Cody Helton

My power steering on my 8 doesn't work. I have a light on the dash for it, and I already tried all the basic stuff thats suggested. I cleaned and greased the connectors, reset the DSC, and did the 20 pedal reset. I measured the ohms at the steering shaft torque sensor and got 16.xx ohms on A to B. I measured ohms on B to C and got 15.8. Im aware that the acceptable values are 12-15 but could just one ohm cause my power steering to shut down? Any other suggestions?

UnknownJinX

When you say you greased the connector, where did you grease it?

Lots of people make the mistake of putting it onto the metal, which makes the connection much worse. Dielectric means NOT conductive. Wipe that stuff off if that's the case.

Cody Helton

Will do, ill clean them out today and update you.

Cody Helton

Just cleaned all connectors related to power steering, still have nothing. I blew them out with air, used a flat head screwdriver to get the grease out, and used contact cleaner. Any other options or tests I can do? Any way to get a code from the car related to power steering without buying a $900 reader?

Reoze

Unless your terminals are shot, or you crammed a ridiculous amount of grease in there. There's no reason it should affect the quality of the connection. It's purpose is to prevent corrosion on the terminals itself. As long as the metal is making physical contact the grease should have a very minimal effect.

My power steering connector had so much grease packed into it I could barely get it to clip shut. I thought it might have been contributing to my problems so I cleaned it out, measured the resistance before/after, and had absolutely no change.

Cody Helton

Any other advice or things to try?

Reoze

If you have a light for it, that means there are codes being thrown. I would check those first and see where that leads.

Cody Helton

Right but here's the problem. My OBD2 reader shoes no codes and the one used by advance auto parts also shows no codes. Any other way I can check the code, or is there a special procedure to check steering codes?

Reoze

Mazda definitely can, I know my AP can.

UnknownJinX

To be honest, I haven't had too much experience with EPS, so I am out of ideas here, sorry.

Might be worth a trip to the dealership and see what they say.

Cody Helton

Ok, Ill see what they say. Im sure they will probably charge me...

David Vallejos

Hello there! I had the same issue with mine and I got the problem fixed. There are 2 possible options that you may try.
1) Cut the steering wheel connector and then soldering together, this could be a bad connection somehow.
2) This one was the problem I had to believe or not, somehow, if you have the original OEM coolant reservoir, you may notice the top hose going directly to the connectors, the problem I had was that the reservoir and the coolant with vibrations in the road, some coolant went from the hose to the outside and the drops got directly into my connectors, causing the dash light to illuminate and the steering to fail, was like a mechanic steering, so hard. I changed my reservoir but in order to fix, you can change the hose to a long one and you can re-direct it where to leak in case of drops

Cody Helton

Ive narrowed down my issues to either the rack or the computer, i'm sure. I need a way to test my rack. Can I apply voltage to the contacts for the motor and see if it turns? If so how much voltage should I put to it? Any other troubleshooting I can do for the rack?

Reoze

There's a procedure in the FSM regarding testing the rack motor. Though, I'd be a little wary about this. We're talking about significant amounts of current compared to most other electronics under the hood.

Cody Helton

Are you taking about the shop manual?

Cody Helton

Today I went out and took my multi-meter to the connectors to the EPS module. It is getting a little over 12 volts, there is no voltage at all to the PS motor (as expected) but the torque sensor connector measured 27 ohms on A-B and 17 on B-C. The shop manual says they should be between 10 and 15 so this looks like my culprit. From what i've SEARCHED I found that the sensor has to be replaced with the rack. So what would be my best option, would a used one last, best to go new or what?

Reoze

Where did you measure the resistance? At the connector under the airbox? Or the torque sensor itself?

If you have a high resistance from the connector, try measuring it from the sensor. (You'll probably need some alligator clips and stretch armstrong to do it though).

If the wire is bad, but the sensor is good, it's likely the harness.

Cody Helton

I measured it at the ECU.

Reoze

In the FSM it states that when you're measuring it at the EPS module to grab the connector under the airbox and wiggle it to see if the resistance changes at all. Did you try this?

When I did this it was a bit difficult..holding the probes like chopsticks with the connector in one hand. It'd be a lot easier to have someone help for 30 seconds.

Cody Helton

No I haven't tried this but sounds like a good idea. I'll come back tomorrow with my results.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

That section of harness has been known to be bad. It would be best to check it directly at the sensor first and work your way back from there if it's ok.

Okki-Jakarta

yeap. i got a faulty torque sensor code and i cant find a torque sensor without buying the whole rack. dammit. it's very expensive here roughly $750 for 2nd hand ones which nobody knows it would last how long.

Reoze

As far as I'm aware you can't replace the torque sensor by itself. Not without rebuilding the entire rack.

Okki-Jakarta

is there any way to sort of like find cheaper aftermarket parts for the EPS or maybe change to the conventional oil PS?

Reoze

I'd give it a good search, it's a common problem with engine swaps. Apparently a miata rack can work.