Now that I know when the auto-x season starts, i need to get my car ready. when i turn my wheel lock-to-lock, the steering-column makes a crunching sound. i can also feel it in the wheel. are there bushing in there that may go bad? dry out and crumble? there's no play in the wheel yet, but it needs to be fix before the season. i'm sure it's from auto-x for 4 year with 2 drivers. also, i believe i have a 27mm Whiteline RSB with the heavy duty mounts and end links. last year my car 3-wheeled on most corners, getting pretty high up in the air. i got the rotation i was looking for, but sometimes it was more of a snap over-steer, which sent me into cones. So, what do you guys recommend i do up-front? how heavy of a FSB should i get? i'll probably get the front endlinks, too. Do the strut braces help out at all? cheers folks, i look forward to any and all help.
put your rear sway to the soft setting, get a 27-29 front whiteline bar, and run it in the 29 spot. It'll plant the front wheels better and you'll have less snap oversteer. Most people (95%) are wrong in their RSB/WRX/AutoX information. You want the car to off-throttle lift and sway in the back, and stay firm and planted in the rear. I run stock STi rear with 29 front and it does exactly what I want. Who gives a crap about your stock rack? Find an '04 STi rack for cheap, get the whiteline bushings, and swap that out! You have 16:1 and STi is 13:1. Strut braces for sedans are a waste of money.
You'd go heavier bar up front then in the rear? that's mostly what i hear/read looking into it. and i've never seen a brace at a race, so that anwers that. cool, thanks. as for the steering column sounds, you'll have to step it down for a sec. i'm not the most tech savvy guy. so, what do you think is making the sounds? the bushing? i hear you about the quicker turning ratio, that's something i never thought about. what do they run? [i know i can look it up myself, i'm looking for advise] and, is it an easy thing TO swap out?
Yes, there are bushings in the steering rack that go bad and rot away. I'd check those first when tracking down the clunking. Should be fairly easy to spot. They may be fine on the bottom side (which is what you'll physically be able to see), but the top-side may be bad so check them over good.
nah, they're not that bad. Just have to take your time and make sure they slip in there the right way. I'm not sure whether or not it changes your AutoX classing, but you'll be very happy after replacing them with some whiteline bushings.
Also check your tophats on the front struts. The bearings inside them could be shot causing the noise as well.
Is waiting a few more weeks to get my car's wheels aligned stupid and/or dangerous? After being told over and over by my old mechanic that the death screech my car made when driving over bumps was nothing, I found a new, more competent mechanic via Yelp. Turns out that when I hit a huge pothole that tore my tire open back in the spring, I broke a strut and knocked my front wheels out of alignment. The strut's replaced and the loud squeaking noise is gone, but I haven't yet taken my car in to be aligned. The next couple weeks are very, very busy for me. I can't take time off work, it's finals crunch time for my night class, and I'm preparing my graduate school applications to go out over the next few weeks. Am I destroying my car by waiting until I have a little more free time to get it aligned? It's been over six months since I hit that pothole-- can I wait another month to fix it?
I have the steering rack bushings and they are nice. They are a PITA to get in, not difficult, just a pain. +1 for the 27/29mm FSB, its what I had, and it really makes a big difference. That, and depending on what class you are in, get some things will allow you a better alignment. Camber plates, offset bushings, lower control arms etc.... Don't bother with strut braces until you have all of this other stuff, shocks/springs and bushings done.
I found the steering rack bushings to be really easy to install. it was getting one old one out that was a pain, then I found a trick with a screwdriver and it was out in no time.
Steering rack bushing has always been easy for me. The only pain I had was getting that white lithium grease everywhere and getting dirt/sand all in my face so I spent 90% of the time spitting and sputtering and even put safety glasses on to keep the crap out of my eyes (one bad thing about living in the country....the underside of the car gets very nasty and dirty).