Billman was doing some work on my S last summer, and instantly noticed my steering was slightly more difficult to turn to the left than the right. He suggested I reset the eps torque sensor neutral position to correct the issue. After my recent 4 wheel alignment, I gave it a shot. I shorted pins 4-9 on the OBDII, and performed the reset procedure from the service manual. Procedure was successful according to the EPS light flashes, but no change in feel.. still a little more difficult to turn left. I tried multiple more times, with re-alignment to slightly off center in both directions to compensate, and with holding the wheel in the neutral position as suggested in some threads (as opposed to letting it sit freely in the neutral position), but nothing changed.

Does this point to something other than misaligned neutral position? Anything else I should check. Thanks

 

Might be a bad suspension part - ball joint ?, but it would take some work to find it.

Lift the front end using a jack in the front center position, and turn the wheels left and right by hand with the car turned off and the steering unlocked. See if you can detect stiffness difference between turning right or left - lock to lock. That will tell you if the issue is mechanical or electronic. The wheels are easy to move left and right from outside of the vehicle, and the movement should be smooth.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try that out asap and see if I can identify anything. After nearly 200k, including many snowy winters, it could certainly be a mechanical issue.

 

Yup that sounds like a plausible scenario, a small tear in one of the balljoint boots could cause corrosion and ceasing up of the internals.

 

ball joints have no effect on steering effort...OP, check to make sure nothing in the steering column is binding and make sure neither one of your tie rods on that side aren't binding(inner and outer)

 

I've learned that even if you get a confirmation flash, you can still do it wrong.

Air the tires down to 10psi and do it again.

Pull slow and consistent to 45 degrees.

 

Thanks

 

If that doesn't fix your problem, have a look at this thread...

Fixed my uneven steering effort

 

Could starting the car with the pin 4 and 9 shorted together cause any problems? Did it on accident the other day, and today I tossed a flashing CEL. Felt like major misfire. Awaiting codes/diag.

 

codes came back, 2 cylinder misfiring. Don't know specific codes, will get them when I pick up the car. Dealer diagnosed 2 bad coils and wanted $900+ to change all 4. I will be towing it out and doing it myself

Curious if shorting those OBDII pins and starting the car with them shorted could have caused this. The idle was very rough and weak and ran for maybe 5 seconds before I realized what was going on.