jaimesy

Hi folks,
1984 928S
Ive been living with a lot of low-speed steering wheel fight on my 928, and am wondering how much of this is really normal? Ive never driven another 928, so I dont know otherwise.
By steering wheel fight, I mean that the steering STRONGLY follows/pulls on any road bump/slant/grooves, particularly at low speeds (5 to 15 mph).
Ive had the alignment checked, and power steering seems to be working fine. My tires and wheels are stock.
Ive checked the other posts, and havent found any complaints - so is this normal?.
Thanks!

Panzer9

No- mine is light and responsive

69gaugeman

no. Incorrect offset or alignment issue there

Alan

With missalignment and/or previous incorrect tire wear and/or some aftermarket wheel offsets/sizes it can get bad enough to virtually wrench the wheel from your hands... Horrible to drive...

Getting the alighment fixed helps but you may also need new front tires and/or wheel offset adjustments.

On stock wheels/tire sizes and correct alighment/height you should have no pulling at all...

Alan

perrys4

Great question, mine is doing this now but I blamed it on the crappy Yoko ES100 tires I have on my car.
It is really bad if I am on the brake and hit a rough section of pavement just before a stop. Stock rims, Yoko ES100 tires, wear is even all around. Steering rack only about a year old, professionally installed by Precision. Any other ideas.

nosnow

My car has this issue. I've just finished replacing the front shocks, ball joints upper & lower, tie rod ends and I still have the same problem. When I took the car back for the second time the alignment shop said that my inner tie rods are shot! Which of course is the only thing I haven't replaced!

Joe Dyer

Is your ride height stock?

perrys4

Mine is...all stock

drnick

perry, under braking the front wheels are trying to toe out from each other and if you have worn upper A arm bushes this can make it worse. alex p. at the nurburgring in his GT has this problem when he is hauling it down from big speed on uneven tarmac.

if the pavement is bad then you will get an amount of tramlining and if you have 911 front wheels with smaller offsets it makes it worse. other than that its as mentioned - worn tyres or incorrect alignement. im assuming the alinement shop are not lifting the car when they ajust the toe.

Mako 928

I had the same experience W/ my car. I had replaced my leaky stering rack, tie rods worn shocks and a new set of Eibachs and put on a set of Yoko ES 100. Life was good then about 6 mo. later the car would follow every rut and groove and I was fighting to keep it straight. It had great turn in but would not track straight. So I replaced the ball joints (torn boots lots of play on drivers side) no change. The Yokos had about 1/3 tread life and became very hard replaced them W/ a set of Michelin PS2's and it was like driving a different car! The tread design of the Yoko ES 100 were great for things like Auto-X and would turn in great but were crap for street driving once I got past the first 1/3 of tread wear.

SharkSkin

I didn't have any such problem on any of my sets of Yokos. I have moved on to a different tire and still don't have that problem. Hopefully, the alignment tech would have checked for loose parts. Maybe not. Get under there and wiggle the tie rods at either end, also get a small prybar and carefully see if you can wiggle the rack around. It's mounted on rubber bushings, but those bushings could be shot from oil/atf leaking on them over time. Either put it on ramps or put one wheel on a curb to check this; you can't check tie rod ends(inner or outer) properly with the suspension hanging.

perrys4

This sounds exactly like my situation. I am changing tires soon thanks to Rob Edwards. Maybe it will take care of things.

IcemanG17

Interesting....... In general the steering in 928's is quite heavy...especially at low speeds... Mine only follows grooves in the road if they are really bad (think visible grooves)..it did get worse when I went to wider front tires too

I would say #1 get an alignment to see where your at.... its possible the alignment is way out of spec...that combined with worn shocks and too low ride height would make the problem worse...

jaimesy

Wow! Thanks for all the great feedback. Will let y'all know if I figure it out!

Ron_H

Well, I have had mine aligned three times and no one figured it out, because they never took the time to work through all the possible wear points BEFORE aligning the car. At one time I picked it up after an "alignment" and could shake the wheels on the ground: the bearings were loose! Sheesh!! Another time the upper control arm bushings were worn, but they have been replaced. But now the "adjusted bearings" were adjusted too loosely. Then I found the rack bushings inside the rack to be worn. I have lost count of how many front tires I've worn out prematurely and the car has NEVER tracked straight yet. I am about to change the rack and that MAY actually help. Good freaking luck finding someone to align your car. I finally settled on Bridgestone O50 tires because they tramline less than any other brand I've tried but they also got too expensive since I use only half of their life before they are ruined. So now I use cheap tires. Maybe I'll go back to school and major in "alignment of autos" and do it myself. Sheesh!! What a joke.