Power Steering Warning Light

Unbelievable !

Power Steering had not worked since Sunday morning. New Bosch Made In Italy Coil Pack that I bought on eBay yesterday for £15 was delivered today. It had obviously been fitted and removed again at some point. Only answer was for me to fit it to the A2 to see if it worked. Started Engine beforehand to check how it sounded - Power Steering Amber Warning and still No Power Steering. Changed that one Coil Pack. Started Engine - Power Steering working and No Power Steering Amber Warning. The New Coil Pack is so good that it Fixed my Power Steering ! As I said - Unbelievable !
 
I’m thinking there might be something in my theory that the Power Steering Amber Warning light coming on when starting could be related to Battery Voltage. I tried Charging the Original from new Battery on 2 separate occasions and, as if by magic, the Fault went away both times. Some of you said Fit a New Battery. I did that some weeks ago. That did not fix it. Remembered yesterday about the Charging the Battery up. Did that overnight. No Power Steering Warning Amber Light this morning. I’m going to leave it on Charge overnight then see what happens at 06:20 tomorrow morning. If the Warning does not come on then but does when I start the A2 to leave work at 19:30 then I’ll the case gets stronger !

Steve U
 
66Beetle said:
I’m thinking there might be something in my theory that the Power Steering Amber Warning light coming on when starting could be related to Battery Voltage. I tried Charging the Original from new Battery on 2 separate occasions and, as if by magic, the Fault went away both times. Some of you said Fit a New Battery. I did that some weeks ago. That did not fix it. Remembered yesterday about the Charging the Battery up. Did that overnight. No Power Steering Warning Amber Light this morning. I’m going to leave it on Charge overnight then see what happens at 06:20 tomorrow morning. If the Warning does not come on then but does when I start the A2 to leave work at 19:30 then I’ll the case gets stronger !

Steve U
Click to expand...
What make is the replacement battery?
Is earth lead in good order?
Is starter the oriiginal?
 
Replacement Battery is Varta E44

Timmus checked the Battery connections 2 weeks ago today.

Starter Motor is the Original from new?
 
My gut feeling is the power required to start the engine is dropping battery voltage to a critical level

The engine earth is a seperate entity to the battery connections but Timmus knows far more than i so imagine this has already been considered

Have known starters when getting past there best to take a huge amount of current, in general but not overly common and not specific to the A2
 
I would be curious to see if the warning comes on if the car is started with jump leads from another running car. There does look to be either a large voltage drop or a high resistance somewhere in there. What voltage at the battery terminals before the car is started and what is the voltage while cranking / starting and finally when running. Could it be the ignition switch itself?
 
For info, when checking battery terminal voltage on my 'old' battery the readings looked fine until I applied a light load (switched sidelights on) and the reading dropped significantly. With a healthy battery the difference should be minimal

Cheers Spike
 
I’m about to go and try it now when I start the A2 to drive to work. Will not be able to report back until I get home about 20:00. I can look at A2OC when at work but can not log on to reply when at work.

If you go back to Page 2 of this Thread you can see where I put what Timmus found. No Earth Point problems. Just corrosion in the Plug from Wiring Loom on to Power Steering Pump Control Unit. He managed to clean up the Pins in the Plug. Can not access the other half on the Control Unit until the Front End is removed from the A2.

Steve U
 
Have you checked the drain on the battery when the ignition is off? From memory it is 40 to 50mA, higher than that for a few minutes after switching off.

RAB
 
I’ll forget about my theory about Battery Voltage Low. After being on charge since yesterday afternoon the Power Steering Amber Warning Lamp came on as usual when I started the A2 at 06:20 this morning and again at 19:20 ish to leave work tonight. I’ll just wait for Timmus to return from his trip, so he can remove the front panel / bumper and get to clean up the Contacts on the Power Steering Pump Control Unit.
 
It could still be a low voltage or high resistance. Just because the battery is fully charged does not mean all the components are getting 11-12v. To me this was a design fault with electric power steering. Yes it is designed to give more assistance at low speeds and less at higher speed, but they should have installed a 5 second delay before powering it up on initial start.
 
It’s proper stopped working now. It was taking longer and longer for the Amber Power Steering Warning Light to go out. But it always did go out and most importantly the Power Steering started working when it went out. Now it has decided not to go out at all, and the Power Steering is not working at all ! Asked Rob at WOM but they are booked up until mid October. Will have to leave it parked up until Timmus is back from holiday.
 
Unbelievable. Started A2 today. No Amber Power Steering Warning Lamp, and even better the Power Steering is working perfectly !

Steve U
 
Thank you Timmus ( Tom ) You finally fixed my Power Steering Warning Lamp / Power Steering sometimes not working. Traced to a bad connection initiated in 2003 when the Audi Dealer Fitted a Tracker to the brand new A2. It was a bodged Connection that has been arcing, slowly deteriorating for 17 Years !

Cheers,

Steve U
 
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