Today car is a lot easier to drive because of new technologies emerging day by day. Variable assist power steering is one of the features of the automobile. They are helpful to enhance your driving experience throughout your whole journey. How it works and how to tell if you have variable assist power steering or not? We will get into these questions after discussing some terminologies.
This is very useful to driving from long hours, and previously we have to require massive arm effort to turn your vehicle and it is increasing with the weight of the car is increased. And because of this those day’s journeys are very challenging and full of tiredness.
Table of Contents
What Is Power Steering?
Power steering is a system that helps directly to the driver by argument to the steering effort needed to turn the vehicle. In other words, it decreases the human effort to turn your vehicle manually or increases maneuver by assisting parallelly to the driver. They are assisted by two methods generally
- Hydraulically (generates force with the help of fluid pressure according to the driver input at the steering)
- Electrically (In this method we a motor that assisted the driver according to input at the steering)
What is Variable Assist Power Steering?
It is nothing but it is an advanced version of Power Steering with variable assistance to the driver to steer the car easily. Power steering has some drawbacks that it only depended on what force the driver applies to the steering and creat assistance according to that force and it is very dangerous at high speed where your steering needs to be heavy to maneuver. And variable Assist id also speed-dependent as well as force.
That makes better Maneuverability of steering and on other hand also makes the stability of the vehicle at high speed. Now it is adapted by all automobile manufacturers and also it is implementing in numerous vehicles. But do you know how to tell if you have variable assist power steering?
How To Tell If You Have Variable Assist Power Steering?
Would you know what kind of steering is in your vehicle? how to tell if you have variable assist power steering? and all the answers, which mentioned below. That is for your convenience. So through this article carefully step-by-step procedures are mentioned below in the very easiest way of understanding.
1. Check The Manual Book
All automobile have their own manual book that is provided at the time of your purchase, if not you can ask from your seller that is very necessary for you in future and every detail of your automobile part.
2. Search Your Serial Number
Every automobile has a unique serial number, with the help of that you can go through your car company website and check your model with your serial number. All specifications of your vehicle are mentioned there. And it is very easy to read from there about your steering system or any other.
3. Check The Service Part Identification
If you looking manually at your variable-assist power steering then notices the service or information tag is therefrom that you can also check your automobile have variable-assist power steering or not.
For identification of service tag, if there is NV7 notation present then your vehicle has variable-assist power steering.
What Is Your Steering Assist Type?
In India or we can say the conventional method to operate, these are mainly two types available in the market. These methods are cheap and as well highly efficient and also compatibility is very high.
1. Hydraulic-Assist Steering System
This system work on the pressurized fluid to operate the whole steering mechanism. When you steer your car then a pressurized fluid provides the parallel motion with the driver steer and makes him easy to steer. In the whole process, the driver effort is displaced by the fluid pressure, and all the gears, valves, and belts are controlled by the fluid pressure. That is name as hydraulically assist power steering.
That is also visible by looking near the steering system if there is any fluid reserve oil, any slave cylinder attached to the steering system or the fluid hoses are present there.
2. Electric-Assist Steering System
This system works on the electrically driven by a brushless bi-directional permanent magnet motor. And which is attached to your steering system as an assistant for the driver of the car. When you steer your car then this system first measures the steering effort applied by the driver on the car to steer. Then according to the effort put on the steering system, the potential allowed the motor to assist the steering mechanism.
That is also visible by looking near the steering system. And if there is any motor attached to the steering system or any battery connection to the steering system is present there.
Active And Variable Power Steering
Active steering is one of the most advanced steering systems that measure the steering effort and steering angle turned during steering. With the help of this information, it changes the steering gear ratio. It makes your vehicle very much stable on road. Those are generally used in heavy vehicles and some BMW passenger cars.
And On the other hand Variable assist is one of the best blends of all steering systems to provide less effort and great stability with respect to the speed on the road while driving.
Defects In Assistance Or In Steering System
Steering is the main component to drive the car. And also provide the motion to the car that helps you in the changing direction of the car. And here is one video guide that assists you to find problems in your steering system.
Conclusion
I hope after reading the article about how to tell if you have variable assist power steering in the vehicle. That was also noticed by the behavior of your vehicle. For example, if your steering effort varying with increasing the speed of your vehicle. That means if you are increasing the speed of the vehicle. And the contrary your steering system getting stiff. This means you have variable-assist power steering in your vehicle. And Another is very easy to check just check the service label in your vehicle, it may be under your spare wheel.