Thread: steering issues

So I just recently finished up my first race weekend and during the enduro race I had a major steering issue that has me stumped and wondering if any of you have had something similar or have any ideas. Basicly during a hard left the steering just went out and I had to make a serious adjustment to stay on track, then the steering wheel was turned almost 90° to keep going straight. Than again it happened on a hard right and had a similar effect and nearly straightened the wheel back out. I finished the race but had to slow considerably because the car did not want to turn. After the last lap I was jearking the wheel back and forth (like I was warming tires) to see if anything felt loose, and each time I did the wheel stuck in the direction I turned.

All of the tie rod ends were tight and did not move, but the coming back into the garage the driver wheel was straight and the pass side was towed out considerably. Could it be internal in the rack or something else?

Please help trying to get it fixed in a couple of weeks for a race in october

Sounds very similar to the problem we had with our G20 race car. The power steering fluid was getting over heated which caused very erratic and over boosted power assist, was very difficult to keep the car going straight. We added a power steering cooler and changed out the fluid for synthetic and have never had the problem again.

But your problem seems to mechanical if the one wheel has excessive toe out.

The fluid was coming out of the reservoir at first and thought it was a fluid issue the all the other stuff happened. I got the car in the air finally and the pass side inner tie rod end is very wet. Could it just be the inner tie rod or would that be a rack issue

Yep, sounds like the classic P/S overheating situation. It overheats, boils and cavitates in the pump.

Three things to do:
1. Replace the P/S fluid reservoir with the one from a B14. It's a drop in replacement but significantly larger volume.
2. Replace the P/S fluid (ATF in this case) with synthetic with a broader temperature range.
3. Add a cooler. A small transmission cooler will work on the cheap.

I had horrible problems with the steering in my old RallyX B13 until I did all three. With my stage rally car, the steering gets thrashed a lot less and just 1 & 2 do the trick.

Not sure if IT rules allow for replacing the reservoir and could you take a pic of how the cooler is added in

And would that overheating explain the steering wheel sticking in the direction of a hard turn

It's not. Do it anyway. No one will notice or care. Adding a cooler is easy as well.



No, that's something mechanical. Two things to check: steering rack bushings, make sure the rack isn't sliding in it's mounts. And also the lower strut mounting bolts. I had one slip under load and lost all my camber on that corner.

I think it was a strut bolt and what is a good synthetic fluid to use?