Power Steering Delete

[SidewaysSi]

Thinking of removing the PAS on my E36 to increase feel.

Anyone done this and if so, what are your thoughts? The car will be on 225 section tyres with a Z3 1.9 rack (2.7 turns L2L).

[MitchT]

I once had to manoeuvre my E36 (318iS Coupé) which is on 225 section tyres with no power steering and it was well beyond a weight that I'd want to have to live with. Maybe it would lighten up enough at speed but I'd be in the hedge pulling out of the first side road long before I'd had chance to get any speed up!

How many turns L2L are standard on an E36? Maybe the 2.7 you have on your Z3 rack are more than the standard 3 Series rack, which would make it feel lighter.

[rassi]

Is this a daily driver or a track car? If the former, I would hate to deal with a non PAS regardless of how much feel it would provide.

Edited by rassi on Monday 9th March 11:12

[Monty Python]

Won't this put more stress on the steering system?

[crossie]

Why not fit an electric pump - you can then turn it off and on when needed

I have one fitted to my E36

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

If you want steering feel, buy an Elise or Caterfield.

Retrofitting NA steering to something that heavy on 225 tyres is likely to be anything but feel-some as it was never designed for it.

My old Westy on slicks was a PITA at pit garage speeds and that was 550kg with me in in it...

[Olas]

You only need PAS if you like dry steering whilst stationary.

As soon as the car is moving the steering is light enough that you only need to use one hand.

Reverse parallel parking might become slightly more difficult, but, who reverse parallel parks a race car?

[SidewaysSi]

Plenty of different opinions on this one as expected. Hack Engineering do a PAS delete kit and it seems that once past 15 mph or so, you are fine.

It is a fun (family) road car. And I do have a Caterham and Elise so aware of some of the issues, though obviously the BMW is a lot heavier.

May be an interesting thing to try out...PAS and having an airbag does obviously rob the car of some feel and precision.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

What does the delete kit consist of?

A non PAS rack is designed as such from the outset. Surely basic things like mechanical advantage would be all wrong using a PAS rack without the PA as the system was designed based around hydraulic assistance.

[Zener]

Just removing the hydraulics from an hyd PAS system is a bodge , either fit a proper manual rack or dont bother

[Gary C]

A car without PAS, large section tyres with a large offset and lots of castor are a right pain !

The later 3.2 carrera are just like this, fine when moving, a pain when parking. Would get boring quickly on a daily.

[RSTurboPaul]

DePAS rack is fine once on the move, but I think it would make it harder to catch an unexpected slidey moment.

It is a PITA to parallel park but it certainly does discourage 'dry steering', as mentioned above.