04 545 w/dynamic drive. Lately I have been experiencing heavy steering after a long drive or after driving the car hard. On start up I hear a funny noise but doesnt sound like the whining noise power steering usually makes when low, it has gotten louder as the days go along only last for a couple seconds and only at start up. I have checked the fluid level and it is fine, also did a full flush last year when I had this problem and it went away for a while but it never had the noise back then. I havent been able to get under the car to have someone start it so I can actually listen to where it coming from. Wheel gets very tight from a stop but as speeds go up its easier to turn but not as smooth as it should be since car has dynamic drive I know what it should feel like and its not there. If I turn the car off and back on again the steering will go back to normal only to get heavy again sometime within a couple miles other times it'll take a while. Im thinking my power steering pump is on its way out but not sure has anyone else experienced this? Thanks for the help.
Heavy Steering... Can't figure it out!
Quarta2Six
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04 545 w/dynamic drive. Lately I have been experiencing heavy steering after a long drive or after driving the car hard. On start up I hear a funny noise but doesnt sound like the whining noise power steering usually makes when low, it has gotten louder as the days go along only last for a couple seconds and only at start up. I have checked the fluid level and it is fine, also did a full flush last year when I had this problem and it went away for a while but it never had the noise back then. I havent been able to get under the car to have someone start it so I can actually listen to where it coming from. Wheel gets very tight from a stop but as speeds go up its easier to turn but not as smooth as it should be since car has dynamic drive I know what it should feel like and its not there. If I turn the car off and back on again the steering will go back to normal only to get heavy again sometime within a couple miles other times it'll take a while. Im thinking my power steering pump is on its way out but not sure has anyone else experienced this? Thanks for the help.
How long ago and when was the last time you changed the CHF fluid ? The active steering will have a thermal heat issue and effect the steering if the fluid overheats .. Its happened to me several times when I run her hard in the canyons for long periods . My active steering and dynamic drive warnings would kick in . After letting the car cool they clear every time . It never happens during normal driving only when I get on her hard for extended periods.. . It took me a while to figure out what was causing this , cause as soon as I got out of the canyons and back on the freeway the errors cleared ... I also read about it and is why the steering has a cooler.. And I change out the fluid every two years ..
Not sure If that s what your experiencing but I would change out the fluid first , after checking the belt as wcr3d mentioned...
Not sure If that s what your experiencing but I would change out the fluid first , after checking the belt as wcr3d mentioned...
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I am currently experiencing this after my alternator was replaced yesterday i am going back saturday, maybe they messed up placing the belt i currently have the active steering wheel notification on and its annoying
That should clear ,, it happens every time the battery is disconnected .. You can turn the wheel from lock to lock a couple times , turn off the car and restart , it should reset ..
I want to say its your pump, but I second changing the fluid. It's cheap and easy to do it with a turkey baster from the fill spot. Just get some extra fluid. If water etc builds up in there it could add a gas cushion when it heats up or something like that, leading to heavy steering
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I've done the reset before, now it's just not resetting as usual sharp left sharp right and bam gone, but since I got the car back the steering wheel is really stiff to steer
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I'll check the belt but I highly doubt it because I have all new tensioners and a brand new belt.
Change the fluid last year in July, full flush through the outlet next to the radiator. Its a chance the fluid could have gotten dirty from use I guess but I doubt it. When I did the flush I didnt change the reservoir, so I may do a full flush again and change the reservoir to see if that helps me. But I think its the pump, is there anyway to truly test its operation? I have dis and INPA. Also no active steering or dynamic drive warnings when this happens.
There's a better way to flush the fluid I don't see how someone could get all the fluid out with the turkey baster method. There's an outlet by the radiator drain plug, if you open that n with the ignition on(position II) turn the steering wheel left to right it will get all the fluid out. DONT actually turn the ignition to start the car. Re-attach hose and fill, full flush complete. But like I said above I changed it last year w/o changing the reservoir so I'll flush it again buy a new reservoir and see if that helps.
There is a filter in the reservoir .. I reckon it can get clogged depending on the flush schedule, if not changed out regularly ...
I'm pretty sure you can run a test plan on the steering system on DIS ... In control unit functions or function selection ..
Off the top of my head the path is :
quick test >function select >complete vehicle > chassis> steering ,, from there you can continue on , follow directions to the test ..
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Ok I'll try and run the test plan sometime over the weekend. Not sure how the whole system works. But if it turns out that the pump isn't working correctly? Do I risk damage to my steering rack? I can turn fine it's just hard at times, sometime for extended periods of time depending on when it acts up and I'm driving far. Don't want to cause any other problems if it can be avoided but not seeing any errors so I guess majority of the system is functioning.
It really could be one of many things . The active steering has several components besides the pump that can be causing what your experiencing . The Active Steering actuating unit has a electronic motor and a motor position sensor. Cumulative steering angle sensor, Summation steering-angle sensor . Servotronic valve , Solenoid lock .. Active front steering control unit , yaw sensor .. Its actually pretty complicated how it all works as a whole ..
But ,,, if it threw the light at any time , I'm sure DIS will have a record and could shed some light with stored not active codes and information .. So hopefully when you run the quick test and a test plan something will show up ..
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I actually had this PDF it was on the disk that came with the DS1 software. In any case the only 2 codes that I saw related to steering were:
9408 SGM-SIM
Eco Converter
AFS-6142
Eco Valve SGM
Both were not present at the time I pulled the codes.... Do you have any clue what they are or relate too? Ive seen the Eco converter code before when Ive run the quick test in the past.
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Does anyone know if having unbalanced tires will affect the active steering? I recently had my tires swapped on new aftermarket rims and I noticed on the freeway I have a vibration at about 60-65mph. Next thing I know the active steering malfunction came on. Any ideas?
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I have had the Eco valve SGM fault before and cleared it by using the turkey blaster method a few times. Kind of like change the transmission fluid several times. Haven't seen the Eco fault in a long time. Change that CHF fluid as best you can. Unbalanced tires probably wouldn't have that effect.
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I'll keep that in mind, it went away and all is good now. I did the "turn wheel all the way left then right" trick and next time I went and started the car it went away.
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