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Hey all,
I had a rhino front bar put on with a winch, about a month or 2 ago now, and only the last week I noticed the steering on the car feels slightly heavy at times not all the time. Speaking with Nissan they didn’t notice anything but said I could be referring to the adaptive steering. It’s only done 8000km so far and part of me thinks that perhaps it’s nothing (as it’s not excessively heavy but just a little noticeable) but wanted to see if others have experienced anything similar.
So obviously you have added weight to the front end, although not a massive increase, this of course can only make the steering heavier.
The 62 comes with heaps of toe in from factory, this makes the steering light , as the steering rack is at the front , id suggest that as the front gets lower, it stands to reason the toe in may reduce with suspension compression.
When i had my wheel alignment sorted, they reduced the factory toe in, in a attempt to stop the crazy wear to the outer edges on the front two tyres, the steering got noticeably heavier, ( still very light for a big car) but now the steering feels so much better and does not want to pull you into a turn like before.
Id suggest you get a wheel alignment, but from what you have said, i don't think there is actually anything wrong with the car, i think the springs are just settling in to their new "normal" load, and maybe you are perhaps feeling knock on effects of your added modifications.
Tyres inflated to correct pressure?
Thanks mate, you make a good point my outer wear on the tires is showing at the moment. I’ll get an alignment. At really slow speeds it’s still light as a feather just turning through roundabouts seems a little heavier which I think you’re right just perhaps settling and alignment. Tire pressure is good currently at 38 pound Nissan suggested running higher due to weight and balanced tire wear I was previously running 33. Cheers
Yeh i watched my tyre nipples like a hawk from the day i left the dealer, started at 40psi day one, outer edges started wearing (no hard cornering etc) went to 45psi to attempt to stop the problem, still didnt work, before i went up to 48psi, i thought id check the max pressure on the side of the tyre, to my surprise its only 44psi on the factory tyres.
4 wheel alignments later (2 at Nissan) im getting on top of it, i now run 45psi all round and rotate every 5000ks, if i bought a new one, id drive straight to get a wheel alignment, and tell them to ignore Nissan specs and just do their own thing, based on experience and the outer tyre wear problem.
Going to better tyres seems to help the issue, but i suspect this is also because people normally get a wheel alignment when they get new tyres, that said, the factory tyres do seem quite a soft compound.
Adaptive steering is lighter at low speed and gets a bit heavier as speed increases this is to give you more feel when driving at higher speed
Just to round this one out I got to the bottom of it. I understand the adaptive steering but the issue I had was that it got noticeably heavier a week after the install of the front bar. What I still don’t fully understand, and still scratching my head over, is I got the Carobotor digital instrument cluster installed the week later right when the steering was heavier at faster speeds.
I noticed that the lane assist button on the wheel didn’t activate any lighting on the Carobotor dash either and when driving on long distance after trying to toggle it off and on to see if it was running in the back ground I found it wasn’t. Long story short there was a new update to fix the Carobotor dash which I installed this morning and now the steering is back to factory and lane assist is now working. I’m both concerned and confused how the dash cluster can do this, but I suspect there is an motor of some kind for the lane assist which may be assisting all the time. Anyway I’m happy it’s fixed, contemplating going back to the factory instrument cluster. This might save a lot of heartache to someone else.
Also wheel alignment is done and up to 40 pound too and noticing a better drive. Thanks for the help