Steering gets so stiff can hardly turn the wheel with all my might when suspension is under hard load on track during HPDE events.

[DH401]

Hi all,
This is my first time posting in any mustang forum but I have been a long time looker.
I have had my 2024 Dark horse for 6 months now and have taken it to 7 HPDE track days so far and will be at COTA in a few weeks for a two day event to end the year.
I have really enjoyed the car but there are two things that Have been bothering me and don’t seem right.
The first thing isn’t the end of the world just slightly annoying, is shifting to fourth gear when under hard load I pretty much have to slam it almost as hard as I can to get it to go in to gear.
And the second thing which is the thing I am most concerned about is, When under heavy breaking the steering wheel is so stiff I can’t turn it at all until I have let off the breaks by probably 50% or so, and under a heavily loaded up turn it takes all my might to hold it turned enough to complete the turn. I am thinking there may be something wrong with the EPAS system but I thought I would post in here and see if anyone has experienced either of these issues and if maybe there is some stupid easy fix.
Thank you all for welcoming me to the group.

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[DeeDub SC]

DH401: I just did the Mustang Unleashed track day event at Charlotte Speedway and used their Dark Horses for the on-track sessions. This was on a 12-turn infield (very tight and technical) plus mile or so on the banked oval. We ended up driving very hard (in my experience anyway) and I never had any problems like you are reporting here. We shifted between third and fourth several times per lap with no issue at all. Plus a bunch of very tight corners and I had no steering issues of any kind. The staff reported all these were stock DH except for some high-temp brake fluid. So, based on this, my guess is you have some problems in the mechanical set-ups on your DH. Can't help on what that might be, but surely there are good folks on 7G that can.

 

[Flyingtexan]

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[fvinazdesert]

I've have experienced the exact same condition but only during extreme braking and accelerating out of a very tight turn. I have to be at the cars limits for this to happen, but it does happen every time I push it that hard.
I don't think it there is anything wrong with my car, if anything it helps me from overcorrecting coming out of the turn. Maybe that's a safety Ford built into the cars program, I don't know.
I also think the G Force I experience during the turn has something to do with it as well, everything feels heavier, it takes everything I have to turn the wheel, push in the clutch and shift gears when this is happing, but it feels great when I get it right.

This has happened to me in "Sport Mode" That I usually run, maybe "Track Mode" is different.

 

[fvinazdesert]

I have had any issues with shifting gears under hard load.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

I have an automatic, but I have not experienced the steering issue you describe.

It could be I am not as fast as you, though, and maybe I will encounter this issue with more experience. I doubt it, however, because you mention it happens even under heavy braking. I did some very late and heavy braking. No issues.

 

[d4rkg04t]

You can make a Track mode profile with Comfort steering if it's a thing. But, to be honest, either something on the car is broke or you're 98 lbs IRL.

 

[D/\rK•650]

You said you've had it for 6 months but have you done any adjustments or modify your car? Like camber or toe settings?

 

[DH401]

You said you've had it for 6 months but have you done any adjustments or modify your car? Like camber or toe settings?

I have had it track aligned at the dealer and everything is in the proper spec according to the hunter anyways. I wondered the same thing and couldn’t remember and checked again recently and it was perfect. I have driven other mustangs s550 and s650s on track and never had this issue so I already was pretty sure there has to be something going on with the EPAS. I just wasn’t sure if this was an issue others were having or not and what people had to do to correct it.

 

[DH401]

You can make a Track mode profile with Comfort steering if it's a thing. But, to be honest, either something on the car is broke or you're 98 lbs IRL.

Yeah I am leaning towards it being broken. The thing that just makes no sense to me is why it drives perfectly fine and has no issues except for very hard breaking or turns that are very heavily loading up the front suspension. Otherwise it turns how I would expect it to feel.

 

[DH401]

I have had any issues with shifting gears under hard load.

Yeah it’s only 4th and mainly on track it is much smoother on the street, though it is still a little notchier feeling than the rest even just casually driving. I had a 2021 GT MT-82 before this so I was expecting to get the better transmission and it has only led me to not love it. I will probably get a MGW shifter for it and see if that fixes the issue as maybe under load the shifter and the transmission just get miss aligned enough that it doesn’t hit it smoothly the way it should. By the sounds of the replies here though I think it’s gonna have to go to the dealer to get the steering looked at so maybe just make them check that too and who knows.

 

[DH401]

I've have experienced the exact same condition but only during extreme braking and accelerating out of a very tight turn. I have to be at the cars limits for this to happen, but it does happen every time I push it that hard.
I don't think it there is anything wrong with my car, if anything it helps me from overcorrecting coming out of the turn. Maybe that's a safety Ford built into the cars program, I don't know.
I also think the G Force I experience during the turn has something to do with it as well, everything feels heavier, it takes everything I have to turn the wheel, push in the clutch and shift gears when this is happing, but it feels great when I get it right.

This has happened to me in "Sport Mode" That I usually run, maybe "Track Mode" is different.

I have always run track mode, I should give it a try in a different mode and see maybe it is just programmed too stiff in track. You say you had experienced this problem as well. I feel like something is wrong as I have driven an s650 GT on track and never experienced that as well as before I got my Dark horse I got to track my S550 GT and my father let me try his 2022 GT500 a few times and never had that issue either.

 

[DH401]

Monitoring

Have you experienced this issue as well?

 

[LouG]

If I was to make a partly educated guess, the front struts are binding on full or near full compression. But that would be weird with no suspension mods.

 

[D/\rK•650]

I have had it track aligned at the dealer and everything is in the proper spec according to the hunter anyways. I wondered the same thing and couldn’t remember and checked again recently and it was perfect. I have driven other mustangs s550 and s650s on track and never had this issue so I already was pretty sure there has to be something going on with the EPAS. I just wasn’t sure if this was an issue others were having or not and what people had to do to correct it.

Well I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya buddy...good luck getting it worked out.

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