Description of the steering design (Opel Zafira A)

The steering is trauma-safe, with an adjustable steering column, rack-and-pinion steering mechanism and hydraulic booster.

The steering system consists of a steering wheel, a steering column, a steering gear, two steering rods connected by ball joints to the steering knuckles, pipelines and a pump.

The rotation of the steering wheel is transmitted through the steering column shafts to the steering gear pinion, which shifts the steering rack, which turns the front wheels of the car through the steering rods.

The power steering pump is electric. It creates pressure of the working fluid, reducing the effort that the driver must apply to turn the wheels. The power steering pump is mounted directly on the steering gear and has a built-in reservoir for hydraulic fluid. Thus, the power steering gear is a single unit. Steering gears from TRW or Delphi can be installed. This chapter shows the operations using the TRW steering gear as the most common example. The operations on cars with a Delphi steering gear are generally similar, but still have minor differences.