Hey guys, so I have an intermittent power steering issue. My EPS would cut out completely; error light illuminates, zero power steering, the usual suspects. But the issue would resolve itself when i shut off the car and turn it back on. Full power steering is back....

Except - sometimes - it would randomly pull extremely hard to to the right. Completely randomly, no rhyme or reason as to when, it would just randomly do it. Sometimes once a drive, sometimes never. And once it pulls, it acts normal afterwards.

Ive searched far and wide on this forum. Ive read threads from 10-20 years ago and Ive cleaned the connectors. Ive unplugged the battery, plugged it back in, and turned my steering wheel all the way to the left and to the right.

Ive read to replace the harness but it might not be a permanent fix. Ive read the steering racks are actually pretty stout so it should just be the harness. Ive read it could be the EPS Module under the ECU. It could be a myriad of things but every conversation from 10 years ago comes to a dead end or someone saying to clean the connectors.

So I stumbled across a few threads talking about hardwiring the connectors together. And this is the question I present to you guys...am I cutting the connector (circled in Orange) and splicing those 3 wires directly together? What about the connector circled in green? Do you cut those connectors as well and splice the two ends together?




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I would only hardwire it if there is heavy corrosion present on the connectors or at the wiring near the connectors. Also, poor pin fit would also be a reason you can hardwire the connectors together. Other than that, I see no benefit to doing so.

Have you tried scanning the car to see what dtc pops up for the power steering malfunction? You may want to diagnose the fault first. The issue may be a failing rack drive motor, or a loose connection at the motor harness or something entirely different. Cutting and splicing the harness is not always the best approach.

 

I don't get any error codes for my power steering. I do get the steering wheel light error though.

I redid the battery terminals and cleaned the connectors and it worked for 3 days and it went out again.

Truly at my wits end. Might just send it.

 

In the same boat as you, ever find a solution??

 

I fought with power steering all through college. I just hard wired mine together making sure to get good crimps and using adhesive heatshrink. Those plugs are kind of pointless anyways since you could just disconnect from the rack if you needed to move the wires.

I had random losses all together or sometimes it liked to turn one way really fast, but not the other. My funky issues ended up being due to poor ground connections. So make sure you clean up the grounding points metal to metal, and I used carbon conductive grease on all my grounds to help.
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If you really pay attention to the steering, the rack is a manual rack that detects which direction from center you are attempting to turn. Then it applies electronic assistance in that direction. So my funky issues was it somehow losing home and steering would drop out if I turned past what the computer thinks max is. No matter how many times I cut power and then did the reset (all the way left and all the way right).... If I lost the ground connection and it lost its center home position, eventually I would turn far enough to make the system fault and turn off completely.



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last resort would be to try replacing the module. These were known to fail. I believe it was due to internal corrosion or issues dealing with heat.

 

Yep. I cut the connector with the three wires (sorry not recalling what sensor this is) and just spliced then together with some crimp connectors (much more reliable than soldering imo) and i havent had a problem since.

 

Thanks for the replies. Pulled a bunch of connectors following another guide on here and cleaned em out. In the process found out that whoever worked on the car before I got it didnt clamp down the positive terminal on the battery it was just sitting on there loose. Hopefully one of those 2 things fixes it. Electric power steering is weird.