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?