Steering columns explained

[wbute]

I would be more concerned that it might not be strong enough! The ability to collapse is correct, but it also needs not to collapse or break when you are steering the car at 100kmh!

[SLR_dave]

I would be more concerned that it might not be strong enough! The ability to collapse is correct, but it also needs not to collapse or break when you are steering the car at 100kmh!

Cheers wb, yep thats all part of it. However for the columm to collapse, it needs the dash mounting points to break as well and then, the mesh parts of the column to fold, that seems to me to be more pressure than one would easily place on the steering wheel in normal driving. (Unless of course the driver is also beating out a Hendrix drum part in time with the stereo hard on the wheel... but... even then, I reckon it would take a bit to collapse the column, even with no pins in the steering shaft at all).

The pins and the break off points are all designed to work together, it works on fast shock, and I suppose the point I was trying to make was that it's an engineers field.

I dunno about the idea that steer columns might collapse without impact on the highway in normal driving. Even with totally sheered steer shaft pins, it seems to me that the column would presumably still support the shaft via the top circlip. I again say I am not qualified enough to make that call, it needs an engineer.

That said, in the area of impact safety, I am completely sure that modifying the steering shaft pins may prevent collapse of the column if there ever was an impact. I dunno if it's a real cool area for mods.