MPG of cars without powersteering?

[Cryptinox]

Hello, I am a young man who hasn't gotten a first car yet and I am considering a decent amount of options. I might consider a 1995 Saturn SL. What I am wondering is how much more mpg can one get on average if one were to delete powersteering? I am also curious about Subarus since they have not very good mpg as is with powersteering.

[Isaac Zachary]

Good question! I've had three cars without power steering that got around 30, 40 and 50mpg respectively (1972 VW Super Beetle, 1993 Mazda 323 and 1985 Golf non-turbo diesel).

I would think the continuous AWD on a Subaru would hurt it's fuel mileage worse than it's power steering. My suggestion as someone who lives in steep mountainous snowmaggedon territory is to avoid AWD unless you absolutely need it, like if you have a long drive way you have to maintain yourself. Other than a few incidents like that I've never seen AWD as a necessity but rather as a convenience or luxury.

[freebeard]

....how much more mpg can one get on average if one were to delete powersteering?

The average means nothing. It includes both vehicles that do and do not need power steering.

Gross vehicle weight, fore-aft weight balance, tire cross section, kingpin offset all come to mind. Also hydraulic vs electric racks.

If your curious about Subaru, rent or borrow one and delete the belt for test purposes.

[oil pan 4]

It appears that no power steering in a car increases fuel milage by up to 2 or 3 mpg.
There are also new vehicles that use electric power steering, they use no power when there is no steering input and it's disabled at highway speeds.

[Autobahnschleicher]

It depends on the type of power steering.
Mechanical hydraulic power steering will have some improvements in fuel efficiency.
Electro hydraulic or purely electric power steering will not show any significant differences as they barely sip any power at cruising speed as it gets regulated down a lot at speed.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Some vehicles available with power steering as an option instead of standard have different steering gears, with the non-assisted ones usually requiring more turns from lock to lock.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Some vehicles available with power steering as an option instead of standard have different steering gears, with the non-assisted ones usually requiring more turns from lock to lock.

That's true indeed.
However since most of us drive pretty lightweight vehicles on narrow tires, I think it wouldn't even be hard to drive with de-powered steering.

As an example:
My car has ~380 kg on the front axle and 185 mm wide tires in the front.
With the power steering (electro hydraulic) shut down, it's slightly heavier steering, but even for for someone with a built like mine it's not an issue at all.

I might depower the steering rack at some point if the power steering pump fails as replacements are ridiculously expensive and this car doesn't realy need it.

[Piotrsko]

The other issue is power steered cars have teensy steering wheels which make parking lots almost impossible for non gorillas.

[M_a_t_t]

I have no problem with my car not having power steering. It's a 95 mercury tracer. 175 wide tires, not sure weight distribution ~2300 lbs. As soon as it's rolling I can steer one handed. When pushing it in the driveway for example, it's easy to steer outside of the car.

One tip I read (from Frank I think) is to shorten the lines at the rack so you have less resistance to push the fluid through. It works. It made a noticeable difference when I tried it.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

That's true indeed.
However since most of us drive pretty lightweight vehicles on narrow tires, I think it wouldn't even be hard to drive with de-powered steering.

I agree with you, even though I can't even remember when was the most recent time I drove something not fitted with power-steering.