steering
 

i have a problem with my steering,when i turn the steering wheel i can hear and feel a loud clicking noise,it kind sounds like there is no grease in the moving part of the steering system,i checked under the car and everything looks lubricated and all the electrical connectors look good.the power steering turns off by itself when that happens you cant hear the noise so is this an electrical problem? has anyone have this problem before?any ideal on how to fix it?

Oh great another first poster due to an issue.

Try cleaning the connectors for power steering. I recall reading in here that they are situated right below where overflow may drip.

You need to give us more details.

When it happens:
Is the car moving? How fast?
How quickly do you need to turn the steering wheel? How much? Clockwise only?

it doesnt matter how fast ur going.you can be in one spot and it will happen.the steering feels like its going to lock up and if you turn the steering wheel harder it will make a snapping noise.it will make that noise 6 or 7 times in ether direction.no matter how hard you turn it.so right now i took the eps fuse out and im driving it without power steering and i doent make the noise,just no assisted steering

You never mentioned the power steering fluid? Have you checked the fluid and check for leaks when your at it.

Mod Edit: He doesn't know what he is talking about. The power steering is electric, not fluid powered.

Oooh. It sounds like you need to replace your rack or steering motor or the whole steering rack assembly then.

The electric steering motor is more or less integrated into the rack.

I don't know exactly how the motor couples to the rack itself, but it sounds like the gears on one or both of the mating surfaces are worn, so when the power steering is active, the motor applies too much torque for the worn mating surfaces and spins in place.

You can see a photo of the steering rack and the integrated motor here: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/rx8-rack-pinion-steering-53766/

monchie, I think someone ripped off your power steering fluid tank. Go check it out. I betcha it's gone. OMG!!!

I wonder if our racks have preload adjustment. I wonder if that would help the rack couple tighter with the electric motor.

Lol, never knew that. Another embarrassing moment for me :dammit:

You're learning. That's what counts. :)

Too slowly......

much too slowly.

No, he is not.

I do want to learn, but a few people here (i really don't want to name names) don't want me to learn about the rx8, and i don't know why. Anyway, i could learn it by myself and i don't need anybody's help anyway. I'm just trying to help on what i know about this car, and a few disagrees with me...i really don't care what they say, just sayin'...

Who would possibly care enough one way or another about you learning anything about the RX-8?
The only thing anyone here want you to do is, essentially, shut up.
You are constantly offering bad advice about things for which you have absolutely no grasp.

Then go ahead and do that, please.

You know nothing about that car. Is there any mystery in why someone might "disagrees" with you?
You are helping no one. You are just causing some of us to have to go around and clean up your mess.

^ :dunno:

rather than start up a new thread, i thought i could hijack this one, its also about the power steering.

i am in the proccess of buying my 8 from a co worker who realized after the fact that a 19 year old PFC in the marines cant afford the payments and insurance on a sports car.

he had some work done, and i plan to check over that work carefully, but one issue is mechanic has not pinned down is the power steering. best way to describe it is "Intermittent" basically, if you turn on the car, and the PS is on, it will stay on. but if it does not come on with the rest of the car, you get no PS at all.

and yea, the "work" he had done was due to hitting a (dead before he hit it because he drives like an idiot) dog on the I-10 at 90mph, and (reference idiot) kept going until the engine quit on him (i dont know the details and the mech didnt know squat about the engine so the just replaced it.)


so anyway, they seem to have finally gotten a working engine into the car, and everything is more or less good, except the PS.

anyone have any ideas? i will check connections and fuses as soon as i take possession, but that is not until next week.

First thing to check is the power steering connectors, clean them up good. The overflow tube for the coolant is pointing directly at them, so if you get any overflow it can spit coolant onto the connectors and the power steering can become intermittent like you're describing.

well now, that makes a lot of sense seeing how the previous driver wrecked the cooling system and seized the engine by overheat. i will make a point of doing that first thing. if there are other probs i will come back with more details :)