is there a motoring safety regulator in the uk

misimp

I think it's a keyless ignition.


Could it be the 'recognition sensor' tells the computer that the key is not present, switches off the engine and sets the steering lock?

Richard53

misimp wrote: »

I think it's a keyless ignition.


Could it be the 'recognition sensor' tells the computer that the key is not present, switches off the engine and sets the steering lock?

I doubt it. That would be a serious safety issue. It should not be possible to kill the engine and lock the steering after an event which may be accidental or inadvertent.


My wife's last car had keyless ignition and getting out of the car with the key flashed up a warning on the dash, but the engine kept running. It could not be restarted if you stopped it, though. Many times she got out of the car to close the gate and I drove on to park on the driveway. The car complained 'no key', but carried on.

seatbeltnoob

loskie wrote: »

a car with no power assist fitted feels very different from one with broken power steering. You cannot compare the two.

yes, the power steering mechanism is weight and when it does it has a similar affect as engine braking does on a moving car. a dead power steering until will have resistance on steering.

JP08

Bit of a long shot this, but having played with stepper motors in the past, powerful ones can be very difficult to turn if the coils are shorted out.

So if the power assist motor is a stepper motor (don't know whether electric power steering assist mtors actually are), and the motor driver controller has managed to fail such that it shorts out all the coils then the motor would actually be resisting the manual input, not just failing to assist it.

molerat

But that is a power steering failure, op states that ps came back when engine started up again.

AdrianC

JP08 wrote: »

Bit of a long shot this, but having played with stepper motors in the past, powerful ones can be very difficult to turn if the coils are shorted out.

So if the power assist motor is a stepper motor (don't know whether electric power steering assist mtors actually are), and the motor driver controller has managed to fail such that it shorts out all the coils then the motor would actually be resisting the manual input, not just failing to assist it.

Go find a car with EPS. Jack the front up. Turn the steering wheel, with the ignition off.

If your theory is valid, you won't be able to.

custardy

bubblesmoney wrote: »

both me and my wife have driven vehicles abroad without power steering so know how it feels without power steering.

First time it happened a few days before this time, she said vehicle felt different when all the fault lights came up. They couldnt find anything wrong and cleared fault and vehicle worked fine. Next time with same fault lights coming up, engine stopped and steering couldnt be moved at all, she said she pulled with all her strength and vehicle wouldnt move and rolled to stop in middle of road. Only after restarting could she bring it to the side.

I will look into what VOSA is tonight. Thanks.

No you don't.
You know how a car without power steering feels.
A power steering equipped car running without power steering is a different thing all together.

Retrogamer

The steering would still have worked, but you just need to be quite forceful to get it to move.

I've had older cars with pump driven power steering fail and was stil able to drive it around for several months and it felt similar to cars without any PAS. On more modern cars it's electrically driven power steering and when the engine is off you really struggle to get it to move, but not impossible. Certainly wouldn't want to drive any distance with it like that though on a modern car.

JP08

AdrianC wrote: »

Go find a car with EPS. Jack the front up. Turn the steering wheel, with the ignition off.

If your theory is valid, you won't be able to.

Hmm ... could do that ...

... IF ...

a) It was stepper motor driven (as far as I can tell though it's not clear from a quick search online the newer Insights are, but it's not the norm for EPS)

b) I could then find one with the motor coils shorted out.

c) I could be arsed

But a shorted stepper can generate quite a mechanical resistance. Informative link : http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/209510/why-is-it-harder-to-turn-the-shaft-of-an-unpowered-stepper-motor-when-connecting

But it would explain why, despite several posters saying it couldn't happen, from the OP "She tells me that she tried as hard as she could to pull the steering wheel but the steering wasnt working to get the vehicle to the side". And an intermittant fault would give the "She could only pull it to the side of the road after she re started the car" after a reset.

[Deleted User]

loskie wrote: »

a car with no power assist fitted feels very different from one with broken power steering. You cannot compare the two.

I've had the PAS suddenly fail in the middle of a roundabout during the rush hour, it's not as dramatic as people make out.