General Power steering pump and rack ECU replaced

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General Power steering pump and rack ECU replaced

Joined
Oct 6, 2004
Messages
56
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77
Location
east London, UK
I’ve owned my Eleganza 150 manual 1.9 JTD 16V for 14 months and it has 44,000 miles on the clock. After one month, the steering rack was replaced, grudgingly, under warranty, by the Alfa / Fiat dealer I bought the car from.

I lost power steering for a couple of seconds for first time about 6 months ago.

The second time was about 6 weeks ago, again power steering was lost for only a couple of seconds.

The third time was 2 weeks ago, the power steering dashboard light, which indicates "power steering failure", comes on for the first time and now the power steering stays not working and the power steering dashboard light stays on.

I drive to my independent car mechanic and with less than one mile to go before I get to the garage the power steering starts working OK and the dashboard light goes off.

The mechanic checks the car himself, experiences the loss of power steering, talks to Fiat and takes it to a power steering specialist. The specialist knows of similar problems with Saab 9-3s and Vauxhalls.

The possibilities that the problem was due to the alternator or the battery were ruled out.

The diagnosis is that one or both of 2 parts have failed and that, astonishingly to me, it is not possible to test which of the 2 parts have failed. So the solution is to replace both parts. :(

The 2 parts, both bought from the same dealer, are the power steering pump with integrated ECU (cost 664.80 pounds) and the steering rack ECU (cost 155.00 pounds).

I’m told that both parts are particular to the Croma, not used in any other car, not the Vectra-C nor the Saab 9-3. I’m told that neither part can be reconditioned, and that the replacement new parts are revised / improved. The ECUs' hardware (+ software?) are the improvements.

The total cost including labour is 1,094.80 pounds. (n)
 
He is not fibbing about the exchangeability of the power steering pump, it is unique, however the price is steep. The equivalent TRW part from Germany is €446 inc VAT which is £390 with a €37 refund if you send the old one back.

Fitting takes an hour max.

When he says steering rack ECU I take it me means the steering control unit? Fiat Part 51720518? If so why? The most probable cause would have been the pump, not this; and why change both together, change at least one first and see if it works FFS.

Also this part is available from Germany for €122 inc VAT (£105) and again takes less than an hour to fit.

http://www.kad-automobile.de/index....product_id=654&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=4

In addition given your location and the high hourly rates, have you thought about having the car serviced in Belgium? Sounds crazy but my mate does his with his Beemer because the parts are cheaper and the hourly rate is about half that of London.
 
how do you go about ordering from germany? did you telephone them or order online? not sure what to do. think my pump is going and quoted £665 just for the part in uk.
 
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