Turning to the right is a lot harder than to the left. It's pretty much undriveable. The power steering works perfectly fine. It turns left with ease but its just hard to turn right. I swapped EPS module, noise filter, and rack harness from a friends rx8 to check if it could be something electrical but its still the same problem. I also cleaned and greased the lower U-joint but didn't help. Are there any other parts that could cause the hard steering or is my rack bad?

 

if you lift the car and the air and turn the wheel with the key off, so the PS is off is it still hard to turn one way?

 

There are 2 power steering connectors below the air filter box tray. The connections may have become slightly corroded. Disconnect and reconnect those and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

 

Thanks for the info guys, I lifted the car and tried to turn the wheel with the car off and its was still hard to the right. I took the tie rods off to see if they might be bent and I found that the steering rack part where the left inner tie rod goes screwed onto was bent causing resistance when you turn right so i ordered a used replacement rack. I searched but couldn't find a DIY guide on replacing the rack. Is it difficult to replace?

 

Any tips on changing the rack... anyone?

 

I changed the rack but now the wheel turns all the way to the left on its own. Could I possibly have recieved a bad rack?

 

possible, or it might be that the steering angle sensor isn't happy M A Z D A

 

Is this sensor replaceable? I've read that the sensor on the rack can't be replaced unless your talking about a different sensor?

 

did you go through the neutral position setting stuff?

 

Do you mean centering the rack with the steering wheel? It seems centered. Haven't drove the car much to tell so its possible it could be a bit off. Would this be causing it to turn left?

 

I think j9 means did you search in the workshop manual for the procedure to set the steering in the neutral position, there are several things to do to reset it.

 

I didn't look at the workshop manual. Il take a look at it later today.

 

I looked up the neutral positioning stuff and it appears that i have to connect something to the car? Would I have to go to the dealer for that? And what exactly does this procedure do?

 

Damn dude, if you searched you might have found the suggestions threads linked in this thread.

https://www.rx8club.com/trouble-shoo...n-left-245110/

 

Well if you read all my posts you can see that I'm not having the hard steering to one side problem anymore. I replaced the steering rack and my new problem is that the wheel turns all the way left on its own, and as i mentioned in my first post, i already swapped a different rack harness from a friends rx8 with good power steering so I am sure the connectors on the harness aren't the problem.

 

How do you mean: "the wheel turns all the way to the left on it's own"? Does it do it with the key in the car and engine is ON or it turns to the left from the center and turns on it's own as it sits on the ground parked with the engine OFF? If your problem occurs is the latter, then your problem is mechanical and you may have to check what you installed again. I wouldn't know mechanically since I haven't tinkered with the car's suspension. Otherwise, the problem is electrical and it's your EPS.

 

It turns to the left when the engine is on only. I think maybe the sensor or the motor on the rack might be bad. Il proabably just end up disabling the power assist and use the car that way because I don't really want to spend money on buying another rack.

 

its probably a programming/steering angle sensor thing, the rack is probably fine.

 

Or, the harness. Clean the contact points, replace it with new, or hard wire the connections. I had that problem after my engine was replaced; cleaned all the connections, the one by the battery, the two ground wires, the two connections under the coolant reservior overspill-tube(extend the tube away from the harness), and the one below connected to the steering rack. Besides using dielectric cleaner and zinc based grease, clean the contact plates with a wire brush and flex plates in the female ends of the harness.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. So would I have to take the car to a dealer to have them program the sensor or set the neutral position? I read the procedure and it says something about connecting a WDS to the DLC-2? I will also try to better clean my harness with a wire brush and see what happens.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/tech-garage-...8/#post4024247

 

I've already done the steering angle sensor calibration where you switch key on, turn full lock one side then to the other, then turn car on but still have the same problem.

 

Monroy, I read a few other threads concerning the WDS, unfortunately you will have to have Mazda do the resetting.

 

Thats what I thought. Im going to get an alignment, clean the harness again and then go to the dealer and see if they can do the resetting.