Do i really need power steering?

[ghettozn]

Seems as thu my power steering is leaking some occasionally and i was told by my mechanic my rack and pinnions isn't great either(no noticable oil leaks, yet). How long of a life do you think my power steering has left? Secondly, how hard is it to drive without power steering?

Thanks

[Deloriant]

Power steering is pretty crucial for everyday driving..even more so for performance driving. I wouldn't go more than a day without power steering.

[BUSTaMOVE]

easy test start ur car get it going then turn off ure car and see how easy it is to turn

[Deloriant]

Yeah, good idea. When you're heading down a hill try turning. You'll see how it feels.

[Speedy-325is]

Originally posted by BUSTaMOVE@Jul 21 2004, 03:57 PM
easy test start ur car get it going then turn off ure car and see how easy it is to turn

that sounds like a really bad idea! when you turn your car off, you loose power assisted
braking as well as trigger the steering wheel lock. i hope he didnt try that already because that is really the stupidest advise i've heard in a while.

come on now, think about things a bit before you tell someone how to kill themselves. the person who takes your advise will probably try it on a windy road thinking he will see how well it turns, but wait..... he cant turn!!!!

and wait.... he cant stop well either!!!!
oooops!
game over.

Mark

[BlantonG13]

as long as your key is in there, turned to the first position before accessory, it shouldn't lock the steering wheel. It still isn't a very good idea either, especially for the brakes idea. But there is always the hand break if you are quick enough to think about it... ghead

[Kevin325i]

Go into a parking lot that's EMPTY. Then do what they've been saying. MAKE SURE: to turn the key back to position 1. You will have enough pressurein the brake booster to stop once at a minimun and maybe 2 times, but only try and turn they stop. It's quite hard to do, you're going to have to replace it.

[BUSTaMOVE]

well the stupidest thing ive heard in a long time is a bmw owner trying not to use power steering ,

[ghettozn]

Its amazing how bustamove can read. I stated "how hard is it to drive without power steering?" Who mentioned trying to not use power steering? You need to get your shit straight.

[Autotechnica]

BMW's were meant to work with powersteering so driving without it wouldn't work out very well. On a car such as an older say 87 Porsche 911 which did not come with powersteering, the car handled great. The result of this is that you have very good road feel and a steering wheel which feels like it's directly connected to the front wheels. Great for track driving, not so great for parking lots and small roads. I've driven without powersteering on my BMW For 2 weeks when my PS belt broke, trust me, you can't drive around without it. When you get below 60km/h there just isn't enough speed to steer properly. You'll be turning very wide, and your arms will hurt really bad from all the force required to turn the wheel to park.

On the old '87 Porsche 911 it didn't really pose any problems except for parking. This is mainly because the car was meant to work without powersteering.

Get it fixed.

Bry

[BUSTaMOVE]

you asked how hard is it to drive without power steering, which would imply that u are not going to use it , i know the english language is tough to comprehend, so i will not further bother myself with this little trifle

[Autotechnica]

Guys, please try to keep the discussion civilized, otherwise this thread will be locked.

Bry

[ghettozn]

Good one, bustamove teaching me about the english language when he uses words such as "ure". Also, if i ask how hard is it to shoot a gun does that imply i'm will go murder somebody? Good call

[BlantonG13]

thats why it was just a question...that doesn't mean he means he was going to do it. If anything I would think he implied that he would drive it without power steering as long as he had to until he COULD get it fixed...not something for anyone to get snippy at... used

[bpowers]

May be a non issue, but I'm wondering if damage can be caused? Since it's designed to have p/s, I wonder if it can handle the additional stress (and as was stated befores, even when cars are designed w/o p/s, they're really difficult to turn at low speeds). My 944 ended up with a lot of play in the steering wheel and I think this was caused by the stress of turning the wheel at low speeds. Just thining it could be a lot worse when done on a system designed to have p/s.