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MG MGF Technical - Power Steering Prob

Hi everyone,

Just driving to work this morning, about 10 mins into the journey and the power steering light on the dash came on, about a minute after this my power steering died! It wasn't too bad driving it, the steering was obviously heavy but could've been worse. The thing is will I have to take to it MG Whitehouse(again! only recently got it back for HGF) or is it a DIY?

Thanks
Emma
Emma Jackman @ Work

Before you shell out big time go round the connectors on the stearing column unplugging, spray contact cleaner on both faces, plug back in. Also remove glove box and unplug and spray from the ecu mounted up above the glove box.

Most garages don't do this and will just charge you for a new stearing column or new ECU before trying the real easy (and cheap - contact cleaner will cost you £2).
Will Munns

If you're not confortable doing this yourself then take the car to an auto-electrician and ask them to do it for you - they specialize in auto-electics, where almost all garages specialize in oily bits, and whatever the computer tells them to change!
Will Munns

Also just check to see if it has righted itself!

It can disable the power steering if you have been standing still with the engine revs above a certain level for a minute or so - this is because the PAS is speed a sensitive and it gets fooled when the engine is 'travelling at speed' and the wheels are not so it thinks there may be a fault and goes into 'get you home default' which is PAS disabled but it normally corrects itself once the engine has been switched off and restarted.

Ted
Ted Newman

Daft sounding question this Emma, but is the speedo still working?
Rob Bell

Similar thing happened to my partner's F. It turned out to be the main PAS fuse which had gone intermittent. She took it into the local MG dealer and they "fixed" the problem without saying what it was and a few days later it happened again. I investigated and found that the PAS fuseholder was quite badly corroded which wasn't visible until you took it apart. Cleaned it up without scratching any plating off, smeared a touch of of vaseline on and it's never caused a problem since. The fuse is quite large, under the bonnet on the R/H side all on it's own).

Mel.
M Noakes

Ah ha, thanks for all your help, I thought I'd start with the easiest one, so I went down to restart the engine and the steering's been fine ever since. It did happen while I'd been sitting in a traffic jam so that must have been it.

Cheers,
Emma
Emma Jackman

>> It did happen while I'd been sitting in a traffic jam so that must have been it. <<

That'd be it then Emma: if you rev the engine whilst stationary, the EPAS management chip thinks there is a problem with the speedo drive and defaults to 'fail safe' by switching off the assistance.

Nowt to worry about then, which is good news! :o)
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 24/05/2004 and 25/05/2004

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