Power steering quit
 

My power steering quit this morning on my '13 FR-S with 41K miles. It was very cold (around 6 deg F) but I was already 6 miles or more into my commute and driving 65 mph when it happened. The warning light on the dash came on and the power assist was obviously not working.



I shifted into neutral (MT) and shut the car off and then restarted it. The light went out and everything was fine the remaining 10 miles to work.



Anyone else experienced this or have any ideas? I'm hoping it's temperature related, but it seems strange that it would happen after the car was already warmed up. We'll see what happens on the way home today.

This post may be helpful.

"Well, supposedly the issue is resolved. I arrived at the dealer with the power steering not functional to be sure that the techs could observe it (left the car running). They did observe it, and observed it several more times on a test drive around the lot. Pulled a code C1513, which they said is a control module failure. From there, they disconnected the steering module harness, reconnected it, and could not get the fault to reappear.

In total, they had the car for a about an hour and a half and charged me $80 for the diagnostics time. Oh well. Kicking myself for not getting into the dash myself and checking for loose connections, but I've been busy, and my driveway is a cold place to hang out at the moment.

Could have been worse. A new steering module would have been $629.

So, for anyone else experiencing this and comes across this thread: if you're handy, you might try poking around under the dash, looking for loose wire harness connections in the vicinity of the steering column. Might save yourself $80."


humfrz

Had it happen to me twice, about 6 months appart each time. Turning the car off and on again resolved the issue. Judging from our experiences and the post humfrz linked, I'd say its a connector that can get loose and transmit a weak signal, and the EPS is probably programmed to shutoff if any weird inputs are detected (probably a safety measure).

I had a weak battery that caused this same issue. Extremely cold temps can exacerbate this problem too.

I didn't think to pull the code. I'll do that tonight. I'm hoping for a weak battery cause as well. It did crank over pretty slow this morning.



Thanks all! Believe it or not, I did search before posting but didn't find any of this.

That assist motor pulls a good amount of amps so if it's not within range I'm sure it will act up.

Shouldn't the alternator be able to supply enough to run the power steering though? If not then that is a seriously poor design.

I just checked, and no perm or temp codes set. No further problems either, but it's about 20 deg warmer today. I'll post back if it happens again.

Since it's a 2013 age car, It wouldn't hurt to have your battery "load tested" and the alternator output checked.

:thumbsup:


humfrz

and if your still on the original battery, just replace it!

Yup, happened to me about 3-4 times now all at RANDOM TIMES...
Never got it to check because it just goes away after turning off and turning back on the car.

I recently got a new battery so let's see if that was the issue.

My car was the subject to recall notice, Subaru changed the steering ECU and wiring loom. Any relationship?

It was replaced last year.

This intermittent power steering failure should be considered a safety concern. Toyota and Subaru should do the right thing and issue a TSB/recall for it. If this happens whilst in the middle of a sharp turn, it can really cause a bad accident.
Anyone knows how to contact the right people at Toyota/Subaru?

Has it happened to you? How many has it happened to?

Yeah, it has happened to me on several random occasions. On most of these occurrences, a quick engine off and on at the stop light solved the problem. On at least one occasion, the warning light and beep came on while driving and before I got the the next stop, the fault cleared itself. The other day, my son and his wife came to visit and I let them borrow the car during their stay. I had to warn them about the steering problem. Of course, they never experienced it happening, and they probably thought that I had just made up this story so they would not try to "drift" the car. Maybe they did do it anyway, who knows?

Presume you have had it in to the dealer?

This has yet to become a widespread issue with these cars, if it ever does. It would need to happen to hundreds or even thousands of owners before Subaru or Toyota would issue a TSB, let alone a full on recall. Recalls cost the manufacturer a fortune and they wont put one out just because a few people have had this problem. This is why it's usually a good idea to get an extended warranty for after the manufacturer one expires.

There was a recall for steering failure in Australia (and the UK?). It was for corrosion in a module that we don't even have here though. It didn't take hundreds or thousands of failures to drive the recall though.
Recalls are strictly for safety reasons and can occur even with relatively few failures. The thing is that the failures all have to have the exact same cause. I don't think there has been any consistent cause identified for the very, very rare reports of failures in North America.
TSB are technical documents on how to repair identified defects. They are just instructions and in no way should they be confused with a recall or even an acknowledgement that there is a problem (weird but true). Once again however they can only exist if there are enough failures to identify a common cause and develop a correction.
Since recalls only can occur for safety reasons the manufacturers usually have zero say in if there is a recall or not. They most certainly have the option of a voluntary recall (such as the valve spring one) or the NHSTA (in the USA) can force them. They can't decline because it will cost them to much. If somebody has had a repeated issue that is safety related and they have not managed to fix it they should contact the NHSTA. They WILL investigate.
Extended warranties can be a hit or miss proposition. Some use them and it saves them thousands. Most never have an issue so they never collect and beyond giving peace of mind it was wasted. They are pretty much a gamble with you betting you will have a serious enough problem to make it worthwhile and the insurance company (they are insurance companies) betting you won't and keeping your money.

It didn't take hundreds of thousands of valve spring failures to issue a recall for that. What was there like 94 cases reported? I am not having intermittent outages on my car but I am suffering from the annoying gear chatter (not a safety concern). It would be nice if they sold parts for this unit so you were not forced to replace the whole thing at $1400. I bet the intermittent outages are due to something as stupid as a sensor going bad but because it's only sold as one unit you can't buy just a sensor.

One of these days when I'm in the mood to potentially burn some money and I will buy a used unit on eBay for $150 to take apart and learn from.

Back in 2010 I had Cobalt SS that had a recall for the ignition shutting off when going over bumps but I didnt know it at the time I bought the car. This was a serious issue that when it occurred would cause the steering wheel to lock while moving. Happened to me on the highway going 70mph once and I almost shit myself. My point is at least you were still able to retain manual control of the car.

The GM ignition recall is one of the most infamous ones out there. If memory serves me it caused 150 or so deaths and ended up costing Gm almost a billion dollars in penalties alone. I believe the total costs with lawsuits, recall expenses, penalties and others was somewhere around $3.5 billion. It is one of the main reasons that voluntary recalls have climbed over the last few years.

I have been chasing the same issue on my 2013 FR-S. Here is a thread describing others' attempts to figure this out as well my attempts, which by the way continue.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114665

I have had the same intermittent problem on my 2014. started happening in maybe 2016. I first started seeing it when it was very damp out in the mornings. Then eventually, when it was really hot out. Now, just yesterday, it happened, and it would not disappear. Restarted car 5 or 6 times. Kept coming back. Looks like whatever loose wire, corrosion, bad connection has finally decided to not correct itself. Shop bound today.

That is interesting because all the electronics related to the EPS are located inside the car. It’s all mounted to the column right behind the lower kick panel. You can reach your arm under there and lay your hand on the motor.

The same issue has been occurring on my 13 and the dealer diagnosed it as a failure of the ECU. It’s happened roughly 30 times in the last year and is a $1200 fix at the dealer. The dealer solution matches the solution for the Australian recall.