Only had my 2003 RX8 for a week with no issues, so i went down to Supercheap to grab oil for the change over with no problems getting there (the trips only 5 mins down the road and the engine might’ve not been at complete operating temperature before turning off) but upon starting up the car to leave the power steering yellow light came on and the wheel was stiff as a board, now I freaked out a bit and shut the engine off. After 15 mins of frantically searching what the problem could be I turned the engine back on with fingers crossed and low and behold the light disappeared and the steering went back to normal.

I got back home fine but once again I forgot to buy something at Supercheap and the power steering light was on the whole way to the shop with near impossible turning of the wheel so I shut the engine off in the car park and came back out to startup and see the power steering light on again so I turned the engine off and back on and then it disappeared.

Is the power steering linked to the engine warming up?
Im gonna try cleaning my plugs under the air filter and then looking at the steering rack under.

anyone know what’s going on?

 

I’ve had power steering issues in nearly all of the RX8’s I’ve owned. The first thing you should do is clean out and dielectric grease the grey connectors next to the overflow bottle. The hose that comes out of it should be extended past the grey connectors so it doesn’t leak water on to the connectors. This has worked for me for a while but I eventually needed to get a new power steering harness. The car is totally fine to drive without power steering. It’s just parking that sucks. The good news is that 9 times out of 10 it’s a harness or module problem. However, if these changes don’t work you will need a new rack and pinion and boy is that a bitch to source and install...

 

Sounds like the usual connection issues... clean it up and reroute the overflow and you should be good