I recently lowered my TL with Comptech springs. The ride is wonderful, MUCH better than stock. Immediately after the springs were installed, I noted that the steering was much looser--there was a certain heaviness I had known and loved before I altered the car. As recommended by many on this board, I had a 4-wheel alignment done at the dealer two weeks after the springs were installed. This corrected the problem for a few days, but now it's back, though not nearly as badly as prior to the alignment. It feels almost as if the power steering is overboosted, and that there is an area just on either side of the midline of the steering wheel in which there is less response. I'm probably going back to the dealer next week to have the car looked at again.

Any ideas? In the immortal words of Deforest Kelley...."Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer!"

 

Could be a camber issue. If you have too much positive camber it can make the front end "darty" and feel like the steering is too light.

 

Thanks for the answer so far. I think that off camber sounds reasonable. The service clerk at the dealer said today, "so why would it be because of the alignment?" when I mentioned what I did on the site today. I've made an apppointment to return to the dealer for (hopefully) a fix.

 

add struts and sways...that'll help!

 

Very strange...everything went back to normal over the weekend. The fun-to-drive quotient has definitely improved. Perhaps I just needed to wait for things to adjust after the alignment. ??

 

Things usually don't "adjust" by themselves after wheel alignment. You should definitely have it checked - you may have some nut or bolt not tight enough. You could have hit a pothole, and your alignment changed, and it seems like there is no problem now, but if this is the case - problem is still there and will return later. So better be safe than sorry - have it checked.