Heavy Car Steering: Causes and How to Overcome It
31 March, 2021
When you feel your steering wheel is heavy and difficult to turn, there are serious problems in the car. Especially when vibrations or sounds accompany the heavy steering wheel, you may want to fix it quickly.
Power steering should work softly or silently. However, when you feel the car’s steering wheel heavy, check the power steering condition immediately. Problems can arise from the state of the power steering pump or other components of the steering system.
Causes and How To Overcome Heavy Car Steering
1. Less Power Steering Oil or Past Replacement Period
The power steering system requires a special fluid to withstand pretty high temperatures and high pressure. Power steering usually uses an automatic transmission fluid or ATF type oil, which is usually filled in for the automatic transmission of a car.
In principle, automatic transmission with a power steering system uses a hydraulic working principle. Automatic transmission oil is used to fill the power steering, but the oil usually degrades many times.
The way to overcome the diminished power steering or if it surpasses the replacement period, can be done by checking the power steering’s quality on the car. If it has turned black, then immediately replace it with a new one. If the color is still red, then you have to adjust or check the volume. In general, power steering oil changes are carried out between 25,000 to 30,000 km.
2. Flat or Bald Tires
If the car has a heavyweight, the car’s steering wheel will automatically become heavier, and its compressive force will be heavier as well. The compressive force in a car is not only influenced by passenger loads or the various items in it.
Tire width significantly affects the load of a car, which is due to the wider tire tread, so that the cross-sectional area of the tire that touches the road surface becomes wider.
If the condition of a car tire is flat or flat, then the tire tread will be wider. If the tires are bald, you can rotate the front to the rear tires, and this can be done when the rear tires are not yet bald. If your car tires are only flat, then immediately pump up your car tires.
3. Inappropriate Front Wheel Alignment or FWA
The wheels of the car are not positioned vertically 0 degrees, so there is always a tilt. Usually, the wheels’ bottom is more outward than the top, and this is called the camber angle, which is one part of the FWA.
FWA is a setting made to adjust the front wheel’s position to lighten the steering wheel. If the car continues to be used, the FWA will change, and the tires will become thinner due to the car’s continued use.
To solve problems regarding spooring balancing in your car, you need to do a service or repair process on the front wheel angles and car wheel balancers. If the FWA does not experience problems, then the car can go back running again.
4. Long Tie Rod Damaged
A long tie rod or inner tie rod is an iron rod used to connect the rack steer to the steering knuckle. At the end of the long tie rod, a ball joint is used as a hinge so that it can move the steering knuckle.
Problems with the long tie rod will usually attack the ball joint. If the ball joint starts to obliterate, then the steering wheel will develop vibrating symptoms, and there will be a sound when the car is turned, even one-sided.
When you find your long tie rod is damaged, you don’t need to replace a rack steer set. You only need to replace the right or left inner tie rod unit with a new or smooth one.
5. Steering Rack Is Damaged
The steering rack in the hydraulic power steering system has a considerable share because it is the powering process. There are various components such as rack gear, rack seal, and pinion gear in the steering rack.
In a rack gear, there are three seals, including the center seal, right seal and left seal. The right and left seals will move following the rack gear’s movement, while the center seals will not move or stay still.
Power steering is connected between various seals. If one of the seals leaks, the pressure on the hydraulic part of the power steering pump will automatically drop and the result will be a one-sided steering wheel, even difficult to move in both directions.
When the steering rack is damaged, this is a huge problem. Even though it is only a problem related to the seal, not all workshops are willing to replace the steering rack seal. Seeing the process, which is quite complicated, replacement seals are not widely sold in the market, and this is the case that requires you to replace a set of the steering rack.
6. Low Power Steering Pump Pressure
The hydraulic pressure generated from the power steering pump will significantly affect the steering rotation’s weight or failure. The power steering pump will cause power steerig pressure on the steering wheel of the car.
The power steering pump is located at the engine’s front because the engine pulley will drive the pump pulley through a v belt. The pump will be damaged and will cause the output pressure to decrease or decrease so that the steering wheel will feel very heavy to move.
If you find that the power steering pump has decreased or is weak in terms of pressure, you should replace it with a new one. Please do not use an old pump because it will be very risky.
7. Broken V Belt
In general, v belts are usually made of rubber and will be placed on the metal pulley. The rubber meets the metal so it doesn’t slip or jam, making the steering wheel lighter to move.
Many other materials can interfere with the v belt’s performance, one of which is oil spills, usually found after changing engine oil. If the oil makes the pulley’s surface or v belt wet, the connection between the pulley and the v belt becomes smoother.
If it is left for a long time, it can cause the v belt to break and make all the machine’s supporting components not function properly. As a result, the steering wheel will be heavier, and the battery will drop quickly.
When it is found that the v belt breaks, you just need to replace the v belt with a new one. Before installing, make sure your pulley is clean from various oil spills so that the same incident will not happen again.
Wuling family, that’s a complete discussion of the causes and ways of overcoming a heavy car steering wheel. Hopefully, all the discussion shown is helpful for you!
