tendons

How much camber adjustment is used to dimish understeer?And does it make any differnce in the feel of the steering wheel.? The heaviness in the wheel I think is a function of the variable ratio or speed related power steering and I wondered if any changes to the camber or castor would change that heaviness.?

stephens

The car has plenty of camber standard, this is not the problem.
You can remove the toe in at the front to get the car turning faster, but the issue seems to be two fold;
1. Castor is running around 10 degrees, needs to be about 6-7. The offset bolts only give a change of 40 seconds, so a new arm would need to be made to fix it.
2. The steering rack is plain wrong. I am currently investigating whether there is a linear ratio rack from a 320 or some other model.

Good luck and please share if you come up with anything.

tendons

amg and mercedes must have been aware of the heaviness. I wondered if they increassed the effort to make one more aware of the understeering problem, so that you'd be forced to slow up or have to use more force to pull through a turn. It's really annoying.

Blocktrader

MBZ likely added the caster to help remedy the wandering that plagued the W210. Reducing the caster will reduce the steering effort. Is this what you are trying to accomplish? If you are looking to make the transitional response quicker, I bet the best place to start on this car is the sway bars.

tendons

I thought that there were no sway bars on the 211; the airmatic adjustable replaced them, I think.
In relation to steering effort, today was the first day since I've had the car that I drove it down a spiral ramp in a parking garage at maybe 20 mph and steering effort was wonderfully light. Somehow the heaviness has to be speed related and maybe software for the power steering pump/valves/? must be involved. There has to be more increased angling in that (constant circling)manuver than a ten-twenty degree turn at 80 mph, when the effort is definetly increased.
And actually, I've had both the 93 e500 and the 01 e55 and I remember that ramp as requiring definitely more effort to hold at that same speed.
On the positive side the car is more fun doing u-turns with a definte increase in the cars' angle at the end of the lock, sort of like the bmw active steering.

eclou

There are a few ways to reduce understeer.
1)increase front tire contact patch
2)stiffen rear sway bars
3)increase toe out

Mess with the caster too much and you will get lots of bump steer.

Blocktrader

There are swaybars on the 211. There are no sway bars on cars with ABC (Active Body Control.) Without a drastic change, like changing the rack as Stephens mentioned, I don't see how you are going to reduce effort at speed without introducing negative compromises.

ATS

The steering is speed related. So when going very fast it is harder to turn and when parking it is really easy.. It is a great feature.

I have an E500 and everything seems great with the steering although due to the extra weight in the front end of your E55's cause the understeer as it may still be set up for steering on an E500. Maybe there is a way to adjust this speed related turning on the computer?

tendons

the web site" Yokohama tire recommendations" has a really nice set of guidlines by oliver sanchez outlining the various changes to be made to correct under or oversteer. I wondered why many people are putting larger wheels on the rear if
a decrease section width and increased aspect ratio in the rear are indicated to decrease understeer. There are alot of other changes and these are for competition and perhaps not related to real world concerns.
and above all, will esp not negate most changes, since it's never really off?

eclou

More rear contact patch = more ultimate cornering grip. Many manufacturers have gone to staggered set-up on performance cars for 1)looks 2)understeer is safer than oversteer in the hands of the inexperienced.

norb

Hey Eclou, where have you been?

eclou

I have been feverishly working on the completion of my 944 turbo track/race car. It's now finished at running at 340 rwhp at 18# boost. The car weighs only 2600 lbs and out accels a Z06, and can really walk away from an S54 motored E46M3/E37Mcoupe. I finally got a roll-back style trailer and have been turning in as many lap days as possible at TWS.

norb

That explains it. Do you run with the Porsche Club or the BMW club when you go to TWS?

eclou

I run with everyone - Driver's Edge, Motorsports Club, EDPracing, PCA, BMWCCA, John Eagle. Planning on making a trip up to Motorsports Ranch in Ft Worth, and Hallet in OK as well.