogue engineering or Turner motorsport) that take up all of this end play, the difference is quite dramatic. This still allows the on road comfort of rubber bushes. The alternative is to fit powerflex or similar poly bushes which are designed to have similar limiting. Many users say that they notice very little in the way of harder ride or constant squeaking with poly bushes whilst others disagree and go back to using Meyle or similar OEM type rubber.
 
ha ha no Kwik fit didn't do the alignment! Just rebalanced my front wheels. They actually ballsed that up up and had to go back! :roll: Midhurstman thanks for your post also very informative. Will get this check out! :thumbsup: Thanks all I will feedback once sorted.
 
Certainly something a miss. You didn't happen to have concrete slabs in the boot did you?
I've seen 150mph in foreign lands (late for a ferry, closed road, toll road drag racing, forgot the speed limit, may not have even happened blah blah blah) and the car felt absolutely fine, and that was with a broken rear spring (didn't know at the time). Great advice above, start with a proper geo check and the rear trailing arms.
 
+1 on the advice above and maybe google 'bump/camber steer and roll steer". There are always effects on steering geometry when ANY changes are made and increases in rotational mass and lever forces caused by lowering, larger wheels/tyres or track width. Unfortunately the maths is beyond me :erm:

Not on an ///M but when I introduced a bit of high speed 'wander'' switching to 18" wheels I had a new 4W alignment done and followed forum advice to play with tyre pressures which cured it :thumbsup:
 
Hi,

Mine was like this when I bought it last summer. The front felt floaty and gave you no confidence at speeds or when trying to make progress on B roads.I had a full geo first and it made no difference.

I ended up replacing my RTABs, installed a limiter kit and also chnaged the front Control Arm Bushes. After a second full geo, the car is now tight, and so planted as it should be.
As others have said, I would definitely get the RTABs replaced and consider a limited kit. I went for OEM RTABs to retain comfort and a Turner Motorsport limiter kit. If you have no improvement, get the fronts changes too (you may wish to do both at the same time as these aren't expensive to fit and you will need a further geo after).

Good luck!
 
Stupid question time and not trying to hijack ....honest...

The bushes are rock solid from what I hear.....if they are still rock solid after a few years are they still worth changing? :tumbleweed:
 
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