Gearbox is now fixed but I have another problem. Didn't do it for the 60 mile trip driving home when I bought it. I've dropped the box and replaced bearing and put it all together. Now, it starts fine and the red light goes out, but as soon as you try and pull away and turn the steering goes heavy and the light comes on. Turn off and restart and it does the same thing.
Drive it with the steering heavy and go round the block and then restart and it clears it up and it then stays off.
Yet to check battery but could it be a slightly flat battery nearing it's end?
Or could it be the speed sensor... It did come apart while doing the gearbox and I put it back together. I read somewhere that it can effect the power steering?
Anyone know?
Battery reading is 12.7v now its okay
Will check tomorrow when it's been stood for a day.
Any help would be appreciated.
James.
Oh.... Its a 1.2 8v sport 2004

Currymunster said:

Yet to check battery but could it be a slightly flat battery nearing it's end?
Or could it be the speed sensor...

Click to expand...

yes absolutely

Currymunster said:

Battery reading is 12.7v now its okay

Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with the voltage, and all to do with the current the battery can deliver.

AndyRKett said:

yes absolutely




It has nothing to do with the voltage, and all to do with the current the battery can deliver.

Click to expand...

24 hours later and I've checked the battery. Got 12.41v and half hour later after centrally locking and unlocking I got 12.31v.
Starts absolutely perfectly. Drove it about a mile and then on a straight road the light came on and lost the power steering.
Stopped and restarted and it was fine and it didn't happen again.
I assume that this means the battery is
Not holding charge and causing the steering issue.
Any thoughts?

I had this with mine, light came on, steering went heavy, turning the ignition off and on cleared it for a while. Seemed to occur more when hitting full lock.
Happened less after an alternator change, then not happened since I changed to a new battery (about 6 months between Alternator and Battery replacements).

Welcome to my world. I have another thread on here and after it rained yesterday the steering went mad again for a while. I'm convinced it's water dripping through the scuttle onto wires/connectors/earth points underneath as that section of firewall padding was wet. I'm buggered if I know where though and would welcome input!

I don't think it is the battery. Check the gear box earth for example - you just did the gearbox and never noticed the problem before.


Can you monitor the battery voltage while you are driving the car? Volts is relevant. If you have the volts you should be able to supply the current. Attempting to supply the current without a a good battery or good wiring will drop the voltage.

Measuring volts is sufficient to find out what is happening.

markdarbypearson said:

Welcome to my world. I have another thread on here and after it rained yesterday the steering went mad again for a while. I'm convinced it's water dripping through the scuttle onto wires/connectors/earth points underneath as that section of firewall padding was wet. I'm buggered if I know where though and would welcome input!

Click to expand...

Have you cleaned out the duck bills, these are two rubbery/plastic funnels that let the water out from the scuttle. They fill with leaves and muck. I do mine every time I fill up with windscreen wash.

nitramtpr said:

Have you cleaned out the duck bills, these are two rubbery/plastic funnels that let the water out from the scuttle. They fill with leaves and muck. I do mine every time I fill up with windscreen wash.

Click to expand...

Yep all clean. The bottom of the funnels open towards the dash? I suppose I could twist them round to face the engine to stop the cloth cover getting wet?
I'm a bit sick of all this faff. The steering is failing totally randomly when it's under load, when it's not, when it's wet weather more, sometimes feeling like it's going to fail getting slightly stiffer and not, then feeling light as a feather the bang and gone again!!!!
It checks out voltage wise and I've replaced the neg battery earth lead to wing and gearbox etc.
Just thinking now to sod it and buy a new column while they're only 68 quid ???

Hi everyone, thanks for all your input.
My neigbough has a delphi scan package which we connected but couldn't access the eps. According to their website it will read eps codes... Does anyone know how?
Battery tested with a sealy tester at 12.3v today and 14.4v when started and charging.

Currymunster said:

Battery tested with a sealy tester at 12.3v today and 14.4v when started and charging.

Click to expand...

Was it a “drop tester” basically a tester that puts a big resistor across the terminals of the battery to measure how the battery responds to high loads, high loads like the power steering for example.

I’ve had this exact fault on two different cars. Each time it’s a new battery that fixed it, or for a while reconditioning the battery.

The power steering will draw a huge current when in use and if anything in the system shoe weakness the power steering switches off

AndyRKett said:

Was it a “drop tester” basically a tester that puts a big resistor across the terminals of the battery to measure how the battery responds to high loads, high loads like the power steering for example.

I’ve had this exact fault on two different cars. Each time it’s a new battery that fixed it, or for a while reconditioning the battery.

The power steering will draw a huge current when in use and if anything in the system shoe weakness the power steering switches off

Click to expand...

I though it was going to be the drop tester but when he showed up with it it was just a analogue needle showing the voltage. No different to my multimeter.
I did drive to kwik fit but their machine was broken. I can't think of anyone else who has one.
Going to try the delphi software again today. I believe it's a delphi steering system as well.

Hey,
After a while looking at the delphi program I managed to find an intelligent scan. Did that and two codes came up
C1005 - torque sensor
9009??

The guy with the program seems to think that having the battery off for 7 days may have caused the problem.
Cleared the codes and test drove with no problems. Did another scan and nothing.
I hope he is right but I'm pretty sure a slightly low battery would not cause the torque sensor to throw a code.... Would it?

Well you have two possible problems, a low battery has caused the eps to throw an incorrect value, which is perfectly possible. Or the torque sensor needs replacing.

You can change the battery (last battery I got for my mk2 was £38) or you can go straight to changing the torque sensor which is considerably more expensive and a lot more work.

If you can get a known good battery ok loan from another car then you can eliminate the battery from the equation.

Despite having read some codes you’re not actually any better off at this point.

If you had a copy of MES then you can do things like watch the battery voltage while you steer the car from lock to lock. You can also watch the output from the position sensor to see what’s going on there.

At the moment you’ve not really achieved anything. The very least I would do is get the current battery on a good charger and top up the water. Make sure the battery is as good as possible and then see if or how long the error takes to come back.

AndyRKett said:

Well you have two possible problems, a low battery has caused the eps to throw an incorrect value, which is perfectly possible. Or the torque sensor needs replacing.

You can change the battery (last battery I got for my mk2 was £38) or you can go straight to changing the torque sensor which is considerably more expensive and a lot more work.

If you can get a known good battery ok loan from another car then you can eliminate the battery from the equation.

Despite having read some codes you’re not actually any better off at this point.

If you had a copy of MES then you can do things like watch the battery voltage while you steer the car from lock to lock. You can also watch the output from the position sensor to see what’s going on there.

At the moment you’ve not really achieved anything. The very least I would do is get the current battery on a good charger and top up the water. Make sure the battery is as good as possible and then see if or how long the error takes to come back.

Click to expand...

I agree with all you've said. However I did get to watch the voltage while going lock to lock. It dropped to 13.4v fire a split second when you start to steer. After that it seems to maintain at 13.8v to 14v and Settles back to 14 2 with no steering.
Thanks so far

Currymunster said:

I agree with all you've said. However I did get to watch the voltage while going lock to lock. It dropped to 13.4v fire a split second when you start to steer. After that it seems to maintain at 13.8v to 14v and Settles back to 14 2 with no steering.
Thanks so far

Click to expand...

The important voltage is not the battery voltage but instead the voltage at the motor and electronics. Any resistances in the wires or connections can cause loss of power. There is a dedicated large earth for the power steering coming directly off the battery.


You could do a voltage test between the positive terminal and the power steering fuse with a wire jammed into the fuse to get some idea of potential voltage drops as you operate the power steering. So you measure voltage on the same wire and its connections but you look for the drop in voltage when the large load of the power steering is placed on the far end of the wiring. With no load you will always get very near the battery voltage when you measure very far from the battery, but once a load is on the wire then if there are resistances you can get significant voltage drops along the length of the wire and its connections.

The power steering current is a very large 70-90 amps sometimes. The power steering can probably manage with about 11 volts at the power steering motor where you would have 2-3 volts lost in the wiring if the battery voltage is 13 volts.

Potentially a very good looking wire can be defective with built up internal resistances and resistances between the connector and the wire. Checking for voltage drops along the length of the wire is an easy way to find these very hidden faults.

I've moved on a bit with this now. After clearing the code and no problems for a while it stood and the battery went almost flat. I made the mistake of starting it and moving it on the drive. Light on and power steering lost.
Now has a brand new battery!
Keeps failing every time I clear it with the dreaded C1005
I've worked out it doesn't do it when steering right. Only left and mostly when reaching full lock but not always.
Obviously the Delphi reader isn't as good as MES so it looks like I will need to invest. Not sure if the free one will do this though.
I will get under and just check all the earth leads and such to make sure they are tight. Any I should pay particular attention to?
If none of the above I assume it's new column time?
Thanks

Save your money on readers mate. I fixed mine by buying a torque sensor and getting rid of the old one. There's videos on you tube. All the sensors are the same just make sure they have the same plug as your old one.
BTW the cheapest sensor I could find was 50 quid plus 35 for shipping. You can buy a column for 68 quid and pinch the sensor out of that.

Or swap the columns over and if yours is a mk2b 2004 just swap out the whole column with the 68 quid one and swap the motor and ecu over.
You may need to recalibrate the torque sensor and for that you will defo need MES and the license (50 quid) or find someone local who will do it ?

markdarbypearson said:

Save your money on readers mate. I fixed mine by buying a torque sensor and getting rid of the old one. There's videos on you tube. All the sensors are the same just make sure they have the same plug as your old one.
BTW the cheapest sensor I could find was 50 quid plus 35 for shipping. You can buy a column for 68 quid and pinch the sensor out of that.

Click to expand...

Hi, I will look at the torque sensor but first I am going to try cleaning the multi plugs for the column. Won't cost me anything so I might as well give it a go.
Where have you found the column and sensor from mate?
Cheers,
James

Hi James
By all means check the terminals but I am afraid its probably the sensor.
This is where I found the column (its for a mk2a but fits yours if you put your motor and ecu in it)
https://www.partsworld-uk.com/products/electric-steering-column-mk2-punto

and here is the sensor that will fit
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torque-S...eering-Torque-Drehmoment-Sensor-/282734717373

Hope this helps!!

If you need any advice I have just been through all this and will help if I can.
Trust me this was the cheapest option unless you are an electronics engineer and can repair torque sensors.
Unless someone else on here knows of an easier way?
Good Luck
Mark