I keep reading about it in trade magazines when they review cars, but I don't know that I know what it is? What does it feel like when you're driving?
What is torque steer?
- Thread starter Roger
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Torque steer feels like the steering wheel has a will of its own while accelerating in a FWD car. Carefully designed multilink front suspensions can virtually eliminate torque steer.
Drive an early 80's Buick Skylark and you will know all about it!
Either the front suspension is typically Macpherson strut or Double a-arm...torque steer has more to do with the halfshafts and amount of power. Generally the whole reason for FWD is it keeps cost down and it allows more interior space.
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My 3000GT`s steering wheel would always turn to the right if I ever made the tires spin. It was an N/A,but #@$%! that car was fast!!!!!!!!!! Had a hellacious powerband from 4000 rpm to red line. Man I sure miss her!
drive an SRT-4 Neon. start from a start and try to keep the car from shooting into the next lane.
Yeah... mom has a V40 T4 (200hp turbo)... the car is pretty light. Floor that thing in a straight line, and get ready to fight with the steering wheel.
my wife's old 89 accord Lxi used to do it really bad..
every time it shifted under decent acceleration, you could feel the st/wheel kick/jerk pretty hard.
every time it shifted under decent acceleration, you could feel the st/wheel kick/jerk pretty hard.
My 2006 Monte Carlo will pull to the right if I gun it from a stop as it pulls up past 4K RPM. Other than that, I never feel it...I only have actually full throttled it once (from a stop anyway) just to see how it was.
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I wasn't talking about the cause of torque steer. I was talking about how to minimize it -- which is through suspension design.
My old Scirocco with simple McPherson strut front exhibited a massive amount of torque steer with an anemic 95 hp engine and 225/50 tires. My Audi with its rather complicated front suspension setup shows no noticeable torque steer. Its multilink (not double-A arm) front suspension was specifically designed to eliminate not only torque steer bute also to a large degree understeer.
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Didn't know the B5 A4's had the 4-link setup up front...though they def. push a bit when run at 8/10 or more, granted having all the weight over the front end is probably more of the issue.
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Actually, the weight ratio is about 55/45 (and in case of my car probably 50/50 due to 300 pounds of gear in the trunk). The multilink front suspension was one of the reasons why I did buy that car. My mechanic started breathing heavily when he examined the setup first.
I do prefer mild understeer because it does offer more predictable behavior. As for torque steer, it's categorically annoying and should be eliminated as much as possible.
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Torque steer is something that is totally absent from my 2006 Saab 93. Now my 1996 Ford Contour SE..that had torque steer.
I'll bet the Audi also has equal length half-shafts. As mentioned unequal length half shafts are the biggest contributor to torque steer. And I agree even with an anemic engine you can still have gobs of torque steer. Witness my '04 Civic.
Another bad one was the twin turbo Volvo S80...you could floor it from a stop then once you came over the turbo lag you would be shot into the oncoming lane haha. I didn't like those cars.
I'm sure having the TorSen in the Audi split the power about 50/50 between front and rear axle also helps.
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I haven't noticed any torque steer in the FWD A4 either, Pete. I know the quattro has equal length half shafts, but I don't know about the FWD.
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