Power Steering Fail in Cold

**MrAnderson** · 3rd December 2010, 10:27

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to gauge some opinions on this before I start spending anymore money at the dealers!

Over the last while my power steering hasn't been 'activating' properly on startup. It happens every 7th time roughly on starting the car. However with the properly cold mornings it has been happening more regularly.

If I leave the car to warm up and then turn it off and on, it will re-activate properly but it can take a long time to warm up enough to do this.

I have been able to drive it ok without the power steering but obviously this is something I need to get sorted.

Is this something that I could possibly sort myself? I have just spent a fortune on servicing and don't have the money to go back to dealers!

Do you think it's electrical? (alternator etc) or a failure in the power steering system?

Thanks in advance for your help.

**MrAnderson** · 5th December 2010, 13:10

Any thoughts??

**bigmac** · 5th December 2010, 13:40

Best to get any codes read and get battery and alternator checked out

if its power steering there should be a code.

**MrAnderson** · 5th December 2010, 16:32

Thanks mate, am I right in saying that the codes can be read only while the warning light is on?? Or is there a history of codes stored that can be read?

**cont1204** · 5th December 2010, 19:49

Major faults will have the code stored I believe.

**skip85** · 7th December 2010, 13:39

Originally Posted by MrAnderson

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to gauge some opinions on this before I start spending anymore money at the dealers!

Over the last while my power steering hasn't been 'activating' properly on startup. It happens every 7th time roughly on starting the car. However with the properly cold mornings it has been happening more regularly.

If I leave the car to warm up and then turn it off and on, it will re-activate properly but it can take a long time to warm up enough to do this.

I have been able to drive it ok without the power steering but obviously this is something I need to get sorted.

Is this something that I could possibly sort myself? I have just spent a fortune on servicing and don't have the money to go back to dealers!

Do you think it's electrical? (alternator etc) or a failure in the power steering system?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Power steering fluid can get very cold and not work as efficently as should do. Give it a mile of constant turning and should ease up.

**ted** · 8th December 2010, 13:12

My 06 Signums' steering has been playing up since the onset of this very cold weather. I thought it had totally failed on one very cold morning it was so stiff and notchy. By lunchtime in the midday sun it was fine

Obviously temp related but is this really acceptable in a supposedly modern car? I dont think so.

Throw in the seasonal clonks and binding from the suspension towers I get every year (crud build up?) on this ****** car you can understand why I'm eyeing a Jap car replacement next year. One can only take so much

**andreitone** · 11th December 2010, 02:40

Check the pressure in your tyres. This has once happened to my father. As the weather gets colder the temperature of the air in the tyre drops and so does the pressure. And if the tyre is deflated it's harder to move by the power steering witch pulls more current, maybe it has a threshold for current. Once at the right pressure power steering was ok on my father's car.

**wcr** · 11th December 2010, 03:04

You really need it plugged in mate, run diagnostics on the EHPS. The EHPS is fairly reliable on Vec C's. The VX Meriva's were/are prone to EHPS failure, steering gets hard to turn left or right, if left untreated then it's hard to turn both ways and a new rack is required at £400.