khorvath

Thanks for all your help on previous posts. Quick question...how tight should the steering be on a 89 Porsche 928 S4. I have had the car of a year..and it has been the same throughout...but...the steering seems real tight....almost as if power assisted a bit...but definitely not easy turning. Twice when turning the wheel to the right (while wearing sandals) I felt a drop of liquid on my foot (on the gas pedal)...is this related? Any help would be great...

tlsmith1999

drop of water on your foot is probably from the A/C. You may need to clear the drain line. Have you checked to see if your PS reservoir is full? If not, fill it, drive it, and look for the leaks.

karl ruiter

Steering feel is normally very hard on these cars. There are a few years that are exceptions to that, but normally is is harder than most any car you will drive.

dr bob

Not a lot of assist at idle and slow- or zero-speed. Porsche claims "speed-sensitive" power steering but there's nothing in the system that looks at speed. Once moving though, the assist seems "just right".

Later cars (I think '91+) came with higher pump relief pressure and a softer spool valve in the rack to give more assist. especially noticeable at lower speeds.


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Many years ago, GM decided to make a silk purse (Caddy Cimmaron or some such...) out of a sow's ear (Chevy Nova) and wanted to add some sporty feel to the steering. One of thje major changes in driving feel came from changing the little torsion spring in the PS spool valve to make the wheel effort a bit higher. It takes away from the common twitchiness that seemed to plaque the overassisted versions. More feedback to the steering wheel too.

Randy V

You're right Bob - that's definitely a misnomer.

Should actually be defined as 'rpm-sensitive' steering.

The higher the revs on the pump (it is belt driven just like the alternator, AC compressor, etc.) the less assist it provides. Which is what you want at higher speeds.

Rob Edwards

I once drove a Cimarron from NY to Cape Cod. No amount of steering engineering was going to rescue that beast. The digidash was fun, the speedo started flashing at you if you happened to exceed 85 mph....

My GTS's steering is somewhat lighter than the GT's, not sure how much is the rack and how much is the pump.

Tom in Austin

91+ also had a different size 'restrictor' in one of the PS hoses. But 928 steering is definitely different from almost every other PS car ... I let a friend try out my car and first words out of his mouth were "wow, this Porsche steering is amazing" ...

Nicole

My 89 Ford Probe LX did the same thing. So I switched it to km/h, and could see that the engine cuts out at 184 km/h.