I installed an Hid kit today and everything went smooth. It was a plug and play kit from therpmstore.com I believe. Only problem is that I have no power steering!

I've been working on cars for a few years now but this is my first time dealing with a power steering system like the one one the rx8. Its a 2004 6 speed if that makes any difference.

I'll go through step by step and maybe someone can give me an idea what went wrong.

1st Jacked up the pass side then drivers side and removed both wheels

2nd Removed the wheel well liners.
I took off the front lower half. But only took enough clips out to bend the big piece out of the way and tucked it behind the rotor.

3rd. Disconnected the neg batt terminal only.

4th. Unplugged the lights, installed the hid bulbs and dust covers.

5th. Didn't have a wiring dia so I used a test light to find what wire was power and ground for each headlight. Turns out black is still neg/ground on both sides. Had to reconnect the neg terminal for this and turn the headlight switch on.

6th After I found power and ground I connected the hid kit per instructions.

7th reinstalled wheel well covers and wheels.
Lights work greet!

What would cause me to lose my power steering?
The dash light is on.
I checked the fuse near the batt terminal and its good, there is some corosion on the + terminal and I did disconnect the neg terminal a few times but don;t see how it would effect anything.

 

start car turn wheels all the way to the right then left then back to right.. that should do it..

now when you say you have no power steering do you mean the light is on? or it is hard to turn the wheel..

the stuff it covered in the owners manual..

beers

 

Yeah if the light is on then its a big deal if not just do what swoope said and you should be ok. Let us know as I'm looking at doing a HID kit soon.

 

And, if you don't have a manual(which is no excuse), then go download one as they are free at http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp....action?bhcp=1

 

for you and more fun that that silly owners manual..

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ighlight=patch

beers

 

The PS light is on and there is no power steering at all.
The only thing I can think of that caused it is disconnecting the neg terminal a few times.

As far as the HID install goes it was easy. Hardest part is taking of the wheel well cover and finding a place to mount the ballasts. I think there one of the best upgrades for the money.
Now if I had to choose between power steering or hids thats another story.

 

I tried turning the wheel right then left like swoope mentioned but nothing. When I had the wheel at full lock to the left I noticed the check engine light start flashing. Is that normal?

Also double checked and it is the PS light (the one that looks like a steering wheel with a ! next to it) thats on.

I remember seeing a link to an on line service manual. Anyone have it handy? Or any ideas what I can look for?

 

check your connection down on top of the powersteering unit (under the batt box) . Hard to see how your install could have bumped it - but check it anyway .
Also check the fuses and the pwr steering relay .

 

x2

beers

 

where have you been swoope ?

 

thx for noticing..

texas, and then the site went down. i missed that part..

and phile_hendere_is_gone. btw, waiting is what i do!!!

beers

 

heh - i saw how he self destructed in a ball of flames . Funny

 

yep,

non troll kill..

smooth is fast..

beers

 

How could he have did that? the wires run right next to each other?

 

Well I chacked the connectors, the 2 below the air box on the fan shroud and 2 on the rack it self. Just disconnected them clean and plugged them back in. I also checked the 60 amp fuse, cleaned the batt terminals and connects and still no power steering.

Took it down to the auto parts store to see if I could pull any codes but there scanners was broke.
Guess I'm going have to take it to the stealership and see what they say.
I can see it now... its not going to be covered under warrenty because I have 60,075 miles on the car or some other reason. Its going to take at least 4 days to figure it out and there not going to have the part in stock. When they do get it fixed the problem will come back a few months down the road. O and it'll prolly cost at least $500 along with other "problems" that should be addressed. Damn I really hate going to the dealer.

 

it is going to be more than that..

beers

 

Thanks swoope! Well you were right There saying I need a new module and its going to be around $1200. They also mentioned a noise filter? Make any sense? I've read alot of post about the P/S issue and none mentioned a noise filter.

I'm thinking I must of loosened the wires. Just seems like a major coincedance. Installed HID's and battery and no I have no power steering. Think I'm going to try splicing the wires and remove the connector.

I've read about a longer wiring harness for the P/S module and theres a TSB for it? I checked the tsb at www.finishlineperformance.com but didn't see it.
Does anyone have a tsb # or a part number for the harness?

 

The turning the steering wheel is for DSC calibration, it doesn't have anything to do with the power steering rack working or not

 

Have you downloaded the service manual? If not, do a search for where to find that first. There's a whole PS trouble shooting section in there. Might be of help.

 

Well I spliced those 3 wires and bypassed the plug. Still no PS.

Yeah I have the manual but not alot of time to work on my own cars anymore.

Worst part about all this is it happened before 60k, called the service department and asked about the warrenty on my 8 and he said it was over at 50k. Now I find out its good till 60k but now I'm over that by 200 miles.

 

Only the powertrain to 60K. Bumper to bumper ended at 48K.

 

"2nd Removed the wheel well liners.
I took off the front lower half. But only took enough clips out to bend the big piece out of the way and tucked it behind the rotor."


Okay, I don't even know if any sense lines or anything run down there, but I don't like the sound of the above. Are you sure nothing got bumped, disconnected, or damaged when you did the above? It's probably worth a look right? At least give a look in that and any other area you were messing around in before going to the dealer who might charge you $1000 even if they found something unplugged.