Vectra Power Steering Failing When Doing 3 Point Turn

Inner_Zone

pennypincher3562 wrote: »

Hi

I've got a 2007 Vectra, and twice in the past few months the power steering has failed in the same circumstances.

When I'm doing a 3 point turn, the power steering has failed twice, and the warning light has come on. I'm sure it's not just coincidence.

Any ideas why this particular manoeuvre is causing the power steering to act up?

I've checked the power steering fluid level, and it's fine.

Thanks
PennyPincher3562

Is this a continuation of this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5313945

Have you still not taken it to garage as you said you would?

Strider590

TeamPlum wrote: »

It doesn't necessarily have to have an obvious issue. Given then cold weather, the joints across the wires contract, making resistance go up, this means the battery has to work harder - you've probably got the blowers, lights and wipers going too adding more to the workload.

More than likely, it's not the cause, it's worth doing, as it's free, and easy to do.

You got that backwards.....

http://matse1.matse.illinois.edu/sc/b.html

The additional load during winter is handled by the alternator and in modern cars the alternator is more than capable of recharging the battery whilst running every electrical load in the vehicle.

The reason batteries "fail" in winter is because of the chemical reaction within the battery, it did not fail in winter, it had already failed, the cold weather simply made it worse.

Cold effectively reduces the capacity of the battery and if that battery was already a few years old, it's capacity could have been as low as 50% all summer long. Not only this, but a cold lead/acid battery isn't very easy to recharge, many chargers have a cold charging feature that charges the battery to 14.8v instead of the normal 14.4v.
Some cars have alternators that intelligently change the charging voltage during winter, most do not and as a result your battery is not being fully charged, so not only is starting the car draining more of its capacity than normal, but the car is failing to fully recharge the battery during normal use.

A similar argument............
Did the boot struts on my car fail last week? or were they already borderline on pressure all year long and did the cold weather cause their internal air pressure to drop far enough for the weight of the boot to overcome the struts?
In the same way that tyre pressure drops slightly in winter.

pennypincher3562

Inner_Zone wrote: »

Is this a continuation of this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5313945

Have you still not taken it to garage as you said you would?

Yes it's a continuation. Though I now have no doubt that the fact it happens during a 3 point turn is no coincidence (before I was unsure.)

I've not taken it to a garage, as I can't afford to at the moment.

The car however, has passed it's MOT (after getting front shock absorbers replaced.) I will take it to a garage eventually, when I can afford it.

Cheers
PennyPincher3562