Thread: torque steer
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Old 20 Aug 2003, 10:24 am
GLH_TC 16V GLH_TC 16V is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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You can limit the amount of torque steer by increasing the traction to the wheel which is causing the torque steer. Usually it is the passenger front wheel in a FWD car because there is less weight over it. A quick and dirty fix is to reduce the tire pressure in that one tire relative to the drivers side tire. The larger contact patch of the passenger tire with the reduced pressure will increase the traction for that tire and slightly reduce the torque steer.

That being said, it is not a practical solution to the problem as a) the reduced tire pressure will increase the rolling resistance and fuel mileage will go down, b) under normal driving, the car may pull to the right because of the increased traction and lower ride height of that corner of the vehicle, and c) you will experience unever tread wear across that tire due to under-inflation. For the best solution (albeit much more expensive) is a limited slip differential (see the 'limited slip' thread in the suspension forum).

Another 'do-it-yourself-fix' is to shim the front swaybar to 'preload' the passenger side to help equal out the weight over the wheels. For this you will have to experiment with different shim sizes, a lot of trial and error. Just some tricks that I learn from my Turbo Dodge days.

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Marc
2003 PT Cruiser GT Turbo, Silver
1985 Dodge Omni GLH Turbo 16V, Black
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