Technical Replacing electric power steering column?
- Thread starter dac69er
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Technical Replacing electric power steering column?
Gave the battery terminals/connections a clean up and re-tighten.
This seems to have solved the issue for now at least.
I double checked the charging and this was fine. Alternator is performing as expected.
Battery is less than a year old and not a cheapo one either.
Will see how it all goes
This seems to have solved the issue for now at least.
I double checked the charging and this was fine. Alternator is performing as expected.
Battery is less than a year old and not a cheapo one either.
Will see how it all goes
correct
I have been here at least a dozen times with different makes of car
I have a portable oscilloscope, a large crt oscilloscope, bench meters and fluke meters.
in 100% of cases I have dealt with measuring the volts at the cigarette has prove nothing
one slipping alternator belt (still measured 14V at the cigarette lighter)
one recalibration (After a battery change)
one reseat of the torque sensor
all the rest have been battery
I have yet to come across a poor earth, although its one of the First things I try as its free and quick.
the motor earth is directly on top of the battery negative terminal its not on the chassis leg or gearbox
the logic board earth is a Black box bolted in the footwell Never needed to checked this one yet
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The voltmeter will show nothing useful in steady state. It will show the voltage drop when the system is loaded or the battery is cold. Engine start drops the volts. How far do they drop? How fast do they recover. Engine just started swing the steering and watch for volt drop. Again - how much and what is the recovery like? I replaced the battery (waste of money as old one was fine). But watching the voltage drops diagnosed the weak alternator.
Significant volts drop at engine start or working the steering suggests a weak or badly charged battery. Next question is why is it weak? Knackerd battery or lack of charge? The latter could be wiring or the alternator itself.
Fancy equipment is no help you simply have to look at what's actually going on and diagnose the potential causes. When wiring battery and alternator are prove ok the only other option is faulty steering.
In the OP's case, the battery and steering column have checked out ok which leaves the wiring and the alternator.
Significant volts drop at engine start or working the steering suggests a weak or badly charged battery. Next question is why is it weak? Knackerd battery or lack of charge? The latter could be wiring or the alternator itself.
Fancy equipment is no help you simply have to look at what's actually going on and diagnose the potential causes. When wiring battery and alternator are prove ok the only other option is faulty steering.
In the OP's case, the battery and steering column have checked out ok which leaves the wiring and the alternator.
its miss leading to keep suggesting that everything is okay if it measures okay at the cigarette lighter volt meter
There's no current seen at this point
LCD will not measure a quick drop
we have been here many times before. I have provided many examples where it hasn't worked
It may detect a faulty alternator. But even then a high load test would be better.
thanks for keeping us informed.
It will only be the second time I have seen a car with a problem here. Fingers crossed it's fixed.
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Just read this thread with interest as my 1.1 ECO occasionally, throws the Red EPS failure light around this time of year, i.e. when colder outside. It has done so for the last two or three winters. Generally there is no perceptible effect on the actual steering assistance, although one morning it came on shortly after starting an no assistance was present, but this recovered after a re-start as few miles down the road.
I occasionally charge the battery overnight but still intermittently get the EPS light on, say once every three to four weeks - it is difficult to tell as so intermittent.
What I did find recently was a couple of time the warning light has come on and was persistent after a restart. On that occasion I took the car into a car park and performed a few brisk lock-to-lock turns and this seemed to have helped. At least after the turns in the car park I restarted the engine and the light went out and has stayed out so far.
Anyone know why or if the lock-to-lock turns would have helped?
been telling people for years that one of the fixes is to recalibrate by turning the steering full lock to full lock
don't know why it works. Mine failed at every roundabout after I changing the battery. After the lock to lock it never failed again
you will know if yours is fixed permanently tomorrow, I believe its down to -10 tonight
fingers crossed
One thought is that by putting the steering under load, the extra current drawn could help burn away any surface corrosion which is giving rise to a poor electrical connection. I've managed to achieve the same result by putting the steering into city mode for a short while and manoevuring the car.
Mike1alike
Established member
I kind of have had the same symptoms spred to a period of 2-3 years and in the end the EPS failure light was pretty much permanent. And the fix was to replace the steering column torque sensor and I've had no problems since, I think it's been about 3 or 4 years. I practically bought the car with the problem, but at that time it was manifesting rarely and mostly in the winter time.
