General Eleganza 2010 Power Steering Problem

[mints]

As I stopped at a junction a warning beep was heard and a clonk possibly a relay? and a warning on dash to have steering checked and I had no power steering.
I cleared the junction with now heavy steering stopped the car turned off ignition and than started engine again all came back as normal and still is.
Any pointers to fault would be appreciated.

 

[jrkitching]

This is quite common.

Usually, but not always, the problem is caused by insufficient current being available to the power steering motor. The two most likely causes are a weak battery or a poor earth connection - replacing the battery and/or restoring a good earth will often fix this issue.

Less common, but still not unusual, is for the torque sensor inside the power steering column to fail; fixing this requires either replacing/refurbishing the motorised part of the column (easiest), or stripping the column down and fitting a new torque sensor (cheaper, but more complicated).

First step is to check the battery, and renew if in doubt; they're not that expensive. Then make sure all the earth connections are making good contact, and don't forget the cables; sometimes they can fail internally.

After that, if it only happens occasionally and resets promptly, I'd suggest just living with it. They sometimes grumble on like this for several years, and on an 11 yr old car, it isn't worth spending hundreds of pounds fixing an intermittent problem.

 

[datadiffusion]

Had the same in both my 07 4x4 and 06 Eleganza. Although the potential for serious problems shouldn't be ignored, in both cases it happened only 2-3 times in 3 years, and seemed to just sort itself out with no ongoing issues. Happened once in my 2010 cross, again just once in three years.

 

[varesecrazy]

As I stopped at a junction a warning beep was heard and a clonk possibly a relay? and a warning on dash to have steering checked and I had no power steering.
I cleared the junction with now heavy steering stopped the car turned off ignition and than started engine again all came back as normal and still is.
Any pointers to fault would be appreciated.

Hi

The fact it happened at 'Idle' is a fair pointer towards low powerflow to the Electric Power Steering

You COULD get an error code from the Cars BodyComputer.. but if it says
'low voltage detected' as an example you are really none the wiser

A well charged battery is top priority..
Then the Alternator isnt 'chasing its tail' for the initial 20 minutes of any journey

Look at any post from Lorna87 for some reassurance

 

[Lorna87]

First thing, before anything else, change the battery. You will get a fault code if diagnostics are run, but I would still chnage the battery in the first instance.

 

[DaveMcT]

We had steering problems when the alternator was failing. It was not bad enough to light the charge warning light but it was struggling to keep up with winter loads. A new battery helped for a while but when the issue resurfaced, I fitted a voltmeter. This showed low systems volts (weak charging does this). New (used) alternator and problem solved.

However the air-con cars do make alternator replacement quite a struggle. Ideally the Air pump needs to be removed for access. It is possible without, but awkward to say the least.

 

[mints]

Thank you everyone for your responses, the problem has not shown again so here's hoping it is as you suggest something peculiar to Panda's.