Hello to all, i have a 2005 s2k with some suspension mods, coilovers 13/11kg, swaybars, roll bar and R compound nt01 tires. I think these mods are the ones that could relate to my steering feel which to me feels a bit loose or wobbly. I'm comparing my Honda to a previously owned e92 m3 and now my DD scion FR-S and i feel like the Honda for being the amazing car that it is, its way too soft. The movement that i use to come to the "too soft" conclusion is a quick left to right swerve or zig zag. The quick swerving left to right doesn't have a quick reaction feeling, kinda delayed, which did improve with the NT01 tires, obviously due to the increased grip. The only thing i could think of is suspension bushings, now which ones, i don't know and that's why im here. Hope some of you with more experience in this field could chime in. Thanks a bunch.

 

You may want to look into the hard bushing kit Spoon makes for the steering rack on these cars. I have personally never used it, nor have I spoke with anyone who has, but I have used hard kits on other cars, and can say that there is a noticeable improvement in steering feel. I'm sure someone on here has some experience with this kit, and can offer some sort of feedback on it.

With that being said, I've noticed that a lot of people have complained about the steering feel on these cars; personally I think it feels fine, but that's just me.

Mike

 

What is your alignment?

What anti-roll bars are you using? There are tons of options out there.

What size tires are you running & what are your wheel sizes?

An S2k with a stiff FSB should turn in and respond like a champ, even on stock suspension.

 

Really appreciate your responses. I'm running 18x9.5 nt03 wheels with nitto nt01 245/40r18. The sway bars are the eibach front and rear kit not sure the size. I'll see about the bushings. The alignment is 1.6 front and 2.3 rear camber with 4.8 caster and zero toe if I remember correctly, it's been a while.

 

Bigger front sway bar, and add rear toe. \

What coilovers?

 

I dont know about the front swaybar size increase, i have a 32mm which is pretty thick. My car has no roll whatsoever, i have HKS hypermax III sport with 13/11kg springs and a 32/29mm sway bar. I'll see if a bit more toe in the rear could help but i don't really think that has a direct impact on the how sharp the steering feels.

 

what tire pressures are you running?

increasing castor will make the wheel come back to center quicker and give it more "weight" I think

 

How do you have your HKS damping tuned? Too little rebound damping will make the car feel disconnected from the ground, which could make response feel numb. With that rear bar, your car should rotate easily. Turn in and response should be good/quick and then you'd be switching to "catch the oversteer" mode. I come from an auto-x background, however, and run with either a very soft rear bar or no rear bar. My spring split is similar, but stiffer (16kg/mm front and 14 kg/mm rear). With softer springs, the anti-roll bars will make a more pronounced impact because they are a larger percentage of the overall roll stiffness.

As Dan_UK mentioned, more caster will weight the steering more. More camber front and rear will help with ultimate grip. Somewhere around -2.8 to -3.2 up front will most likely yield the most lateral grip. In the rear, -2.6 to -2.8 will likely be your target range. Rear toe will change the turn in stability. More toe typically results in more turn in stability but causes rear twitchiness in a straight line.

 

Got it, these are all very good tips. I'll keep it in mind for my next alignment. The car handles great and rotates quite nicely. The handling of the car is fine but what I'm saying is that the steering wheel isn't sharp. Not sure if I'm explaining my self, when I turn left/right quickly the car reacts slower than I would like it. It's soft, not a sharp transition. Thanks though for all suspension suggestions, I need to increase my camber front and rear. I'm running 36psi cold in the streets. I would love more caster but for some odd reason neither of the two alignment companies I took the car to could add more. They can't add more camber either, it has been beaten to death and even though I have adjustable upper ball joints on the upper control arms, the camber is limited. Something must 've wrong with the car.

 

Quicker AP1/CR steering rack...