Does anyone know how to reduce the level of power assistance on our cars? My feeling is that by reducing the power steering pump pulley size, there is a lower throughput of fluid through the pump and so the steering will become heavier.

Can anyone confirm this, or even better, has anyone done this with a car and can tell me about pros/cons?

The steering is just too light on our cars :doubt: 30% firmer steering would be perfect.

if u think our steering isnt hard enuf.....yur not cornering hard enuf........reefton with 30% harder steering...have fun........

I dont know how to do it, but i certainly know what ur talking about.
hop in any other car and it feels more direct in steering. hop in ours and its like ur driving a bus on crack....

interesting concept...i have never experimented with this nor put any thought toward it but i dont know what sort of difference it would do...when you think of it if you hold the revs at 1000rpm and test steering resistance then hold revs at 3000rpm and test steering resistance there is not a lot of difference in effort. i would be more inclined to think that the 'feel' of the power steering would be more relative to valving, piston size and fluid displacement in the rack. I couldnt be 100% certain of how to achieve this for you nor if it could be done economicly. Prob best hit up a good power steering specialist.

Any one Any one :P

steering turning restance will change with caster, I don't know if adjusting caster would make a big difference and stiffen it up through power steering like it does with manual (armstrong) systems, i suspect it would. I have driven power steer cars with bad caster settings (hit gutter etc) and they were very light in the steering.
Monjunior how do you adjust caster in a Magna? Is there K'mac commodore style aftermarket bearing plates available for the magna struts or only camber adjusting bolts?

if u think our steering isnt hard enuf.....yur not cornering hard enuf........reefton with 30% harder steering...have fun........

"Reefton Spur, now sponsoring 30% larger triceps!"

steering turning restance will change with caster, I don't know if adjusting caster would make a big difference and stiffen it up through power steering like it does with manual (armstrong) systems, i suspect it would. I have driven power steer cars with bad caster settings (hit gutter etc) and they were very light in the steering.
Monjunior how do you adjust caster in a Magna? Is there K'mac commodore style aftermarket bearing plates available for the magna struts or only camber adjusting bolts?

Caster adjustment is available through fitment of Whiteline lower control arm bushes, this allowed me to dial in more static caster. I'm trying to reduce steering effort through no change in suspension geometry though; I guess the reason why I suddenly became so tuned to this issue is with the recent windy weather, blowing the car all over the place when there's little windbreak on the side of highways.

Might be a dumb idea ... but have you thought about a smaller steering wheel?
The stock ones are huge. A lot of the more recent cars nowadays are fitted with much smaller steering wheels anyway, not sure why the Magnas have the bus-like ones.

Might be a dumb idea ... but have you thought about a smaller steering wheel?
The stock ones are huge. A lot of the more recent cars nowadays are fitted with much smaller steering wheels anyway, not sure why the Magnas have the bus-like ones.
i think youll find that teK-- having a Xi verada means that he has factory equiped Airbags so changin the wheel will make it illegal and unsafe...

also have you tryed lowering the pressure in the front tires i know this can make an effect but its probally not the effect your after

My feeling is that by reducing the power steering pump pulley size, there is a lower throughput of fluid through the pump and so the steering will become heavier.

I think you'll want to increase the pump pulley size so it turns slower. Can work in theory, but why do you want to increase stiffness? If it's to increase feel - & i agree, there's zero feedback coming thru my AWD Magna's steering too - Monjunior's right, the Magna steering set up provides for a very insulated driving experience.

Apparently there is a way of doing this - if the line pressure is reduced, then the assistance is also reduced - the line pressure can be adjusted on some vehicles, not sure if mitsu can do it or not...

Cheers
Heath Young

I know nothing about the power assist system in the magna, but Autospeed just posted up a couple of articles about using one of the SiliconChip projects to adjust the weight of electronically controlled power steering systems.

I think you'll want to increase the pump pulley size so it turns slower. Can work in theory, but why do you want to increase stiffness? If it's to increase feel - & i agree, there's zero feedback coming thru my AWD Magna's steering too - Monjunior's right, the Magna steering set up provides for a very insulated driving experience.

Actually you're right, it would need a bigger pulley hehe.

I want to increase stiffness to give a more controlled feel to the steering; currently I can easily drive the car with one finger on the wheel which is ridiculous. I already have a lot of feedback coming from the road which is what I want (combination of urethane bushes, low profile tyres, high tyre pressure).

Mad Lante: Good pick with the airbag :). Lowering tyre pressure simply makes the steering sloppy and unresponsive, so that's out of the question unfortunately.

cthulhu: Unfortunatley MMAL are still stuck in the ice ages with their hydraulic systems, but I've read that article and it would be awesome to have on-the-fly steering assistance adjustment :D

heathyoung: I'll have a chat to some of the guys from suspension engineering at my work, I know we have modified power steering high pressure hose lengths to avoid fluid pulsing and resulting steering shimmy, so they might have some ideas in this respect.

If I find further useful information I'll add to this thread, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had tried anything on their setup first.