Steering feel

[gmen09]

What's the best way to upgrade the steering feel and responsiveness on the camaro? It seems like the steering is a little on the light side, and it feels kind of vague, what can be done to give more accuracy to the steering, or is it just a characteristic of the car?

[So Cal Camaro]

The Pedders Radius Bushings seem to help for me

[L99CAMA2011]

I have Pfadt ZL-1 bars, spherical radius bush and spherical front trailing arm bush, coilovers that are inverted with thicker shaft and camper plates. All this will make you forget about weak steering . Btw do gen 5 Camaros have weak steering, hmmmmm maybe I forgot what that feels like, I wonder why.

[BMR Sales]

Swapping some of the rubber bushings to poly-urethane bushings on the front end of the Camaro really helps with the responsiveness and feedback of the steering. The factory rubber bushing are lackluster at best and have kind of a vague feel to them. We generally recommend our BMR front suspension bushing kit (BK022) which takes care of all the bushings on the front of the Camaro and will give you that feel you are looking for.

Here is the link to a post on here of a guy installing one of our BMR front suspension bushing kits.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showth...80#post6260980

BMR front suspension bushing kit (BK022)


If there is anything we can help you out with let us know.

Kyle

[Norm Peterson]

Starting from a car that has no cornering/handling mods, I would first suggest experimenting with tire inflation pressures. 2 - 4 psi above door sticker pressure will sharpen the steering response some. Can't beat the price to at least try this.

Another inexpensive mod would be to swap in some firmer steering rack bushings (I know that Pedders has them, others may as well). Any steering rack compliance that allows the rack to move opposite to the direction you're trying to steer the car in comes directly out of the amount of steering that you get at the tires and adds some "vagueness". The steering wheel might feel a little "vibration-busier" afterward, but road feel would have improved.


Ultimately it comes down to tires, and what I think the basic SS really needs is more tire on wider wheels - particularly up front. An 8" wide rim is a bit on the "soft" side for 245-wide tires, and those only-245-wide front tires aren't doing your turn-in response any favors either. 275/35-20's, 275/40-20's or 285/35-20's on 10" wide wheels all around would be a much better starting point. The 1LE runs 285/35's all around on 10" wide front and 11" rear wheels, which is another option (or at least a sanity check on the other three).

You could do a lot worse than Michelin Pilot Super Sports in either 275/35 or 285/35 (this particular tire in an 18" size is on my very short list for the car in my avatar and to be driven on them as shown).

FWIW, save your OE wheels and tires for the cold-and-crappy-weather season.


Norm

[MikeOD]

Caster is a bit of it too...most of us like more caster as it helps the car return to center...but a little less will actually really make the car feel alive in the steering...can make it a bit darty too, especially over rougher pavement, because the tires will be able to chase grooves a bit easier.