How can I correct "loose steering"?
 

I have an 08 that I feel has steering that is considerably "looser" than an average Z. It feels more pronounced at low speeds. At higher speeds it feels a little tighter like it should be, which is probably the speed sensitive steering working as it should. However, my friend has an 07 and his steering is significantly tighter when driving at low speeds. The steering wheel also seems to want to travel back to center more easily in his car. I read up a little about it and told it may have to do with the car's caster. If that's true, is there any way to adjust or change the caster on the Z? If not, is there anything else I can check or change to help improve the steering feel (suspension or otherwise)?

A blown compression arm bushing will cause that. Is your car lowered?

mine is very low. and it is very loose. it also has a bad alignment. i should be getting one soon after my toe arms get here from jason. i hope this fix it.

if not, are blown compression arm bushings hard to replace? how much do they cost?

There are lots of components between the steering wheel and front tires. Which is the culprit? I don't know.

http://splparts.com/store/product-info.php?pid24.html $167, and easy for me to do, i have heard of others struggling with them.

Orrrr check your alignment.

My car is stock. I actually just took it to the dealer a month or so ago for this problem and they said they replaced the rack and pinion steering assembly. They also gave it an alignment. It seemed to help a little bit but not too much. So that rules that out.

Compression arm bushing...hmm. I'll look into that.

If the car is an 08 then its still covered. Why would you spend your money or time to fix it?? MAKE the dealer fix if and dont give up till its fixed right!!!

Stock sways?

Stock everything.

I just checked the alignment sheet from when the dealership did the alignment. It said caster was 8.1/8.2 degrees, which seems like it's within spec, so maybe its not the caster after all. Anything else it could be?

rear toe has a ton to do with this rear end float feeling. been there. Fixed it.

Take it a specialty alignment center.. youd be surprised what a difference it makes..

Hotchkis sways would tighten it up...but if there is really something wrong it could make it worse

The other thing I should mention and I'm kicking myself for not mentioning it before is I currently have shitty goodyear all season tires on it (don't ask). Could that be contributing to the loose steering as well?

I don't think tires would make your steering feel "loose". Usually shitty tires would just kill you with launching and traction, but not everyday low speed turning

Thats what I figured as well. I'm thinking it's more suspension related. I just don't know exactly what I should be checking. Control arms, tie rods, compression arms, anything else?

Im not posting JUST to up my count.. hahah.

rear end misalignment will cause the vehicle to feel unstable at speed on the fwy.

I went w toe delete bolts, an adjustable lower arm, and a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD alignment.. not a 30 minute wonder job.


with a newer car and little to no mods ( mentioned), the other items mentioned above are probably not your issue yet, but they will be in the future.


My car is set to 1.5 negative camber and o degrees toe.. and its night and day.. very tight.


compression rod bushings can mimic the same thing, but i ahve 100k.. i bet yours are still ok.


Get the alignment checked and save yourself a boat load of cash for the time being. Even w the bad tires, i put all my money on alignment...

Like I said earlier, I had the alignment done when the steering rack was replaced. Everything checked out. Also the car doesn't feel unstable at all, it just feels like there's not quite as much steering response as there should be at low speed.

alignment
 

http://image.circletrack.com/f/94081...er+diagram.jpg

Caster is not an adjustbale specification on our ( or most) cars.

the amount of toe in will correct this.

I submit to you this tho....

if your friends car is identical to yours ( no different suspension parts).. then the only thing that is left to cause this difference is either broken parts ( which again i doubt but is easy to check yourself) or a difference in aligment specs.

btw " checks out" in alignment terms is 4 degrees of camber and 1.5 of toe if i recall correctly.. ( thats the rear as well i believe) ....NISSAn has it set VERY aggressively... feathers tires and its loud too.

jack up you car.. look at the tenion ( compression) rod bushings.. if they look perfect, there ya go.. if they dont look perfect, theyre probably split. Squeaky usually too.
LCA bushings can do it too.

I replaced both items on my car and it made a dramatic difference in the solid feel of the car at any speed.

Rear is -1.1 to -2.1 camber with 0.1 to .06 toe (i may have the toe number off a bit) to be in the green. I did forget the LCA bushings will also cause that problem, they are real easy to check.

It may just be your tires too. BTW are you running the proper size tires? Sometimes when people change to a no stagger setup (tire height) they get they problem you suggest.

Do you have any play in the steering wheel itself? To tell, when at a stop light try to move the steering left and right. If it has a free float feeling before it will actually move the wheels then your prob is somewhere in the column, rack, tie rods, or balljoints and/or bushings. It is simply a process of checking everything to find the problem.