Steering of TF going light at speed

I have a TF with 1.8 turbo engine fitted. I notice that the steering goes light at speed/boost over 70mph. The car is fitted with a front splitter and rear diffuser of reasonable quality. Any ideas as I mean to use for some track days?

My suggestion would be one of the aftermarket bonnets with the large vents, lots of people who race or do track days go down this route and there are plenty of threads about this.

It would be great to know where the turbo is installed. Does it use standard parts from other MG/ Rovers or custom fabricated parts ?

It it running a mpi engine or a VVC ?

I’d be interested in that also. I guess you must be running an Emerald ECU or suchlike. A few pictures would be nice.

Hi and welcome to the forum Don

There is a mod to make the EPAS switchable, I believe there is a guide in the how to section.

James

:welcome2:
James is right, the steering shouldn't go light at speed, because the power assist should progressively lesson as speed increases. At 70 there shouldn't be any assist.
As a quick test, stop on a straight bit of road pull the big epas fuse. If the steering is noticeably better at speed, you likely have a fault in the epas system.

Incorrect tyre pressure and alignment are possible factors...

It’s a straight forward job to switch the EPS in or out from the cockpit. I had mine thus rigged but having found it interesting initially, gave up to it after driving around Manchester with it switched out & worrying I’d a big problem, completely forgetting about the mod’. Only when I returned home did it dawn on me that a press of a button would have sorted it out !
Gormless.

MGTFDon wrote:

I have a TF with 1.8 turbo engine fitted. I notice that the steering goes light at speed/boost over 70mph. The car is fitted with a front splitter and rear diffuser of reasonable quality. Any ideas as I mean to use for some track days?[/quotes

The going light at speed is an aerodynamic problem, too much air enters the grill and the only way out is under the car which is what causes the lift. As already mentioned a Seat Leon slitter and exiting the air through the bonnet is the real answer. This has always been a MG problem, the MGB suffered exactly the same but in their defence they developed the ST spoiler that cured the problem, they did not learn from their mistakes and it carried on with the MGF and TF

Fourth and final edit
If you copy and paste the following link you will find all the info;
http://mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/aerodynamics/200HPD_aeropack.htm
The ultimate MG carries a lot of useful info regarding improvements to stability and handling and as you have already found in the above posts tyres and alignment are at the front. Rob Bell wrote the excellent article seventeen years ago and as a MGF racer has the experience to back up the words. While on the subject of aerodynamics, the two intake vents (below and behind the doors) do not allow air into the engine compartment, they are totally ineffective even at speed. If you take an F or TF out on a dirty road and then examine the air intakes you will notice that all the dirt has passed the vents with none being sucked in. The answer is to fit scoops which were once readily available but now have to be home made.
Another article is about tyres, the number of approved tyres is now zero but the current recommendations are Toyo's or Falken's. What I also found is that all mid engined cars are subject to tyre instability, apart from ensuring that they are all the same brand the author found that it was essential to have extra load tyres. This opens up to a greater number of tyres that should be useable. Incidentally when the Falken's were initially released they were only available to MR2 owners due to Toyota having sole fitment rights.
I also recommend Roger Parkers excellent book "Everyday modifications for your MG F and TF" although written several years ago there is a good chapter on the aerodynamic mods.
I am hoping to get the engine and gearbox into mine next weekend after having galvanised the subframes, polybushed all round, new clutch 160VVC upgrade etc One other mod (couple actually) is to machine and redrill the hubs to take MX5 wheels (nearly 3kg each lighter) and at the same time added MX5 rear brake discs 276mm and Mini 294mm front discs with mini R53 calipers. I took off the original AP calipers because they needed a complete rebuild and I think they are over rated. If you do the calculations between the R53 and AP calipers you will understand what I mean.

The article from ultimatemg is excellent. The one thing i cant understand in there though is why it is necessary to lose the spare wheel. I understand the metalwork behind the radiator, which the spare leans against, must come out to allow the air to now flow upwards but presumably there would be room to mount the spare further back out of the immediate airflow on a simple bracket or leaning against the bulkhead. It would be less of an obstruction to the airflow in that space than the engine in conventional layouts. it just seems so impractical to have to lose the spare altogether

Notanumber wrote:

The article from ultimatemg is excellent. The one thing i cant understand in there though is why it is necessary to lose the spare wheel. I understand the metalwork behind the radiator, which the spare leans against, must come out to allow the air to now flow upwards but presumably there would be room to mount the spare further back out of the immediate airflow on a simple bracket or leaning against the bulkhead. It would be less of an obstruction to the airflow in that space than the engine in conventional layouts. it just seems so impractical to have to lose the spare altogether

Having looked at the photos in Roger Parker's book it looks like there is room for the spare wheel (215/40/16 tyre) and a two inch gap for the air to escape upwards, obviously the bigger the exit the better it will flow. A narrow space saver tyre might increase that to 4 inches but leave you with the problem of where to put the full size wheel if you have a puncture, in the boot if you are just running around locally? with luggage?? Having thought about it while typing I actually have an idea of how it might be done, if I do have time to look at it then I will add my thoughts.