fixed sloppy 4th Gen steering
12-23-2004, 06:56 PM
#1
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fixed sloppy 4th Gen steering
Hi Guys,
I tightened my steering on my 96 I30. It's like driving a different car!!
We used a new steering rack with the solenoid that changes the line pressure. Of course my car never had variable assist power steering! The solenoid has a pigtail that connects to the harness of a car that came with this option and of course I have no factory hookup.. So I called Jim Wolf and he told me to buy an Axiomatic Technologies speed control valve driver (part # CC-SMB-01) This is a Canadian co. (905) 602-9270. $198.47 shipped.
The controller has an on-off switch and a dial that goes from 1-10. The lower the # the tighter the steering and vice versa.
I highly recommend this mod if you hate your steering!
Expect to pay about $1000.00 for rack
500.00 for labor
200 for controller
$1700-$2000.00 total
What a feeling to have a tight steering feel!!
I tightened my steering on my 96 I30. It's like driving a different car!!
We used a new steering rack with the solenoid that changes the line pressure. Of course my car never had variable assist power steering! The solenoid has a pigtail that connects to the harness of a car that came with this option and of course I have no factory hookup.. So I called Jim Wolf and he told me to buy an Axiomatic Technologies speed control valve driver (part # CC-SMB-01) This is a Canadian co. (905) 602-9270. $198.47 shipped.
The controller has an on-off switch and a dial that goes from 1-10. The lower the # the tighter the steering and vice versa.
I highly recommend this mod if you hate your steering!
Expect to pay about $1000.00 for rack
500.00 for labor
200 for controller
$1700-$2000.00 total
What a feeling to have a tight steering feel!!
I think i'd rather buy a different car or put the money towards boost.
12-23-2004, 07:21 PM
#4
wow !!! i have been waiting for someone to get this done, finally !!! please provide more details, did you buy brand new steering rack from dealer , from what year ( i'm assuming 99 and up) and bit more info on that solenoid would be great. Did the install was PITA?
Thanks in advance
Nick.
Thanks in advance
Nick.
12-23-2004, 07:34 PM
#7
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wow !!! i have been waiting for someone to get this done, finally !!! please provide more details, did you buy brand new steering rack from dealer , from what year ( i'm assuming 99 and up) and bit more info on that solenoid would be great. Did the install was PITA?
I bought the steering rack from Joe at Infiniti of Scottsdale. 1-888-4687070. Just mention my name Ron Berke and he'll know the rack! The solenoid is just a device that controls the fluid pressure in the steering rack. The controller is a no brainer connection. Just connect the 2 output wires to the 2 wires on the rack's solenoid!
The only PITA was changing racks. I looked and said no way, I'll let a front end shop do it.
I bought the steering rack from Joe at Infiniti of Scottsdale. 1-888-4687070. Just mention my name Ron Berke and he'll know the rack! The solenoid is just a device that controls the fluid pressure in the steering rack. The controller is a no brainer connection. Just connect the 2 output wires to the 2 wires on the rack's solenoid!
The only PITA was changing racks. I looked and said no way, I'll let a front end shop do it.
12-23-2004, 07:37 PM
#8
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damn i hate my steering but i couldn't imagine paying 2k to fix it I think i'd rather buy a different car or put the money towards boost
With all due respect, some of us have fully modded cars and I would have to spend a fortune to get a new car and be satisfied!! I've had my car for 8 1/2 years and I'll drive it another 8 1/2 years
With all due respect, some of us have fully modded cars and I would have to spend a fortune to get a new car and be satisfied!! I've had my car for 8 1/2 years and I'll drive it another 8 1/2 years
12-23-2004, 07:56 PM
#9
hmm. my steering on my 97 feels very tight and good as it is. compared to most other cars ive driven, mine seems very solid. especially people who drive my car notice how firm my steering is and they like it. did nissan have a different rack on the 97+ ?
12-23-2004, 08:00 PM
#10
njmaxseltd posted a similar thing in an old thread (which I happened to be reading the other day) about steering feel. Then someone else posted and said that 97-99 SEs share the same steering system, whereas all 95-96s and 97-99 GXEs & GLEs had the looser steering system.
Who is right?
I dunno, but I love the steering response on my 99.
I guess I should drive a friend's 97 SE and see if it feels the same or not.
Who is right?
I dunno, but I love the steering response on my 99.
I guess I should drive a friend's 97 SE and see if it feels the same or not.
12-23-2004, 08:10 PM
#11
I30krab - thanks - but from what year of maxima did you get the steering rack ?
I have a 97 Se and i wonder if rack from 99 se will bolt right on.
I could swear that my " steering assist " worked when i bought the car with 80k on it ,
now at 142K i just don't feel it anymore - it seems that my steering has a mind of his own- one day its nice and firm and next day it makes me want to push the car into lake Michigan
steering swap along with new driver side control arm and brand new axles is in plans for next year.
Can you guys believe that my cv boots are factory and at 142K there isn't single rip or tear in them ?
Nick.
I have a 97 Se and i wonder if rack from 99 se will bolt right on.
I could swear that my " steering assist " worked when i bought the car with 80k on it ,
now at 142K i just don't feel it anymore - it seems that my steering has a mind of his own- one day its nice and firm and next day it makes me want to push the car into lake Michigan
steering swap along with new driver side control arm and brand new axles is in plans for next year.
Can you guys believe that my cv boots are factory and at 142K there isn't single rip or tear in them ?
Nick.
12-23-2004, 09:58 PM
#13
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I30krab - thanks - but from what year of maxima did you get the steering rack ?
I have a 97 Se and i wonder if rack from 99 se will bolt right on.
The rack is an Inf. 49001-42U00 gear and linkage power steering for a car with engine speed sensitive power steering. I think this fits 4th gen infinitis made between 03/95 to 06/97.
I have a 97 Se and i wonder if rack from 99 se will bolt right on.
The rack is an Inf. 49001-42U00 gear and linkage power steering for a car with engine speed sensitive power steering. I think this fits 4th gen infinitis made between 03/95 to 06/97.
12-24-2004, 08:32 AM
#15
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Krismax is planning on swapping to an electric PS pump with the same kind of adjustable ****. It should be alot less than $2k. We'll have to see how that goes
Don't forget, I bought this rack new! If one wanted to get a used or rebuilt rack and do their own labor, the cost could drop to less than $500.00 including the axiomatic controller!
Don't forget, I bought this rack new! If one wanted to get a used or rebuilt rack and do their own labor, the cost could drop to less than $500.00 including the axiomatic controller!
01-05-2005, 09:36 PM
#16
i30krab what yr/model did that rack come from PLEASE tell me so i can get the same one!!!!
also for anyoen interested in electric-hydralic power steering pump here:
http://www.cameronsoftware.com/ev/EV...g_Install.html
http://www.bba-reman.com/powersteering.htm
all i have to figure out how to attach a optical sensor, build a micro controler and attach a PWM controller(whatever the **** that is) and then its a piece of cake
hopefully krismax will follow through with the project so i can follow as well
also for anyoen interested in electric-hydralic power steering pump here:
http://www.cameronsoftware.com/ev/EV...g_Install.html
http://www.bba-reman.com/powersteering.htm
all i have to figure out how to attach a optical sensor, build a micro controler and attach a PWM controller(whatever the **** that is) and then its a piece of cake
hopefully krismax will follow through with the project so i can follow as well
01-05-2005, 11:26 PM
#17
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Originally Posted by njmaxseltd
Just upgrade to a 99 SE!
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
Except for the your emmisions
01-06-2005, 05:21 AM
#19
Originally Posted by matty
Except for the your emmisions
01-06-2005, 09:25 AM
#20
Originally Posted by njmaxseltd
Just upgrade to a 99 SE!
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
Atleast there is one good thing about owning a 99 and yes the steering is great. My 1999 is a cailspec is basically where you live. I live in the Mass and we have strict emissiosn so we get cleaner cars.
01-06-2005, 05:30 PM
#23
Originally Posted by michaelnyden
so can the 99 rack and pinion bolt up to other 4th gens maximas? did they only change the ratio to make it feel tighter?
well the SE vs GLE/GXE did not change in any other parts, uses same part # for control arms, sway bars, knuckles, etc so i dont see y the length of the rack would be different. and its not jsut the 99 all 97-99 SE have the same part # for the steering rack
01-08-2005, 01:44 PM
#24
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I haven't really looked at this system in my 98 Max SE, but I remember in my 98 Sentra SE I knew I had variable effort steering because there was a sensor with a plug that sat up near the passenger side strut tower. Would it be as simple to check to see if you have this on your car to determine if you have the variable effort system in your car?
If I find that I do, I would like to tighten it up further. Does anyone suppose there could be a way to add in a resistor or some circuit to increase the steering effort a bit? I'll have to whip out a wiring diagram and take a peek at this...
If I find that I do, I would like to tighten it up further. Does anyone suppose there could be a way to add in a resistor or some circuit to increase the steering effort a bit? I'll have to whip out a wiring diagram and take a peek at this...
01-08-2005, 11:30 PM
#28
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driving update on new steering
I've had a few interesting problems before I could make a final evaluation!
First let me make this perfectly clear, this steering set-up makes it feel like driving a different car. On the freeway at speed, I set the black box to the tightest steering and the car tracks fantastic compared to the original slop steering. At city driving speeds I set the controls at the middle 5 setting and this seems to give just the right feel. Another side note, at 50 MPH and at the tightest setting, the torque steer is much less.
For all the people asking questions about this post, please read it carefully and all questions will be answered.
Now for the problems:
The original hi pressure line on the oem steering rack coming from the power steering pressure sensor located on far right upper fire wall on passenger side does not go with the new rack. A few days after install, the o ring gave out where the line screws into the rack and I lost all my PS fluid! This was easily fixed with the proper line that uses a banjo fitting, much more reliable
2 days later, again I lost all my PS fluid. This time we discovered the mechanic doing the install forgot to torque down the 3 allen nuts holding the pressure solinoid to the rack. Since the fluid has to pass thru here, voila all fluid on ground. The poor guy had to remove the entire rack to tighten these bolts because 2 of the 3 were lying against the firewall. He promised he would never make that mistake again! 5 minutes to check unmounted rack bolts, 5 hours to tighten the ones you didn;t check after rack is installed.
Everthing is fixed and tightened and I haven't lost any fluid and I'm very happy, for now.
First let me make this perfectly clear, this steering set-up makes it feel like driving a different car. On the freeway at speed, I set the black box to the tightest steering and the car tracks fantastic compared to the original slop steering. At city driving speeds I set the controls at the middle 5 setting and this seems to give just the right feel. Another side note, at 50 MPH and at the tightest setting, the torque steer is much less.
For all the people asking questions about this post, please read it carefully and all questions will be answered.
Now for the problems:
The original hi pressure line on the oem steering rack coming from the power steering pressure sensor located on far right upper fire wall on passenger side does not go with the new rack. A few days after install, the o ring gave out where the line screws into the rack and I lost all my PS fluid! This was easily fixed with the proper line that uses a banjo fitting, much more reliable
2 days later, again I lost all my PS fluid. This time we discovered the mechanic doing the install forgot to torque down the 3 allen nuts holding the pressure solinoid to the rack. Since the fluid has to pass thru here, voila all fluid on ground. The poor guy had to remove the entire rack to tighten these bolts because 2 of the 3 were lying against the firewall. He promised he would never make that mistake again! 5 minutes to check unmounted rack bolts, 5 hours to tighten the ones you didn;t check after rack is installed.
Everthing is fixed and tightened and I haven't lost any fluid and I'm very happy, for now.
01-09-2005, 05:45 AM
#29
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Posts: 38
This is a neat idea, but I'm not willing to manually adjust a **** depending on my speed. I want my steering to feel "right" all the time and automatically. Again, I can't back this up that this would work or is feasible, but my idea is to lessen the "signal" to the stock variable effort steering system across the curve so that it will continue to adjust the pressure based on speed, but at less overall pressure to make the steering effort greater. I wouldn't use the term "tighter" steering because, to me, that sounds more like the steering gear ratio than the effort it take to turn the wheel.
01-09-2005, 04:11 PM
#30
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here are some options to really increase steering feel and feedback....
swap in a 97-99 rack and pinion which is very labor instensive and expensive,
do a power steering fluid flush....,
increase your caster...,
get better tires,
get better suspension,
get poly bushings up front especially the endlink/sway bar bushings (poly),
get a LTB or subframe connectors...
swap in a 97-99 rack and pinion which is very labor instensive and expensive,
do a power steering fluid flush....,
increase your caster...,
get better tires,
get better suspension,
get poly bushings up front especially the endlink/sway bar bushings (poly),
get a LTB or subframe connectors...
01-09-2005, 05:35 PM
#31
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Definitely things to do before going and playing with the steering system, I fully agree.
I have an experience with steering feel that I'd like to share and see if anyone understands why this happened. On my old 98 Sentra SE I fitted AGXs and Prokits. The front AGX struts have settings between 1 and 4. With the setting at 1, the steering feel was stock. If I turned those fronts up to 2 or above, my steering suddenly felt MUCH tighter and very sweet.
I have not had an adjustable suspension since that car until now. I have D2 coilovers on my Maxima. I was expecting the same situation, that if the front struts were set low damping that I would have about stock steering feel and if I increased the dampening setting that eventually I would arrive at the same change with increased steering feel - basically higher effort steering. This does not occur.
I don't understand why this occurred with my AGX/Prokit setup on my 98 Sentra SE and just took it for granted that higher adjustable strut dampening equaled higher steering effort and better feel. Does anyone know why this occurred with this setup and not on my Maxima? I was thinking it could be the alignment change that lowering the car would produce since this car did not have camber plates, unlike my D2 setup which does. Now I have yet to get an alignment with my D2s installed (mostly because I have been fighting suspension noises and want to get that all sorted out before I align it). Maybe the guestimate in my camber plate settings is less aggressive that what the AGX/Prokit combo gave me? Would camber change steering feel/effort much? This wouldn't make sense exactly since changing the dampening setting on the Sentra made the change in steering feel, which is where I'm stuck in my investigation.
Thanks in advance for comments
I have an experience with steering feel that I'd like to share and see if anyone understands why this happened. On my old 98 Sentra SE I fitted AGXs and Prokits. The front AGX struts have settings between 1 and 4. With the setting at 1, the steering feel was stock. If I turned those fronts up to 2 or above, my steering suddenly felt MUCH tighter and very sweet.
I have not had an adjustable suspension since that car until now. I have D2 coilovers on my Maxima. I was expecting the same situation, that if the front struts were set low damping that I would have about stock steering feel and if I increased the dampening setting that eventually I would arrive at the same change with increased steering feel - basically higher effort steering. This does not occur.
I don't understand why this occurred with my AGX/Prokit setup on my 98 Sentra SE and just took it for granted that higher adjustable strut dampening equaled higher steering effort and better feel. Does anyone know why this occurred with this setup and not on my Maxima? I was thinking it could be the alignment change that lowering the car would produce since this car did not have camber plates, unlike my D2 setup which does. Now I have yet to get an alignment with my D2s installed (mostly because I have been fighting suspension noises and want to get that all sorted out before I align it). Maybe the guestimate in my camber plate settings is less aggressive that what the AGX/Prokit combo gave me? Would camber change steering feel/effort much? This wouldn't make sense exactly since changing the dampening setting on the Sentra made the change in steering feel, which is where I'm stuck in my investigation.
Thanks in advance for comments
01-09-2005, 07:38 PM
#32
Originally Posted by njmaxseltd
Just upgrade to a 99 SE!
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
Us 99 owners have nice tight feel to our steering.
Thank you Nissan for finally getting the 4th gen right in 99.
fixed the steering in exchange for messing up the coil packs
01-09-2005, 09:40 PM
#33
Originally Posted by i30krab
The rack is an Inf. 49001-42U00 gear and linkage power steering for a car with engine speed sensitive power steering. I think this fits 4th gen infinitis made between 03/95 to 06/97.
Has anyone in this thread recently put in new PS fluid? I wonder if a flush would do any good.
EDIT: Best thread in 4th gen section in a while.....aside from DE-K madness
01-09-2005, 09:49 PM
#35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by i30krab
The rack is an Inf. 49001-42U00 gear and linkage power steering for a car with engine speed sensitive power steering. I think this fits 4th gen infinitis made between 03/95 to 06/97.
Does that mean it comes on those cars standard? I doubt it....Could you clarify that?
Please,
As I said previously, Please call Joe at infiniti of scottsdale, He has the info!!
1-888-468-7070
Originally Posted by i30krab
The rack is an Inf. 49001-42U00 gear and linkage power steering for a car with engine speed sensitive power steering. I think this fits 4th gen infinitis made between 03/95 to 06/97.
Does that mean it comes on those cars standard? I doubt it....Could you clarify that?
Please,
As I said previously, Please call Joe at infiniti of scottsdale, He has the info!!
1-888-468-7070
01-11-2005, 03:37 PM
#36
Bin,
Thank you for visiting CarSteering.com!
This rack is from a 96-97 Infiniti I30 with ECS electronic suspension. It runs $350.00 plus a refundable core deposit of $200. Click to learn more about Cores.
This rack comes with a Free 36 Month Parts Warranty. Plus Free Ground Shipping! Visit our Shipping section for more info.
Order over the phone at 1-800-399-7845.
Thanks,
Scott
1-800-399-7845
sales@CarSteering.com
www.CarSteering.com
Thank you for visiting CarSteering.com!
This rack is from a 96-97 Infiniti I30 with ECS electronic suspension. It runs $350.00 plus a refundable core deposit of $200. Click to learn more about Cores.
This rack comes with a Free 36 Month Parts Warranty. Plus Free Ground Shipping! Visit our Shipping section for more info.
Order over the phone at 1-800-399-7845.
Thanks,
Scott
1-800-399-7845
sales@CarSteering.com
www.CarSteering.com
01-11-2005, 05:12 PM
#39
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so on www.carsteering.com a '99 maxima steering rack is only $265 plus $150 core...with a 36 month warranty...very cool! but the labor would be huge! I would imagine this would be a project that would be very easy if you were replacing the engine..! in addition, this is actually a rather cheap mod for what you get...however, I will be doing all other measures before replacing the steering rack...to tighten up the steering first...
01-11-2005, 07:53 PM
#40
Originally Posted by michaelnyden
so on www.carsteering.com a '99 maxima steering rack is only $265 plus $150 core...with a 36 month warranty...very cool! but the labor would be huge! I would imagine this would be a project that would be very easy if you were replacing the engine..! in addition, this is actually a rather cheap mod for what you get...however, I will be doing all other measures before replacing the steering rack...to tighten up the steering first...
yeah that email i got was from one of the reps of carsteering.com i think he gave me the wrong price for that infiniti rack cause on their site it states ~$270 as well w/ the adjustable steering .... omg ,my car is gonna feel so tight after this.
labour does look bad but im do my motor mounts and bushings at the same time so i should have a few things out of the way, prob take the y pipe off and remove my egr all in one shot, free up some space and such,
hey does energy suspension make a poly holder for the rack instead of that weak *** rubber bs???
also if anyone else know of a better place to get a rack from, other than hooters.... please post it