Seeing how far I have to turn the wheel just to negotiate the curves on the way out of the parking garage all the time... how difficult would it be to modify the "turns to lock" on a Protege (or any car for that matter) to give tighter steering response..

Mazda Canada's site says the Protege5 is 2.7 turns lock-to-lock
The Ford Focus WRC is only 2 turns lock-to-lock which seems like a much nicer (and more logical?) number to me

disclaimer: I know software, not mechanics so if this is a really dumb question then I appologize

--rowan

 

Well, if you replace your steering wheel with an aftermarket one (ie. momo) with a smaller diameter, your hands won't need to travel as far to complete one rotation of the wheel. Thus, you can turn quicker but, your turns to lock will still be the same.

I think I said that right.

 

How do aftermarket steering wheels fit pro's... cuz I want one but they don't look like they will fit

 

How do aftermarket steering wheels fit pro's... cuz I want one but they don't look like they will fit

do need some type of adapter?? do they come w/ it?

I want one but i'm not even sure what diameter to get it cuz I don't want it to be too small

 

On that note,

• Sparco Lap 5: 350mm
• Sparco Lap 3: 330mm

After a quick read at HowStuffWorks, I guess what I'm really talkin' about is changing the the rack and pinion gears to give a lower ratio.

Mazda Canada specs for the P5:
Steering: Rack and Pinion with engine-speed-sensitive variable power-assist
Steering Ratio: 15.0 : 1
Steering Wheel Turns (Lock-to-Lock): 2.7

So...... if 15 gives 2.7 turns, then x would give 2.0 turns...
x/2.0 = 15/2.7
x = 2.0*(15/2.7)
x ~= 11.111

The new magic ratio would be approx. 11:1 instead of 15:1 then? My math is a little rusty, that might not even be the right thing to use..

 

And just FYI. If you do change to aftermarket steering wheel. You ahve to remove the airbag. This means that the insurance company won't cover certain things that it normally would [as the car comes from the factory with a drivers side airbag].

 

You would basically need custom gears made for the stock steering rack. Not cheap, and it would increase steering effort at the same time as decreasing steering wheel travel. Changing the steering wheel requires an adapter hub for the particular car model. The steering wheel also won't change steering response anywhere near what you are looking for with the rack and pinion gears.