Adjusting Power Steering.

[pertuan]

Just out of curiosity...

With the LS Focus having Electro-Hydraulic power steering, is it possible to change any of the following:

• Weight of steering (fully aware the XR5 has it but doable on other models?)
• Number of turns Lock to Lock.

[Lagom]

Turns lock to lock would require mechanical changes and the adjustable power assistance is not available on 4cyl Focuses in Australia.

[pertuan]

Bah! I was hoping I'd be able to reduce the lock to lock turn. Or at least have a play with it.

[Teki04]

Is the XR5T also Electro-hydraulic? Or just Electronic?

[pertuan]

According to the broucher, they are ALL Electro Hydraulic.

What do you mean you want to reduce lock to lock. Electrohydralic means that a variable electric motor turns the power steering pump, not the engine. This means that the car has light steering in town (electric motor on steroids and e's) and hard onthe freeway (electric motor on weed)

Unless you physically fabricate a new steering rack, the lock to lock will not change. Ever.

Now I have thought about this problem (about making the steering a bit heavier), I was thinking about having a resistor on the line powering the power steering pump. The only problem with this is if the computer is smart. It would be easy if the computer only used road speed to determine electric motor voltage. The problem happens when if the computer uses pump pressure vs road speed. If this is so more than likely, then the computer will see the pressure being low, and increase pump speed to suit. This will make the resistor next to useless.

[pertuan]

I was just curious if the lock to lock thing can be done. Would be cool though to have say 1.5 turns lock to lock. How easy would parallel parking be then? hehe.

That resistor idea sounds interesting. You could hook it up to buttons and mount them on the center console where the Euro Foci have their ESP buttons.

Originally Posted by pertuan

I was just curious if the lock to lock thing can be done. Would be cool though to have say 1.5 turns lock to lock. How easy would parallel parking be then? hehe.

That resistor idea sounds interesting. You could hook it up to buttons and mount them on the center console where the Euro Foci have their ESP buttons.

Now thats an idea. I find it funny only 1 of 4 switches are used there!

Ill suss out how it actually works and go from there

[pertuan]

The defroster button could be moved to one side. Then you could have multiple settings...

- Sports
- Normal
- and "Is this thing even connected?!?" hehe

[Lagom]

Originally Posted by pertuan

I was just curious if the lock to lock thing can be done. Would be cool though to have say 1.5 turns lock to lock. How easy would parallel parking be then? hehe.

BMW has their Active Steering system, which actually adjusts the steering ratio based on driving conditions.

[dave_vic_ozz]

go to the wreching Focus link and you can get the bits to play with real cheap. The pump is in a few pieces now but the rack is intact.