Ive never driven a car without power steering but I was wondering how hard is it really to turn without P/S? Is it just a little difficult or do you really have to use every muscle in your body to turn the wheel? And do the performance benefits of not having P/S outweigh having it?

 

Depends on the rack and the car.



If you don't switch to a non-power steering rack it will be a pain to turn. Don't just remove your power steering belt. I ran my Accent that way for a few months. Switched back and it is better in every way.

 

If you remove the belt, do yourself a favor and loop the hydraulics together also. If you leave the hydraulics connected, all your steering will be fighting against the road AND the steering pump. This is bad. Steering with the hydraulics looped together is only even moderately difficult during very low speed driving (parallel parking) and it's not all that hard so long as the car is moving. Turning the wheels with the car not rolling, you might have to hang off one side of the wheel and put your weight on it



I really liked driving without power steering. It's on the list of things to put back the way I want it, when there is daylight after work again.

 

Like stocker said, if you leave the pump in place, it kills half of the feedback that you gain from manual steering. Effort was roughly the same in my case.



It only really sucks when the car is stationary, but you shouldn't even be turning the tires when the car is stationary anyways.





I highly recommend manual steering dude, DAT FEEDBACK is definitely worth it.

 

Because the OP probably hasn't read it, I'll post a link to the comments I made when I had to reinstall power steering:



https://www.hyundaiaftermarket.org/f...ng-is-back-in/