smckenna

Just picked up a new 08 TL Type-S, and now that I have been driving it now for about a week I am noticing that the steering is VERY hard. I looked at the TPMS and all 4 tires are a solid 33 or 34 PSI.
Has anyone else noticed this, and is there anything that can be done?

TL1999

search is your friend. one of example.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...light=steering

LoveMyTL-S

Yes, the steering is stiff on the Type-S. I think it's made that way to be sportier.

stillhere153

iTrader: (1)

stiffer steering kills torque steer, but some wider wheels with alot of meat and watch it get even tighter

TeknoKing

The tighter the better! (Giggity Giggity, Oh Yeah!)

JLJL

yeah TL-S has a horrible turning radius and stiff steering but u'll get used to it and u'll get to love it.

now whenever i drive my dads g37 it doesnt feel right cuz car is so sporty yet it drives like a camry (is that a good thing or bad? haha) anyways i got so used to its stiffness and hey, it will work out ur arms! lol.

paliknight

i love the stiff steering. i used to drive a 2007 grand cherokee and the steering was so light, i thought the car was going to flip.

and tighter steering= better handling.

aceman4

iTrader: (1)

The tight steering is the first thing I noticed when driving a Type S and initially thought the tires were low on air. Huge difference from my 06 TL. After a 5 days of owning the Type S, I'm beginning to love the steering...definetely handles better then my 06 and love the extra ponies.

08TYPE_S

Yes, the Type S' steering wheel is heavily weighted. I guess it supposed to mimmick race cars. It takes a bit of an effort to turn at low speed. After about 10k miles, I am used to it now.

TeknoKing

Well, all new cars now will actually have electronic steering, so it will be light as feather to turn the steering wheel, the goal behind this change is to reduce weight and gas consumption... yay!

I like to let go of the steering wheel knowing that the car will not fly of the lane, so I like it stiff.

smckenna

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It is kind of good to hear that it is normal or expected for the TL-S. I'll just have to get used to it.
Funny thing is that my wife's BMW 335i is just as sporty (a little more even), but it doesn't have this very hard steering.
I guess the Acura design engineers made this decision for us. Too bad it isn't user adjustable, though.

TeknoKing

335i > TL-S anyday of the week.

Enjoy the cars!

BEAR-AvHistory

Agree on the 335, my 330 is a lot lighter then my TL.

That being said its a band aid to help reduce torque steer so it would be real hard to do away with it.

Overall its not a bad compromise & gets the job done pretty well.

BEAR-AvHistory

Not really:

[[[DOVER, Del. -- For much of Sunday's MBNA RacePoints 400, it appeared as though Elliott Sadler was going to get his first Nextel Cup Series win.

Then things -- specifically one thing -- went wrong.

"We had no power steering for the last 30 or 40 laps," said a visibly spent Sadler. "Dover's a tough place anyway, and you lose power steering, it was a tough day."

Quite an understatement when you consider the air temperature was in the high 80s for most of Sunday's event.

"That just wore me out."]]]

Back in the bad old days before power steering many race cars had very heavy steering. This was not done to give it 'race car steering" but the result of a compromise regarding steering wheel movement.

The end of the steering shaft was geared one way or another for mechanical advantage in turning the wheels.

Granny had to be able to turn the wheels so the gearing was set-up to give her lots of turns lock to lock maximizing the mechanical advantage to allowed her to turn the wheels.

Lots of turns lock to lock is a bad thing in a race car so the gearing was changed to reduce the lock to lock movement of the steering whee. This cause a loss of mechanical advantage resulting in higher steering wheel effort till the advent of power steering in race cars.

This created the urban legend that heavy steering is race car steering. The thing any race car designer will put maximum effort into is reducing driver work load & heavy steering does not reduce workload.

DrMooCow

Keep in mind too that 330 is a smaller car then the TL and the 330 has 50/50 weight distribution.

If Honda makes the steering too light, people will whine. If they make it "very hard" people will also whine.

What Honda needs to do is copy Mercedes. At low speeds ( < 20 mph), the steering wheel becomes light. When you're driving on the highway at higher speeds, the steering wheel gets stiffer the faster you go.

smckenna

I have solved this hard steering problem on my TL Type S, and there is some very important information you need to know. Even though my TPMS displayed about 33 PSI on all 4 tires, when I actually took my hand-held pressure meter out (an expensive dial guauge that I've had for some years and trust), the reading was about 29 PSI on all 4). I pumped them up to 34 PSI each (acording to MY guage), and the car now steers almost effortlessly. I noted that the car's TMPS now reads about 37 PSI on all 4 tires.
Pretty interesting stuff, eh? Anyone else want to compare actual -vs- TPMS pressure readings to see if you get the same results?

TeknoKing

^ Your TPMS is way off... Mine is off exactly 1psi all around. I use pro gauge to measure once a week.

I'm running 38 front, and 34 rear. I only feel the steering wheel when I'm parking; but then again I'm use to it.

smckenna

There's still the possibility that my nice gauge has gotten old over the years and is now off. It seems very peculiar that 4 entirely independent TPMS stem gauges are off, and off by the same amount. I'm going to have to borrow my neighbor's gauge this weekend and see.

38 in the front seems pretty high. That's gotta be pretty close to the "blow your eardrums out" exploding tire pressure, eh?

TeknoKing

^no, the max tire pressure is 44psi...no tire is exploding, and my MID always stays on tpms.

And for TL-S, front should have 3-4psi more than the rear.

marshall28

So far my steering has loosened up over my first few hundred miles. One of the guys at the dealer said it would loosen up a bit over time. I have to say it was REAL HARD when I test drove it, and it is now a lot more comfortable to steer... I wonder if its loosening has anything to do with the suspension settling?

edit: Give it 2 weeks and I don't think you will even remember the tightness. It is likely a combination of getting used to it and the steering loosening up. But don't worry, it will get better regardless of what anyone tells you. I also got my Type S this month

smckenna

Yes, now that several weeks have passed, I do believe you're right.
Thanks!

lldknyll26

My psi is reading 37 all around it. The tire pressure fluctuates depending on the outside temp. TL-s front should have 2-3 more than rear. I'm not sure if i should make the front 39 and 37 in the rear or 37 in the front and release some air in the rear and make it 35.