Steering Question

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thebig1

Active Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
Messages
429
Car
Mercedes C63
Hi Guys,


Quick question.
On the C63s Sedan, the steering will be direct drive i.e. mechanically connected directly from steering wheel to steering rack, just electrically power assisted?
 
All steering wheels are physically connected to the rack. Whether assisted with hydraulic fluid or electric motors, they're still always connected directly.

With hydraulic power assisted steering, if the engine dies, you can still steer, albeit unassisted.

With electronic power assisted steering, if the engine dies, the battery can help, if the assistance motor failed, again you can still steer.

The key is the term "assisted".

When people talk about electronic steering not having all the feel of traditional hydraulic, it's because hydraulic fluid transmits a lot of feel and vibration too as it's incompressible. The electric motor and wires obviously do not.
 
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I thought so! I had an issue where the dealer repaired my car and when it was returned, the steering was loose, as in steering wheel turned loose say 10 degrees before wheels would start to move. I got them to take it back and when returned was told "We did a software update and hadn't calibrated the steering" I think they left something loose!
 
Loose steering generally tends to be tie rod ends or ball joints. - It could be slack in the bushes on the rack, but I think that's less likely.
 
Hi,

the car is less than two years old. All was fine, steering stiff, went in to the dealer to have engine mount changed underwarrenty. Car came back with loose steering.
 
I suppose it is possible that they've loosened the rack in the process. - Is there play in the wheels?
 
The steering wheel attaches to the column with a sprocket, and that attaches to the rack with a sprocket. Zero chance of any play in those components.

Play can either be a worn/damaged UJ (universal joint) that changes the direction of the column, but that won't be caused or fixed by software a software update, - or by the track rod ends that connect the rack's arms to your wheel hubs.

If it was loose ends though, you'd expect to hear/feel knocking and vagueness while driving, did you drive it at all?

They could be telling the truth though, as it's electric it'll have a program to vary the assistance rate at different speeds, might have been over assisting from a stand still?
 
Hi ya,

It didn't matter what speed I was traveling it, it was still the same.
Say you where doing 40mph on duel carriage way, you could move the steering wheel from 11:50 to 12:10 (Looking at a clock) as fast as you like and the car never moved.
To me its more like they loosened a mounting point to do the engine mount and forgot to tighten it up.
 
Hi ya,

It didn't matter what speed I was traveling it, it was still the same.
Say you where doing 40mph on duel carriage way, you could move the steering wheel from 11:50 to 12:10 (Looking at a clock) as fast as you like and the car never moved.
To me its more like they loosened a mounting point to do the engine mount and forgot to tighten it up.

That sounds like something is dangerously loose to me. Just applying pressure to the steering wheel should result in an immediate and noticeable change in direction. The movement you're describing would scare me to death!

What repair did they carry out?

Wherever you've taken it so far, take it somewhere else for an inspection.
 
Wow, I had a shlt ford with some play in the steering once from a worn UJ and it moved probably a quarter of that, and that was scary and tiresome on the motorway having to constantly fight the steering to keep it in a straight line..
 
I once had a car with no play in the tie rods, but with the toe-in set way to high; that would tramline on the roads, and you'd have to fight the wheel to keep it headed in the right direction.

One trip to the wheel alignment centre put it right.- I actually elected to go for 0"0' and it dialled-out some of the understeer.

The only time I've had the wheel turn and no movement from the steering, it was the tie-rod ends that were shot.
 
They took the car back (they had driven the car 6 miles to me and dropped it off, I drove it home, 8 miles and noticed it!) then they returned it in the afternoon and said "we had not calibrated it after a software update" I personally think they had left something loose and didn't want to say!!!!


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They took the car back (they had driven the car 6 miles to me and dropped it off, I drove it home, 8 miles and noticed it!) then they returned it in the afternoon and said "we had not calibrated it after a software update" I personally think they had left something loose and didn't want to say!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So is it sorted now?
 

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