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MG MGF Technical - Power Steering Fault

I think I saw a posting on this before??

Anyway my MGF VVC is displaying the Power Steering Warning Light.

This goes away after switching the engine off and back on again.

I have taken it to my Local MG dealer twice and both times has came back with "no fault found" !!!

The problem happens around once a week and always when i'm stationary in traffic - and i'm not reving the engine (as i've seen some posts relating to this) - I think it may be a overheating problem ????

Anyway when my car was in for its service the dealer said thay had got to the bottom of the problem and that i required a new Power Sterring unit (around £800) - it wasn't going to cost me anything as its covered under a warranty deal i have with the garage I bought the car from - so it was fine to go ahead with it.

I thought this would fix it - guess what 2 weeks later the warning light comes on again - I'm utterly disgusted that a) a dealer can come back with "no fault found" when a WARNING light is displayed!!! and b) after £800 new Power Steering unit - its still being displayed.

I could take it back to the dealer but i'm sure they will make some excuse because its an intermittent fault!!

Does anyone have any ideas or similar experiences

thanks
Gordon

Thoughts are aminly centred around the torque sensors, these are fitted to the steering rack and if the EPAS receives conflicting or unusual results it poweres down the system as something is obviously wrong. To repair requires a new steering column as they do not come as seperate parts. This is most lightly as these parts are subject to wear because they are moving regually.
I could at this point start stabbing in the dark....
oh bugger it
Yes the fault could be elsewhere, not lightly to be the EPAS unit (again!) but there could be a fault with the rev sensor cable, if this was frayed and shorting then it could give the EPAS a faulty rev count, causing it to cut out after a peroid of no speed and 'high' revs. This is highly unlightly and has never been heard of on the board. Get the steering column replaced and if the fault doesn't go away then we can get our night vision goggles out again!

Will
Will Munns

Gordon

When the dealer says 'No Fault Found' he is probably referring to the Testbook readout - Testbook is the MG Rover diagnostic system - and for some reason or other Testbook does not show all faults.

Ted
Ted Newman

Speaking of which, does the MEMS not record intermittent EPAS glitches for subsequent testbook investigation?

I'm sure I heard somewhere that a testbook can tell a garage whether you've been a naughty boy and unplugged your EPAS fuse in the past. Or was that just an MGF urban myth/conspiracy theory?
David Bainbridge

a quick look at

http://www.mgfcar.de/schedules/sb14.jpg

shows no diagnostic connection to the MEMS, and I dont remember seeing a diagnostic port (but potentialy the normal pins could be MUXed?) so I would guess in absence of other information
Urban Myth
Will Munns

I recall the silly story of Dirks EPAS troubles the other year. Or was it Luc ? Anyway.
Luxemburg dealer which was a good one had also no other chance than playing the try and error game. *change and look whether it works*.
From what I heard of, the dealers are not allowed to order spares for tests and give them back if not required. They must buy from MGR and keep it.

EPAS ECU itself is mad like a cow.
In connection with testbook and voltage meter was any reading at the torque sensor possible, but I can be total wrong.

MUX of all three ECU's in the MGF happens in the specific Testbook adapter, from what I understood.

HTH
Dieter
Dieter Koennecke

From what I uderstand the ECU will record some EPAS faults but for a limited time only. If the fault dissappears then the ECU will "forget" the fault code after a number of star-stop cycles.

My own experience leads my to believe that the EPAS ECU is sensitive to some kind of outside interference. My steering switched itself off a few times during the 3+ years I have had the car and most of them happenned at exactly the same place when I was stationary in traffic. The first time it happenned was when the car was only a week old and has happenned again maybe 7 times. It always comes back after switching the ingnition off and on again. I am not bothered any more.

Spyros
Spyros Papageorghiou

Thanks for the comments so far - I have had a good dig around the archive and there seems to be numerous potential causes - which really concerns me!

1) NON MG CD player not fitted correctly causing Earthing problems - could be a problem I have a SONY CD-MX670 player although this was installed around 6 months ago and didn't see the problem until recently and in fact the warning light has came on twice in the past week.

2) the >3000 revs issue when stationary - not causing my issue as I'm not reving the engine -although I have a bad habit of going into neutral before I stop and free-riding for a bit!(maybe causing this???)

3) An early production fault on the EPAS I think around 1995 -the AA told me this, my car is a late 1998 Reg and anyway the dealer has already replaced the EPAS.

4)The Fuse Connections needing replaced and faulty connections - I would think this would cause the warning light to stay on all the time??

5)The steering Column - I suspect this is a very expensive repair??

My main concern is that there have been numerous owners having this problem but no dealer really seems to have a clue whats causing it!!! In some of the previous threads owners have experienced the steering completely locking up and causing an accident!!!

I really am not to sure where to go from here - i think the best plan is to go back to the dealer armed with the new info I have found from this forum and see what they say.

Thanks
Gordon


Gordon D Stein

Gordon,
What did the dealer replace, for the quoted £800?
I ask because when I had a quote for my entire EPAS sysetem to be replaced the prices were (from memory)around :£300 for the ECU, £800 for the column and £300 labour.
I wonder if they have replaced your column?
For info my fault with EPAS wa salo not showing up on testbook and it turned out to be a "loose" pin in one of the multipin block connectors - only after replacing the entire system was the dodgy connector noticed!
Jason H
Jason H

This thread was discussed between 12/04/2002 and 15/04/2002

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