Steering Goes Light

Hi The steering on my car seems to go light under strong acceleration. I find it quite disconcerting that when I accelerate hard I can start weaving slightly because it's hard not to over compensate. I spoke to a few people at our regional club night last night and some others said they had noticed the same on their Turbo's. The general consensus was that the rear of the car sinks and the front lifts on acceleration, this reduces the contact point at the front and thus the steering gets lighter. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there likely to be anything wrong with my car? Is there a fix that anyone has found?

It does this when the suspension at the rear sags after a few years because the engine sits on top of it. This puts the car in a nose up position which is then exacerbated under acceleration and poor geometry. These leads to the feeling of the car taking control and wondering around under acceleration. Refurbing the rear suspension (or a corner weighting on certain adjustable suspension) and a geo is the solution. Once you've done that it won't feel like that anymore and you'll be back in control again.

Agree with Rodney, suspension refresh required, and geo setup - make sure you go to someone who is a specialist in Porsche geometry. If you are looking for shocks there's a few to choose from, but vox pop says Bilsteins are hard to come by and mortgage money - I had mine done recently and went for a Koni kit inc front adjustable shocks - this was circa £800 plus fitting and a few other bits (top mounts etc) - I was up to £1500 in no time, but well worth the investment. If you need springs as well the M003 kit represents good value, includes shocks, springs, stiffer ant roll bars - around £800 to buy from OPC(!) - I think Autofarm were doing a deal circa £1500 fitted and geo'd. Firmer ride by all accounts once done and slightly lower by around 5mm. Good luck!

Hi Thanks for the quick response - Should I go to a good specialist like Nortway (not too far from work) or is there someone else in the Hampshire area that might be better for this type of thing?

Ray at Northway will be able to check suspension. Also check bushes on sway bars and tie rods. Honestly a suspension refresh, four wheel alignment with good tyres will transform the handling.

As Rod says, get the rear ride height checked, as the extra weight of the Turbo engine and Tip box often causes the rear springs to sag. Ask me how I know. When I had mine refurbed at Center Gravity, they reset the ride height by tweaking the rear dampers to reposition the bottom spring mounts.

Northway are good, I use them myself - Ray is a good guy, and Paul there is a 996 guru. Tognola Porsche in Datchet have top notch kit for her alignment as well.

Do you think this is due to age or miles? - The car is my 2003 but has only done 44K miles.

Unfortunately some parts deteriorate with age and storage conditions. Low mileage is not necessarily a good thing as the years increase.

Could be either or both conspiring - Porsche's always belie their years cosmetically - no one would think twice about other makes of lesser car needing new shocks at 13 years old! Maybe also be something in its history, like terrain it has had to deal with (even slow recurrent trips over residential speed bumps can wear suspension down in 18 months) or even spirited driving in the past, not necessarily thrashing it, but if perhaps a previous owner liked to get the back out on country lanes (who doesn't? ??) it will all have contributed progressively. Only possible downer is if it has had previous rear end damage, not well repaired, but you'd probably have spotted that before now. I'd ask an Indy to get it up on a ramp and give the wheels a good shake to check for excessive play and general wear and tear in the rear suspension parts - you might be lucky and it could be a lesser part (there's a few to choose from), or even just something worked loose (I'm never that lucky mind you!). Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the great advice - as always. Time for check-up before a trip to Le Mans.