Mitsubishi Colt electric power steering

[flyingvisit]

Has anyone else gone from a car with hydraulic power steering to one with EPS and been disappointed? I recently bought a 2011 Mitsubishi Colt 1.3 (previous car was a 2004 Yaris) and find the steering needs a lot of effort to make minor corrections on motorways or other fairly straight roads. When turning at junctions or on twisty roads it's perfectly ok; it's only either side of dead-centre that it's heavy.

The car recently had it's annual inspection and I've checked the tyre pressures. I'll be changing back to summer tyres soon (still snowing here!) and perhaps that might make a difference.

Thanks

P.S. Wasn't sure where to post this. Mods, feel free to move it.

Edited by flyingvisit on Thursday 22 March 18:49

[Mr2Mike]

Do you find the car doesn't self centre properly, so you are constantly making corrections? This is very common with some EPAS rack, they become tight as they age and it utterly ruins the steering and makes the car very tiring to drive on motorways etc.

My Civic Type R suffered badly from this (as do most of them it seems) until I stripped the rack and discovered the problem: a large plastic worm wheel is driven by a worm on the end of the motor to provide assistance, but the plastic seems to expand a little with age and introduces a lot of friction between the worm and wheel. I removed the worm wheel and "hobbed" the teeth by hand using a worm from a spare rack which I ground cutting teeth into. It didn't remove much plastic but it absolutely transformed the steering. I need to look at the rack on my mum's Jazz at that has gone the same way.

Edited by Mr2Mike on Thursday 22 March 19:13

[flyingvisit]

Mr2Mike said:

Do you find the car doesn't self centre properly, so you are constantly making corrections? This is very common with some EPAS rack, they become tight as they age and it utterly ruins the steering and makes the car very tiring to drive on motorways etc.

My Civic Type R suffered badly from this (as do most of them it seems) until I stripped the rack and discovered the problem: a large plastic worm wheel is driven by a worm on the end of the motor to provide assistance, but the plastic seems to expand a little with age and introduces a lot of friction between the worm and wheel. I removed the worm wheel and "hobbed" the teeth by hand using a worm from a spare rack which I ground cutting teeth into. It didn't remove much plastic but it absolutely transformed the steering. I need to look at the rack on my mum's Jazz at that has gone the same way.

Edited by Mr2Mike on Thursday 22 March 19:13

Yes, it's tiring to drive on a motorway (although I've only done that once in this car). But I'm not 100% it self-centres worse than the Yaris, or it's just that the steering on that car was lighter on such roads, and I was making corrections without noticing.

The Colt will be going in for a service soon, so I'll ask if they can check it and perhaps fix it the same way you fixed yours. It's not something I would attempt myself. Worst case scenario - a new rack. Could be painful.

Thanks for the advice.