Light steering at speed

[Big Les]

I find that my steering becomes light at about 90-100mph. I lose most of the feel at these speeds and I find it a little worrying. Is it quite normal for the 944 to behave this way (mines an S2 Cabrio with 115000mls) or could it be worn shocks, springs, suspension bushes etc?

 

[Fen]

Not normal. Not sure what it would be; mine was totally planted but I had replaced the struts and tie rods and had a full alignment done before I was totally happy with it.

 

[Melv]

Sounds as though you are getting some front end lift.......not normal....

Have you got a huge bling wing on the back???[]

 

[Big Les]

No wings - it wouldn't look too good on a Cabrio!!

 

[John Sims]

Interesting. Porsche, didn't put a spoiler on the back of the Cab'. I wonder why this would be? Could it be that they do go front light at speed and a rear spoiler would only make things worse.

Does the problem get better or worse with the roof up/down?

I doubt Porsche would produce a car known to be unstable (although older 911's can be very exciting at speed, in the wet, I understand []) so, as Fen suggests, I would look to the suspension first.

 

[Fen]

It was my cab I was talking about. I don't think the spoiler on the 944 makes a lot of difference; you don't see the vortices behind at speed on a wet road like you do with a 911 whale tail.

I'd suggest starting with alignment as too little toe-in or too little castor would make the car overly light at speed.

In terms of the 911, my Carerra 3.0 without spoilers used to feel like the front end was about to lift off the road at 130+mph, by contrast the 3.2 Carrera with spoilers was totally planted at 155mph.

 

[Big Les]

I've got my suspicions that it's something to do with the steering/suspensio set up. If it's all original shocks, springs, bushes etc. with 115000 miles on them I should imagine things are getting a little worn. The car has sligtly narrower wheels than standard on the front although the tyres a normal width, and there is an occasional clunk/knock on the offside front, and although she passed her MoT only 3 weeks ago I think something down there is worn. Whilst underneathe doing the oil change at the weekend I did notice the anti-roll bar was lose in it's rubber bushes. Probably needs a suspension overhaul and re-alignmnent - more money!!

 

[Diver944]

I can't help with the vague feeling at speed but I too have had an occasional 'clonk' from down there on both my cars. Both times it turned out to be the ARB droplink. It had rusted/ snapped where it goes around the bush on the ARB itself.

IIRC it was circa £15 from my local Porsche Centre