Electric power steering?

[72bluNblu]

He's right. I was a GM Warranty Administrator for the past 13 years and
this is a very common failure. You have to replace the whole column.

What part exactly fails?

In our application you wouldn't be changing the whole column, since the power unit would likely be grafted into the steering shaft with some u-joint adaptors. But is it just the motor that fails, or part of the gear system that drives the steering shaft? If its in the electronics, that part is replaced by an aftermarket controller.

Still curious, but obviously I don't want to get into fabbing up a custom steering shaft, making brackets and altering the column based around a part that's going to constantly be a problem.

 

[magnumdust]

The reason it is becoming the standard is for fuel economy, not performance. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

But the reasoning here is saving space in the engine bay.

 

[Old Man Mopar]

What part exactly fails?

I can only comment on the GM OEM application. They treat the electronic
column assembly as a single non-servicable part. It sometimes seems like the motor overheats and looses assist. Other times it's like the range sensors loose their calibration and the assist jerks rather harshly.

 

[Andyz]

What happens when these units fail?!?
I agree that the electric steering can have a bad road feel. With electronics encoding and decoding the position, some hesitation will always be an issue. With a direct mechanical link, this is not an issue unless you have slop in the parts.
Our daily drivers are a Civic and a Sonata. The Civic got it right. Nice tight,responsive and predictable steering. The Hyunday did not. It steers like my 96 Ram Diesel. Very sluggish and inconsistant. A lot of steering wheel turn for very little action of the front wheels turning. Then they had the nerve to put paddle shifters on it!

 

[72bluNblu]

I can only comment on the GM OEM application. They treat the electronic
column assembly as a single non-servicable part. It sometimes seems like the motor overheats and looses assist. Other times it's like the range sensors loose their calibration and the assist jerks rather harshly.

Thanks for posting that up!

The motor would definitely still be an issue in our application, not sure if the range sensors would be or if they'd be replaced by the aftermarket control box.

Good info to have. I'm pretty happy with my 16:1 manual steering, so I may not bother. Or at least, I may wait and see what happens with the Hotchkis build first.

 

[goldduster318]

That looks identical to the unit on my Friend's 04 Saturn Ion. The same one the NTSB is probing right now for being defective.

I've never liked electric power steering very much, but its OK on my Cruze. What is shown is definitely not the type on the Cruze. I've attached a picture of that...Motor on the rack.

 

[Mopar to ya]

What part exactly fails?

In our application you wouldn't be changing the whole column, since the power unit would likely be grafted into the steering shaft with some u-joint adaptors. But is it just the motor that fails, or part of the gear system that drives the steering shaft? If its in the electronics, that part is replaced by an aftermarket controller.

Still curious, but obviously I don't want to get into fabbing up a custom steering shaft, making brackets and altering the column based around a part that's going to constantly be a problem.

What fails is the module. You have to buy the whole lower steering column to get it. We replace so many, and they were backordered for a long time. If the aftermarket ever gets into it you can bet they will try to solve the inherent problems. Until then, we put a factory part back in that is sure to fail again down the road.