Lou501

Hi, I am new to this forum and thought it might be a good place to post a question about the steering feel in my 2007 Boxster S. I've owned other sporty cars, mostly German, but this is the first Porsche I've owned. While it handles great when driven hard, in everyday driving I find the steering feel to be annoyingly jumpy, like it's reacting to every little defect in the road surface and pulling (very slightly but perceptibly) one way or the other. Braking, especially light braking, often seems to compound the effect, with the wheel pulling in random directions. Not hard, but enough to be annoying.

Putting the car in the sport setting seems to accentuate this tendency.

Is the steering just unusually sensitive in these cars, or could something be wrong? I did ask the dealer to check it under braking and they said they couldn't recreate the issue. It's still under CPO warranty for another few months so I'd like to get it sorted out if something's wrong.

Thanks!
Lou DiFrancesco

Marine Blue

Lou welcome to Rennlist.

Ironically most of us here love that the 987 provides a significant amount of road feedback and lets you know exactly what the wheels/tires are doing. It sounds like your car is completely normal. It may be possible to dial some of this out with a Grand Touring tire and perhaps a smaller wheel diameter but I'm not sure how much.

TroyN

Check tire pressures, wear and alignment first. Should not be "annoyingly" or otherwise jumpy.

orthojoe

Check your alignment

terbiumactivated

Communicating road feel should not manifest as "pulling". Check the suspension pieces at their wear points too. Have the wheels re-balanced preferably on a road force balancer and checked for wear and wheels checked to make sure they are not bent.

stevecolletti

Agree with all previous advice.. and assuming the mileage is less than 100K (and there's no accident damage), then what you're feeling is likely normal.
Once you're used to a sports car, 'sporty' cars feel sort of numb.

Lou501

thanks for all the great info...sounds like I have a couple of things to check out, but otherwise it may just be normal road feel...

markk132

i have a Cayman R and it being my first Porsche, I can understand what you're talking about. I, too, feel some more constant pulling of the wheel, especially under hard braking, but I kind of like it. Having said that, i was having a wheel vibration issue above 60 mph, which was fixed by straightening the 2 front bent rims. But i feel like i still feel vibrations through the steering wheels at times at highway speeds. one day it might show up at 63mph, and another time it might show up around 75mph. it's always different and seems to be phantom. OF COURSE, i couldn't get the car to recreate the issue for the dealer on a test drive. kind of frustrating, and was wondering if anyone ever experience a sort of phantom vibration in the steering wheel that showed up at random times and never at the same speed or over the same road. yes the wheels are straight, yes they were road force balanced, and the tires are brand new Michelin PSS. only thing I haven't done is an alignment but the dealer thinks that's not necessary considering the car tracks perfectly straight on the highway. wondering if anyone can help out

OP, was your issue ever resolved?

thomnellie

What are your road surfaces like? The fact that it's worse in "Sports" suggests that your wheels may be tracking road imperfections. The lower the power steering boost, the more obvious this will be. At very low speeds performance tires may "crab" when turning, but this should go away immediately as speed builds.