Originally Posted by victory423 (Post 20856392)

Having owned my 2003 S for 8 years now, I've always been bothered by the lack of steering feel.

What I mean by this, is that the light steering effort required to turn the wheel remains constant regardless of the position of the wheel or the speed of the car.

This became more apparent after I purchased a Ford Focus SVT (hydraulic steering pump) and a Mini Cooper JCW (electric power steering) as daily drivers. I preferred the heavier steering feel of these two cars, and the way that the steering effort "loaded up" the more I turned the wheel. I also preferred the additional vibration that came from the road through the wheel, particularly when the tires were at the limit of traction.

Although many people on this board have suggested turning off the electric power steering (EPS), I couldn't find a thread in which anyone had actually written about their driving experiences after having done it.

Today, I opened up the hood, and opened up the smaller of the two fuse boxes on the drivers side (US) of the engine bay. Fuse #33, a 70 amp fuse is screwed in with two phillips head screws. With the car turned off, I simply unscrewed the fuse and removed it.

The car started up fine and expectedly, the yellow "EPS" light came on.

Backing out of the garage and turning into the driveway was not as bad as I expected. I thought that the quick ratio no power assisted steering would be a workout, but it was no more difficult than non-power steering vehicles I had driven in the past. I had grown up driving lawn tractors without power steering and my first car was a non power steering 1982 Toyota pickup truck.

Pulling onto the street required some strength, putting my hand at the twelve o'clock position and pulling the steering wheel to make the 90 degree turn onto the street.

I decided to take a route that included country roads, highway, and city traffic.

The country roads were a revelation. Although steering effort was massively higher, I was able to "feel" every nuance of the road. On center there was no effort, but the more I turned the wheel through a turn, the greater the steering effort became. On slow 15 and 20 mph tight turns, I had to hold on with both hands and my arms definitely got a workout.

The highway was easy. At high speed, the steering required no effort and I could easily drive with the effort of only one hand. I did feel much more confident at high speed with the additional feedback.

City traffic was not too bad, but 90 degree turns at low speed intersections definitely requires two hands, concentration and effort.

At the end of my ride, I felt like I was driving a completely different car. I was very much exhilarated, not only by the novelty, but also by the sheer amount of stimulation coming from the wheel, previously masked by the EPS system. I felt so much more engaged by the car and like manual shifting vs automatic, the additional effort connected me deeper to both the car and importantly, to the road. Even though I was tired, it was the type of tiredness that comes after a good workout.

The s2000 is not my daily driver. I drive it on dry days mostly on winding country roads for fun. If I were to drive and park this car in the city on a daily basis, I would probably keep the power steering turned on. However, since I don't, I won't. I prefer things this way for now. I'll let everybody here know if I still prefer it in a month's time.

Feel free to ask questions. Thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by spitfirezip100

Recently my friend just got a 2000 miata which I've been helping him to modify and make track worthy... Toss in a few test drives and I'm finding that the s2000 is almost lacking in some key points in comparison...

After driving the miata and then switching back to the S, I find that the S feels "numb"...

The steering response is numb around center to the point where there is almost no feedback from the steering wheel around center at high speeds whatsoever....

the throttle (2006 electronic throttle) is numb

turn in is vague in comparison and requires much more effort than on the miata...

Don't get me wrong, I love my S, but I would probably have a miata if I could fit in one...

So yes, the s2000 isn't perfect, but isn't that why so many people are on these forums to learn about modifications that can be done to it?


In regard to the numb steering, I find it very vague in feedback pressure provided while turning in. If I'm about to enter a high speed sweeper corner, the turn in is vague to the point where I often wind up turning the steering wheel a couple degrees too far, and then I have to correct due to the "numb" response from the steering wheel...

This wouldn't be quite as annoying if the S didn't have scalpel like precision where turning the steering wheel even a single degree or more translated into actual response from the chassis.... Not that I'm complaining about the razor sharp handling... I love it, but the steering wheel makes it hard to be razor sharp in accuracy with my inputs...

Low speed corners aren't quite as bad since you have to turn the steering wheel further and the amount of resistance seems to be higher, but when only making tiny steering wheel inputs (read: between 0-5 degrees in either direction from center) there seems to be a range of values at higher speed (maybe +/- 5 degrees) where the steering wheel feedback is completely numb or vague... (This does not mean that the steering is inconsistent, or that it is not precise, it absolutely is, and there is little if any "slop" in the steering wheel... What I'm referring to is the "feel" or "feedback" provided by the steering wheel).

What I then have to do is make an input through the steering wheel and then wait for the feedback from the rest of the chassis after it has "taken a set" to determine whether my steering input was sufficient to follow the desired line. I should not need to do this...

As some posters mentioned, I could simply "get used to it", however I should not need to guess how far to turn the wheel, or "interpolate" in my mind how far to turn the wheel without any (immediate) feedback from the car itself...

On the miata, I do the same high speed turn-in on the same sweeper and I just "set it and forget it", the car seems to read my mind and go exactly where it should...


In regard to the throttle pedal... I learned how to drive using cars with throttle cables, and I have found that in general the feedback from throttle cable gas pedals is FAR superior to the pedal feel of my 2006 S2000's gas pedal... Infact I really dislike that I will make an input to the gas pedal and then I have to wait and feel or look at the tach to make sure that it's doing what I wanted... It may have to do with not having sufficient resistance in the pedal, but it just doesn't provide enough or the correct feedback...

With throttle cable gas pedals, there is often a little "slop" in the pedal travel before the cable is actually engaged and the butterfly valve opened. After this "slack" or "slop" in the cable, it becomes noticeably more difficult to apply pressure to the pedal as it's actually pulling on the cable. This feeling helps with knowing exactly how much gas to apply when rev match downshifting, heel toeing, even just regularly accelerating/shifting... I can't stand being off by more than 50-100 rpm when performing these things and I find that even after owning my 06 for 2 years that it is still difficult to perform perfectly...

I hop into my friend's miata and I'm able to rev match/blip the throttle/etc almost immediately and with only a few minutes in the car, am able to nearly perfectly...

So yes, if there is an option for at least making the steering feedback more responsive and linear (especially around center), similar to the hydraulic steering racks of so many other great cars... I'd be highly interested in finding out more about it....

This post has been edited by spitfirezip100: 03 August 2011 - 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by spitfirezip100 (Post 20859141)

Hmm I have been bothered by the exact same problem with the S... feedback from the road being masked by the EPS system... My main concern with disabling the EPS would be in its link to the VSA on my 2006...

Does anyone know if disabling the EPS on a 06+ model would disable the VSA as well?