difference in steering repsonse?
 

anyone know if there is any way to increase the steering response on your car? i find that there is a huge difference in my dads 2004 si and my 1996 civic dx...

if you get what i mean, its like feedback... from when i am making a turn and actually turn the wheel to when the turn actually happens... like my dad's car its instant turn in and when you are say making a turn on the highway you can feel the wheel pulling back like to a straight line... my wheel is different. it feels that there is more of a turn i have to make to make the turn happen and on big turns like on the highway or something it feels too easy holding the wheel...

maybe if i took out my power steering pump? any ideas?

Better tires.

I have the same issue on my EK DX. I'm glad you bought it up. DumbasSI, do you think better tires will do the trick?

mikepasini, what kind of tires are you running?

Steering response depends on just how much flexing all the components in your front end can do.

Tires are, as Mike says, the number one spot for improvement since there is a huge difference in stiffness between an average soft tire and a performance tire. Next comes suspension and your spring rates, which is a more drastic change. Then comes the chassis of the car itself, which can be improved slightly with an upper and/or lower tie bar.

If you tighten up any or all these components with stiffer performance parts there will be an improvement in steering response at a cost of a harder ride over bumps.

The Si might have a more direct steering system, i.e. 2 turns to lock the steering as opposed to 3, but I'm not sure about the newer model Civics.

rear sway bar upgrade. i had stock 13mm on before and now with the 22mm rear sway bar, the turn-in is instant, amazing difference

but without good tires, turn-in dosen't matter cause the tires loose grip or the sidewall flex will cancel alot of it. suspension is a package starting with tires.

having now had a large rear sway bar on my stock suspension (for winter) i'd go tires, then larger rear sway bar with a subframe reinforcing kit like breaks ASR, etc.

I think in another thread you had AGX/apex springs anyways, so get good rubber, good not all season ****, good summer and good winter and that alone eliminates alot of understeer and tire flex. then slap on the RSB and it handles like a different car. My friends describe my 1.6EL as a four door Integra R now handling wise...it made that much of a difference. power, braking, cosmetic etc is still a slow ass four door, but handling i can play now

Just reading tire info on tire rack provides some answers. Correct or increased tire pressure should also help.

Lack of steering feel and numbness has always been an item of criticizm for auto journalists in respect to 5th and 6th gen civics.

The easy fix for 5th gens is to swap in an Integra rack if you have power steering or if you don't have PS, swap to a quaife quick ratio rack gear. For a 6th gen I think you may be out of luck for steering rack modifications.

The addition of quality performance tires as said by DumbasSi, stiff springs, shocks, and antiroll bars as mentioned by alwaysoverkill as well as the installation of polyeurethane suspension bushings all around will aid in steering response/feedback but never alleviate your problem completely.

Unfortunately the downside of all these modification is a harsher ride, first hand knowledge here! :thumbup:

good info. thanks.

numbness in non ps 5th gens too? i think my steering response is pretty good, could be better though.

i don't think a RSB will make steering response better but it will like you said, make turn in's better. i don't think you want your rear end to come out on you when you try to dodge something on the freeway. like everyone says here, it's a combination of tires, suspension, tower braces, tie bars, etc.

for 6th gen i heard changing the steering rack to a ctr one does wonders because it is off a type r afterall

now, where would be come across a ctr one?that would be awesome...

i already have one.
but i am pretty sure an importer might have one.
check around

wow i cant beleive nobody mentioned energy suspension steering rack bushings. The change is very dramatic. 0 play in the wheel and instant response. I did tires shocks springs, strut bars sway bars the works...wasnt untill i installed the es steering rack bushings that I noticed the steering slop go away.

how much was the bushings?
did it come with the complete kit they sell where you can replace all the bushing on a car? or did you have to buy it seperately?
how long did it take for you to install it? was it a bitch like every other bushing?


also hows the noise? squeeky?

The orignal question is ho your steering doesn't respond compared to a newer car right?

In that case as mentioned earlier change your steering rack. Even better change the entire sub cradle, it's easier that way. Now from lock to lock it decreases the amount of turns (cant remeber the number) giving you tighter steering.

Tires, springs and all the other suggestions are not really going to tighten up the steering.

mine came with the master kit , im sure you can get it seperately tho... its not like replaceing suspension bushings its much easier... The rack mounts can be a bit of a hasstle tho..but no pressing and **** like the sus.... no squeeks...just get the black kit to be sure. install time depends on preperation knowledge/ skills, basically nothing you cant handel.

You don't mean black as in colour of the bushings, do you? Colour doesn't have anything to do with squeaks n stuff...or does it??
You mean the big black box the kit comes in, right?

No I dont mean the big black box it comes in lol :richslap:

In the case of energy suspension bushings, black has everything to do with "squeaks n stuff". you see, they inject the polyurethane with a graphite lubricant, and as everyone knows graphite lubricant is black in its natural state. Therfore its impossible to make a graphite impegmented urathane any other colour than black. They offer the bushings in red and black...black is graphite impegmented red is just pure polyurethane with a red dye.


Do alittle research on the compounds and lubriants ES uses and you will get a better understanding.





:cheers:

so black is the way eh?
i was planning on getting the complete kit for the entire car so i can upgrade all my bushing at once.
i hear the red ones are better tho?
or are the graphite ones better?

the car is in a million pieces right now so it wont be hard for me to change them anyway. also how much did you master kit cost you? and did it include everything needed or did you need more bushing's that it didnt have?

Master kit was around 210 bux from an affiliate i forget who it was, pretty sure it was ed. And the black is def an advantage over the red because they dont sqeek. The kit came with most of the bushings excluding some trailing arm bushings. Just make sure you have the right replacement before torching them out.

Its best to do all of them at once while the car is U/S take all the controll arms off the car and giver titties then reasemble the suspension.

A good addition to the kit is the mount stiffeners, sold seperately.These can be red since nothing sqeeks there. Its basically only the front end that squeeks, I think its the huge pillow that the LCA attaches to the body that sqeeks. Im not sure if the red lasts longer or not...