Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaz64
I would interested in the effort needed when electrical failure happens.
That electric motor would have a fair reduction gearset, and/or wormdrive like a wiper motor.
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I was reading through their literature about the install and set up, Gary. If you use their wheel speed sensitive setup, when you are initially driving the car you progressively reduce the electric assist (to close to none?) until you feel the weight of the steering is comfortable at that speed. If the speed is too low then you increase vehicle speed until that sweet spot appears. At that point there is a mode switch on one of their modules that you need to trigger. This will set their calibration speed.
Whenever you are above the calibration speed, the electric assistance is minimal. When you are below the calibration speed, assistance will gradually increase from minimum at the calibration speed to maximum when the vehicle is stationary. All well and good. In fairness it sounds pretty nice.
I have electric p/s on my daily driver and I asked the same question, about steering effort when the assist fails, prior to buying the car. I never got a good answer to the question — which leads me to believe the answer is something the typical buyer would find objectionable. I didn't have a choice, if you wanted the car you got the steering.
I suspect as you already suggested that the system adds a noticeable amount of effort to the steering proposition after it fails. The question obviously is, how much? In the US I would think the regulatory authorities would have had some input to the, how much, question but so far I have not been able to find an answer.
My guess is the car is drivable, but unpleasant, for a man with average or better upper body strength. As suspect as it sounds, I would not be surprised to find it very difficult if not impossible for most women to drive.
For most of us, while having lost the, 'can I try driving it' battle with our wives a while back, we blessedly found after one or two outings with them at the wheel, their interest in piloting our missiles quickly faded. That, however, still leaves the drivability / steering effort question when in failed mode on the table for us ...
I suspect that it is more than insignificant for all the reasons you have already suggested — but I still like the size and apparent ease of installation / implementation, especially the speed sensitive assist force feature.
Ed