Paseo Steering....i Aint Feelin It !

[riko666]

i dunno if all paseo owners feel the same, but hey, i jus want to rant about how :censor: the paseo's steering is!!

first off there's no steering feel whatsoever, nada, zilch, not a sausage.....well maybe a tiiiiiny bit on full lock, but its like only a fizzle of feel, but still, it aint good! really doesnt help on wet roads.....especially roundabouts, where i understeer AND aquaplane at only 20mph (amusing yet scary)

then there's the massive freeplay in the steering, it feels like a boat i swear, there's like at least 3 cm freeplay in each direction of travel! makes the steering really vague and inaccurate, basically impossible to aim for a corner accurately.

finally there's the weird weighting, which jus seems random. it seamingly jus changes randomly, from light to not too light (it never gets heavy) then light again, at random speeds. worst thing is that it doesnt weight up at high speeds, which makes it really scary, even the road surface makes the wheel twitch at motorway speeds which isnt amusing.

i dunno, im jus tired of this, the paseo's supposed to be a sports car right? and good sports cars have good steering, so any advice on how to fix it? only idea's ive got so far are:

shortening / tightening power steering belt

removing power steering

increasing castor

reinforced / stiffened steering column

but yeh, any pointers by any of u fellow car enthusiasts ?!

[dymchurchpaseo]

..

[El_Galliano]

try it without the power steering belt if you want a quick fix, i've said this before the steering is well easy to cope with, only problem is parking, but even then its not really, just the tight ones, i also reckon the you get a bit more pick up on gear changes, with out in aux belts running just feels a tiny bit perkier.

but yea if you got money upgrade shocks and springs, and decent tyres really make a difference in the wet, i got goodyear eagles f1's up back and Pirelli p6000 upfront and never have problems, will soon be goodyear f1's all round once my two upfront are worn, and jesus i have relly tried to wear them down quick

[scutch0]

my starlet didn't come with power steering and you get great feel when cornering.

its a bit heavier with wider tires on but its not stupidly heavy!

get some decent lowering springs (i.e not PI springs),

whatca on about? i think the pi's are pretty spot on for the price. i've been in a astra with a full gmax kit an a corsa on a spax full kit an they didn't feel anywhere near as planted as mine are.

Rich.

[dymchurchpaseo]

,,

[DazH]

Don't wanna teach grandma to suck eggs and that but ;)

Have you checked the tyre pressures lately? Fair enough mines had some amount of handling upgrades but without the right pressure in the tyres it's not worth :censor:

Secondly I would never recommend driving a car with power steering without it, power racks are not built to run without hydraulic pressure from the pump, believe me I'm in the trade <_<

With the right suspension settings/tyres/pressures/decent shocks/springs the car handles as good as any I've ever driven. Most handling problems can be sorted by a little time spent

[riko666]

well i mean ive already got the handling mods planned out (front and rear strut braces, REAL coilovers, anti-roll bars, castor knuckles, camber adjustment front and rear....) but i mean the starting point of good handling is good steering, which is what i need help with, i really jus hate the steering so much!

i mean fair game, im gunna get a set of eagle f1's too, and i heard that strut braces can increase steering precision as well, but apart from that (and short of takin out the power steering.....which u sed is unadvisable [dazh]) and the stuff i sed above, im lost

p.s. yeh, checked the pressures the other day and their slightly out but im gunna refill all the tires soon

[paseoGT4]

i had mine running on 195/50/15s and it wasnt lowered and iy handled pretty well, 3cm's of play seems execssive, when did u last have the car MOT'd maybe youve got some play in a trarck rod end or in the bearing. What size tyres have u got and what pressure are u running? on 195/50/15s u should be running around 26. My paseo used to corner really well, sure the body would roll a little but it'd hold the corner at high speeds. What are u comparing the steering too?

[riko666]

well the car was last mot'd on february 2004, i got my car june 2004. and ive got the standard tyres right now so 185/60R 14 is the size, and the pressures arent all equal, the manual sez it should be 29psi, but i got like 28, 24, 26, 27....

yeh, i mean it handles alright, but the steering jus annoys me. and im probably comparing the lifeless steering to the ford focus i drove in the summer for a few weeks, which had awesome steering with great weighting and feel

[riko666]

argh, i jus read a couple of reviews on the paseo by topgear.....and they claim that the steering is accurate and communicative!!! either they been smokin' somethin or somethin' must be wrong with my steering.....hmmmmm

[paseoGT4]

my paseo steering was a lot better than my mates new focus tdci and hes running 205/40/17s, maybe ur shocks are worn, its quite common on the seo i think evry1 on here has replaced their oil rears with gas ones.

[riko666]

would the shocks affect the steering that much though ?!

well the focus i drove (and am comparing to the paseo) was a 1.8tdci, and i mean the steering on it wasnt the most feelsome but the weighting was great, as was the quickness

[geocool69]

worn shox could definatly make all the difference..could be the reason why your car has lost some of its handling prowess

toyoa shox have been known to burst as a comon problem with age!

toyota have cottoned onto this, thats why the oe rear shox cost more than the fronts as they are more prone to bursting

over time with a set of lowering springs all four of my shox burst turning my car into a death trap.

if you went through a pot hole the whole car could lurch a few feet onto the other side of the road.. and that was without the steering wheel even moving!

this is a worse case cinario that did happen to me but i could easily relate this to the current problem your experiencing with your chariot.

when i replaced all the shox with uprated ones th rear strut tops went so, it could easily be your shox or worn bushes.

the el/ep chassis is capable if abit crude..

but you share the same basic suspenison lyaout as many a french hot hatch so the potential is there.

a comapny salled STI is in the middle of developing a reasnably priced kit that should transform the paseo/sera/starlet platform..

consisting of caastor/anti lift kit with offset bushes.

a;ll bushes front and back and a rear arb. should be out at some point after cristmas.

[scutch0]

geo's right. my rear shox went on my starlet a couple of weeks after i lowered it and the handling was all over the place!! i replaced mine with gas rears, and ever since... no problems reported!!

Rich.

[riko666]

yeh i kno what u mean geo and scutch, i mean like when i push down on the front of the car, its bobs up and down once like it shud......when i push down on the rear of the car it bobs up and down like 3 times, and it also shakes laterally, which is unnerving especially considering how pushing down on the car is nuthn like driving it on the road!

well i mean come january / february-ish time i will replace my shocks with trd items, and also get some trd strut top mounts and ill hope for the best. and i hope it helps the steering too!

hey geo, whats the site of this sti thing? and isnt sti subaru's official tuning arm ? (subaru technica international)

[scutch0]

if it bobs up an down, your rear shox are screwed!!

Rich.

[riko666]

lol, i know and its damn scary! and the steering dont help at all, actually makes it worse !

[dorsetpaseo]

It sounds like your shocks are f'd then, at the rear at least. I found that enter a corner slow and it cornered nicely, but when I hack it round or even just pretty fast the car handles horribly- all over the place & dont feel very stable. I just recently put some 17s on it and it has sorted it out a treat loads more stable - when i pick up the springs i reckon it will be a bit better.

I dunno if its the ******* 14/60/185 steele's they put on as standard or the paseo suspension