Steering issue

[hystria]

hello, just wanted to share this with you guys...

this morning we had some very cold weather... the power steering stopped working which made the steering almost impossible - it was kind of a weird as I thought that if the P/S would go off for some reason one can still be able to turn the steering wheel (I previously had a non-P/S car). Both the P/S and the Airbag lights came on. The car is at the dealer for a check, but that was kind of a freak as at one point I've almost missed a curve :iono:

[hystria]

well, it turned out a connector at speedometer had poor contact

[BMGYaris]

HUM, i wonder if that could have anything to do with why my speedometer lights dont work properly anymore. Meant to bring that thread back up...but they stopped changing at all if i run them through the bottom to the top, and they only come on when i push it past the knob....perhaps something to do with that connector. I am getting so pissed off about the yaris, chose the toyota over the nissan for reliability, not fucking working out that way

not to mention the fucking unbelievably bad directional stability....damn im pissed now

[hystria]

I can only tell that the speedmeter and the power steering are somehow correlated. The steering issue happened again this morning, one more day to be spent at the dealer... this time the power steering went off, and a few seconds later a relay made a click sound, the speedmeter moved to 20mph (the car was idling) then suddently the steering was fine again. However the airbag light remained ON for the next 10-15 minutes. Did Toyota secretly put WV electronics in the Yaris :iono:

[Katana]

That sucks.I think it is more than a poor contact issue.

[hystria]

that's right. a quick google search "electric power steering issue" proves that almost all the cars using electric P/S are prone to have issues with this system :rolleyes:

it could be simply some self-protecting system that shuts-off the P/S, as both times when it happened it was just after the car was restarted. Hopefully it won't happen while driving down the road :redface:

[YANGSTER]

Ouch....Hope it wont get that cold here in Southern Ontario compare to u guys in MTO.

[spkrman]

speed sensitive electric power steering... ftl? :)

sry to hear, sounds like it could be a bigger problem and the dealer doesnt want to deal with it.

[hystria]

speed sensitive electric power steering... ftl? :)

sry to hear, sounds like it could be a bigger problem and the dealer doesnt want to deal with it.


they are correlated. in the Yaris troubleshooting manual, the power steering ECU (yes, it does have a individual ECU unit) receives input from the vehicle's speed sensor. probably it uses this input to return the right steering torque...

however, what is weirder is the correlation between the P/S and the Airbag light turning ON at the same time... I've read a Peugeot (French car) owner experienced exactly the same malfunction... :confused:

[PetersRedYaris]

Why did Toyota switch to Electric Power Steering? Power steering pumps seemed to work fine...

[spkrman]

Why did Toyota switch to Electric Power Steering? Power steering pumps seemed to work fine...

more power to the wheels :)

i really like the speed sensitive steering, makes parking easy while maintaining a tight feel on the highway.

[eTiMaGo]

Reminds me of a friend who got a Fiat Punto not so long ago, it has a button for "one finger parking", which basically puts the power steering at maximum power, and you really doonly need one finger to turn the steering wheel, so you can easily manoeuver in tight places.

But the Yaris's steering is more than light enough for parking anyway :smile:

[swng]

Why did Toyota switch to Electric Power Steering? Power steering pumps seemed to work fine...
To improve fuel economy? I am not 100% sure, but very probably this is one of the reasons.
Also, I am glad that hystria's problem has been solved. I have not encountered a similar problem this far. My car is now more than a year old.
As for why the power steering and airbag systems' warning lights are turned on at the same time for no obvious reasons (re: Post #9), I have a wild guess i.e., they both need to know the car's speed from time to time (steering will need to be lighter at a lower speed and airbags will deploy with less strength in case of a crash at a low speed). So, when both systems cannot obtain correct information about the car's speed when say, the circuit which is responsible for feeding them with such information fails, both systems' warning lights will turn on.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

[hystria]

actually, the problem it is not yet solved, the connector wasn't in cause... swng, that's quite logical, I will talk to the dealer about this :thumbsup:
at this time, the car is already at the dealer, this time they said it is a faulty ignition switch relay. as the part is backorder I will let you now once it is changed if this will solve the problem :smile: at least I'm not worried about the P/S failing while on the road...this happed only on very cold mornings (below 0 F) and only at the moment the car was restarted


the electrical power steering will be the norm within a few years... it helps a little bit on the gas consumption (weight and power save), but most important it is less expensive and is maintenance-free. many cars already use this technology, including honda, gm and possibly others. The tricky thing with this is when it fails. I suggest some push-ups every morning - this will probably help, as from my experience and from some other forums, it is quite impossible to turn the steering with a failed electrical P/S

[Pars]

I used to have a 84 CRX which didn't have power steering. That car was significantly lighter then Yaris, but my shoulder still grew about 2 inches from tossing it around all over the place.

[swng]

Best of luck hystria, and thanks for sharing your insight about electrical power steering!
And Pars, I like your CRX because I want to have nice looking shoulders and powerful arms:laugh: :laugh:!