My steering is getting stiffer and stiffer. I have a 1990 si with an ITR motor (heavy). lowered on stiffer springs (#500F, 400R), and wider tires (205?). Given all that - the car has always been a bitch to steer, since it doesnt have power steering. recently, its been even tougher.

the chassis has almost 150,000 miles on it, and has seen 5 years of pretty brutal autocross. could this be a problem with the steering rack needing to be lubed and / or rebuilt?

thanks


Modified by streetmodified at 7:54 PM 3/18/2008

 

everyone loves photos:

the ailing si

 

Tires going flat?

Also, have you checked the bushings/joints, make sure they're not dry?

 

I have the same problem. I noticed that if I move the wheel too there's this loud squeaking noise coming from under the car as well, is yours the same? Luckily I still have the light B2 in there

 

my crx was doign the same thing. I pumped up the tires and the issue went away. I had 20 on one and 25 on the other.

 

not the tires. just went to 36 all around before i started driving it again this spring.

not the bushings - i did the full kit for the car about a year ago.

i was wondering if the steering column needs to be lubricated or rebuilt?

 

None of the EF's I've owned has had problems with the steering column, so I can't say.

What you can try, is jack up the front end, put the keys in and see how freely the knuckles and steering rack move.

Have you tried checking to see if the bushings are still lubricated? Tie rods?

 

funny, my old man recommended the same thing. im gonna try that this weekend. thanks

 

so u changed the suspension and tire size....have you had an alignment since then? maybe your toe and camber is off...

i had a rack go bad but i knew because the steering became ridiculously loose...

 

Maybe your just getting old and weak!


99% sure your looking at replacing the steering rack.

 

It pretty much has to be in the rack/column. I would doubt the column though. The bushings/tierod ends,ball joints would have to be pretty severely damaged to even notice a slight difference at the steering wheel. Evan at that, I don't see the bushings ever affecting sterring ability. I cant imagine why you would run one of these cars without power steering anyway...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DailyDriverCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I cant imagine why you would run one of these cars without power steering anyway...</TD></TR></TABLE>
Is this somehow a typo or are you joking?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bob_760 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Is this somehow a typo or are you joking?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Naw, I am just getting old these days, and can't stand having no power steering. When I was younger, I was anti-PS all the way. Just not worth the weight/power savings to me in my old age.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DailyDriverCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Naw, I am just getting old these days, and can't stand having no power steering. When I was younger, I was anti-PS all the way. Just not worth the weight/power savings to me in my old age.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Fair enough.

Nice choice of avatar btw...

 

haha, getting old maybe - but still putting up 200 on the ol bench.

yeah, the car never did have PS, so i never put it in. It might be something worth considering. it makes plenty of power anyway - so thats not really a concern. i guess a re-alignment is never a bad thing anyway. At this point, it'd probably get an aggressive race alignment, since i bought an AP1 for a daily

(yeah, i just said that)

anyway, i'll put her up this weekend and take a look. i'll report back on monday.

SM

 

ps - this is the faster of the two cars FTW