It's been exactly two weeks since my last Zed breakdown (immobilizer shit itself - $400) so I guess the car decided it was due for another. I'm yet to go a month without having any issues - PTU, coolant temperature sensor, brakes, immobilizer and now the power steering. Got in today to go pick up dinner, not having started it since driving it home from work last night with no issues. Immediately the steering is very, very heavy. I pull away hoping it'll subside after a few turns, but it doesn't. Check the fluid levels and under the car for leaks, nothing. Give dad a go in it ('cause he's driven cars without power steering and I haven't) and he said it's not completely gone, it's somewhere in between. It lasts for a whole journey and back. After some searching on the forums, I find it can be linked to the speedo and revs, as well as odometer and trip meter. so I go back in for a ride to check for more symptoms. the car's... fine. everything's normal. for a while. occasionally, the steering briefly'll become heavy again only to subside quickly. All dials, etc seem fine. not new to erratic problems - the coolant temperature sensor failure was constantly fluctuating 'til it could be diagnosed. i'm not prepared to sit on this and hope it gets better, but on the other hand I've got rego next month and need new tyres to pass - and am flat broke. so if you've got any ideas, please quote a price cheers in advance. -A
stupid suggestion but have you checked your power steering fluid level i had a similar problem and i noticed if i topped it up just over full it ran perfect.
Inspect / Tighten / Replace your power steering belt. Mine had the same symptoms until I re-tensioned the belt. It looked fine visually but what gave it away was on really, really cold days / starts it would squeal for a second.
I did, but it was dark and I was in a hurry at the time. I'll give it a good look at tomorrow. Cheers Greg *slips into flame suit - where is this located?
Sounds oddly familiar to an issue I had a while back. Check out my thread here. Simply put, it was the power steering solenoid that caused the problem. Re-soldered the two wires back and instant fix. The solenoid is responsible for varying the amount of 'power steering' depending on your current speed, if something is affecting the solenoid, the power steering goes into 'hard' mode for safety reasons. Cheers, MoulaZX
I had the same problem a month back and it was electrical, Just next to the ECU there is a smaller looking box (PSCU)Power Steering Control Unit and that was playing up so sometimes the steering got heavy and then it would be normal again. I replaced the PSCU with one I had at work and she was all sweet after that. If you speedo isn't playing up when your steering gets heavy then I would be looking at getting yourself a second hand unit and trying that out.
mine also to which I was just about to go and post my results. for me the hose from the reservoir had kinked ( I do believe its a replacement from original) I removed it, cut it and added a 90* steel bend to relieve some stress on it and it was all fixed.
