4WS...Keep it or junk it?

The guy I bought my car from noticed that while finishing it up the 4WS light is on. He did mention to me the option of removing it to reduce the weight, and he said I wouldn't have any adverse affects from removing it. I think down the road I'll be upgrading to the 4bolt rear, as it's on the stock 3bolt right now.

Question is...

Should I remove it now, and cut down the weight, time, and possible complications of it down the road, as well as making the 4bolt swap easier down the road? Or should I have him take care of it now, and fix the problem w/ the 4wheel steering?

Thanks in advance

-Craig

 

[blacksheep]

It may just be low on power steering fluid, bro.

- do you have the cash for it?
- do you trust his work?
- are you sure you will be modding it to that point?
- are you sure you wont regret it someday since 4WS was unique, cool, blah blah blah...

If you answered YES to all of the above, hell yeah, have him throw it in.

Else, worry about it when you have to.

 

I have my AWS and am happy that i have it. Simply put my car is unique and i intend on keeping it that way, plus my galant wont be a big race car or anything so there. Guess it boils down to what you will be going with your car.

 

I already own the car. I bought it last month from him, and he's been finishing up a couple things for me. Yes, I trust his work. He's probably the most well known DSM mechanic in Connecticut, aside from Pruven. The only trouble has been it's been word of mouth business until now. He's opening a shop in about 2-3 weeks.

Like I said, I'm not sure down the road if I plan on upgrading it anymore. As it is right now, he freshly rebuilt the motor w/ 2G pistons and 1G rods, as well as a 16g.

He's gotta track down some of the electrical things, and he knows it could be just the low fluid, but he mentioned to me previously about removing the 4WS. I just wasn't sure if it would alleviate any problems down the road that may be more likely happen due to the 4WS.

I was looking for some possible recommendations from you guys, because I just can't really decide on where I wanna go from here. Any more feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

When Scott and I owned the car all the power steering lines running to the back of the car (which also control the 4WS) were rusted/rotted and a hole developed towards the front of the car and rusted through. It'd be a super pain in the ass to replace those lines so I'd recommend just getting rid of it. I believe you said before that you weren't going to have powersteering in the car so with the power steering eliminated the 4WS gets eliminated too (they share the same fluid).

The 4WS is removed in my car as well as the power steering, I haven't had a single problem with it. I never really noticed the 4WS when I had it anyways.

 

Thanks for the response Lisa. I know Aaron had found a leak power steering line that he just got the new one to replace it with. He told me that he could remove the lines to the rear, and then cap/plug the lines from the pump(??) to the rear leaving the power steering operational in the front 2 wheels. I am kinda leaning towards removing it, just to alleviate some of the potentail problems down the road, as well as the hassle it may or may not cause Aaron to fix.

By the way...I saw Scott yesterday at Circuit City and Best Buy. He was right behind me and my girlfriend leaving Circuit City in her light blue Camry. Your car is sooo friggin loud!! I read you guys were having a tough time w/ things up at LVD as well at your Dragday. Were you planning on going to Kevin's Dragday either on June 27th or the one he is doing in August? Maybe I'll have to catch up w/ you at some point when I get the car from Aaron.

 

I say if you're going to get rid of power steering get rid of it all together. After about a week you don't even notice that its gone. I prefer my car without power steering.

Ya, Scott was at Circuit City last night buying me a new laptop

I was with him at Best Buy earlier in the evening but not when he went to Circuit City.

My tranny was grinding pretty bad from the first day I installed it. I hurt my back not too long after I installed it so there was no chance for me to change it. I also couldn't make it to get it dyno tuned because my back caused me to be bed-ridden when I wasn't at work for a good part of the past 2 months. So we went up to LVD with a tranny that was grinding but still working from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 and an untuned car. After the first pass 1 to 2 was basically gone but he kept driving the car to tune it. The tuning got completed by about the 3rd pass but by that point 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 were basically non-existant. Maybe the 6th run down the track 3 to 4 were destroyed. So we called it quits and drove home with 1st and 5th working fine and having to hold it in 2nd gear so it didn't pop out.

We got home at like 4:30 and my new tranny was in the car and we were driving it by about 7. Unfortunately yesterday I noticed that my master cylinder is leaking pretty bad and I need a new clutch pedal (where the clutch pedal attaches to the rod is worn pretty bad and thats reducing the travel to the rod that pushes the master cylinder). So I'll be replacing both of those on tuesday.

When the turbo spooled the car hit hard and the mph on the runs were consistant with a mid 12 second car. Unfortunately the bad tranny prevented us from seeing the car at its full potential. Until I get up to the track again I'll have to stick with my best time of 13.91 @ 110mph

 

Anyone else have any thoughts on keeping it, or getting rid of it?

Just trying to see if you guys have any other recommendations based on experience or from what you've heard.

Thanks

 

[Hertz]

As far as street driving is concerned: It makes for some spectacular "emergency" lane changes... but I've also had the rear tire kiss a few curbs unexpectedly on higher speed corners.

 

this is a pretty unique car and although l modify everything on every car l`ve ever owned l`ve thought twice about actually removing the very features that make this car what it is.As far as performance gain from the weight loss you`re not going to notice it unless you intend to gut the car completely,then it adds up.lf you want to take off some weight that you`ll actually feel get lighter wheels-lose 10 lbs a wheel and you`ll feel that.These cars came loaded with features that some modern cars don`t even have.As for me? l just took the rear doors off,l never sit back there anyway

 

I echo the other sentiments - it is part of what makes the car unique so I kept it when I installed the 4-bolt LSD rear. Honsetly, I don't even notice that it is there.

 

[turboflanagan]

I hate the rear wheel steering. It makes really strange handling issues at higher speed sweepers. It may be cool to say that it has 4 wheel steering, but when the rubber meets the road and it makes you say WHOA! What the heck did it just do that for?... I would rather not have it. I haven't noticed any effects good or bad during tighter turns, but I will be getting rid of mine soon.

 

quote:Originally posted by BlackHole:
I echo the other sentiments - it is part of what makes the car unique so I kept it when I installed the 4-bolt LSD rear. Honsetly, I don't even notice that it is there. That was the question I had. Can you keep the 4ws when installing a 4-bolt rear? I just bought my car last monday and it needed a power steering line to the rear rack. Part #MB631725 $55.00 from the dealer.

 

From what I understand, you can keep the AWS when you switch to the 4bolt, but it's a little more work. You can do a search for something like "AWS" or "4WS" and find it. I found something about it last week when I was searching.

I actually decided to yank the rear steering afterall.

 

[Matticus]

I think I will be removing mine shortly. I too notice the rear end of the car feeling really strange on some corners. I can feel the rear of the car turn, it is very un-nerving, almost feels like the ass end will keep coming around and turn into a spin out. It is a cool feature in theory, especially the sticker on the back window. Here is a question, would it be considered rice if I removed the 4WS and kept the sticker?

 

Matticus:
Consider someone asking you about the 4WS if he/she would notice the sticker? What would you reply? Personally, I would remove the sticker if removing the 4WS.

 

When I get around to replacing the current 3 bolt rear, I will try to keep the 4WS with the 4 bolt rear. "Try" being the key word. If its a lot of work, I may not keep it, but I'll see when i et around to it.

 

Craig - You mentioned the Mechanic from Ct. Well I am from Mass - have a 92 VR4 (original owner)and not done a single mod to it yet. I would love to talk to someone that could possible do all the work for me. You said he is opening shop in near future. Any phone number? Or if you have other neame I would also be interested. Any help appreciated.

 

quote:Originally posted by SteveHebert:
Craig - You mentioned the Mechanic from Ct. Well I am from Mass - have a 92 VR4 (original owner)and not done a single mod to it yet. I would love to talk to someone that could possible do all the work for me. You said he is opening shop in near future. Any phone number? Or if you have other neame I would also be interested. Any help appreciated. Steve,

His name is Aaron Victor and he the grand opening to Victor Research is going to be this Saturday. I should be attending that for a little while and I'll talk to him and let him know there may be another VR4 owner looking to do business w/ him. The shop is located in East Hartford about 2 min from 91. I'm not sure if the phones are working there yet, but I'll get you a number when I talk to him again.

There is also Pruven Performance in Milford, which is quite a way from Mass. Alot of people have heard of Pruven and are very aware of their accomplishments. The guys down there really know their stuff.

 

[Gvr4-330]

quote:Originally posted by vrpower:
Matticus:
Consider someone asking you about the 4WS if he/she would notice the sticker? What would you reply? Personally, I would remove the sticker if removing the 4WS. I still have the sticker even though I don't have the 4ws. I plan on getting another sticker made, kinda like the no-smoking sticker that would go over the 4ws.

Rob