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Electric Power Steering

dkalleck

Member
Joined
April 5, 2008
Messages
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City, State
Beaverton, OR
Year, Model & Trim Level
'98 Sport
I'm trying to find more ways to reduce the stress on my engine and help improve fuel efficiency.
I was wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to replace the stock power steering pump with an electric system. Has anyone tried this yet?
 






I'm trying to find more ways to reduce the stress on my engine and help improve fuel efficiency.
I was wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to replace the stock power steering pump with an electric system. Has anyone tried this yet?

Possible? Sure. There are, and have been for a while, some cars that use an electric p/s pump stock.
The question is, is it worth the time, effort, and EXPENSE of making it work on a vehicle not equipped? Almost certainly not. Yes, the p/s pump is a parasitic drag on the motor, but whatever minimal gains you might get from eliminating that would surely be offset by the added weight of an electric motor, battery(ies), wiring, extra fluid, since I imagine it would need to some sort of remote mount,etc....

Now, I was thinking, what about an electric centrifigal supercharger? I mean a real one, not the cage fan crap on ebay. Given the recent grassroots advancement in electric motors/batteries/elctronics; you might be able to design a system that produces a substantial net power gain. If you've already gone to all this trouble with the supercharger as the primary motivation, then it might be worth while to just "piggyback" the p/s pump, and maybe the a/c compressor as well.
 






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