After a recent accident my old steering rack was replaced with a brand new one from factory. Now when I drive the car it feels as if it is a little harder to turn the wheel to the right than it is to the left. Still rips corners and feels as agile as before just noticably different right to left. Anyone have this issue before or know what could be causing the steering to feel this way?

 

I had issues with my wheel not returning to center being harder to turn after my rack was replaced with a new one from honda.

They do not come with the preload already set. If someone dint set the preload, they need to do so. After telling the body shop a million times to check the preload, and after they spent days at the dealer (and a quarter tank of my gas), I just took the car to ONE6 motorsports. They did the sensible thing and disconnected the tie rods to verify that they were extremely hard to manipulate....leading to the conclusion that THE PRELOAD NEEDED TO BE SET!!

You can also try doing the torque sensor reset.

Check your alignment settings as well. More caster on the right side would cause harder steering effort to the right.

Make sure nothing else is bent. What was the nature of the accident? What happened?

 

The accident happened on the drivers side where the front wheel literally broke off. Everything was replaced i can see that and along the way they found that the steering rack was broken and then that was replaced. I have a good feeling it is the preload not being set because this body shop is definitely not familiar with s2000's. Looks like I have to make my hundredth call to my insurance adjuster.

 

If anyone knows how to do this yourself please chime in. I have been searching for a DIY but cannot find one.

 

You have to take the rack down out of the car (easiest way) and make sure the torque setting on the rack is right using the preload nut to set it. It should take X amount of torque to move the gear. I forget what the torque setting is.

I kinda went through the same thing you did. The shop acted like I was speaking chinese when I said to set the preload. The dealership even wrote the car off as "normal", which I was really pissed off about...because it was really far away from normal.

I just took it to an independent shop and billed the body shop for the cost of repairs. Luckily, the manager at the body shop was very easy to deal with.

To set the torque sensor is a very easy DIY. It's all over google.

 

A good way to test to see if the preload is the culprit is to raise the car off the ground and with the car off, try to turn the wheel back and forth. If it's difficult, then the preload is probably incorrect. It helps to have another known good S2000 to use as a benchmark.

You can also disconnect the tie rods from the knuckle and just try to push them back and forth with your hands to see how difficult it is.

 

put the car up on jack stands, turned the wheel both ways and it felt normal. Put the car back on the ground and again it was harder to turn right than left. Thinking it's the camber..?

 

You did it with the car off, right?

Camber really doesn't have that effect. Caster does when the car is moving...but might also when the car is at a stop.

Have them give you an alignment print out. Also check the tire pressure.

 

If you replace the the Rack, you have to relearn the torque sensor neutral position.

There is a DYI posted here, and it is documented in the Helms manual.

 

yes the car was off and up on jack stands when i turned the wheel and it felt fine. It cannot be the tire pressure because I picked the car up with my summer rims and it felt the same as when I put on my winter rims. I will try to reset the torque sensor, if that doesn't work I guess Ill get the alignment printout and go from there.