Hi--

I've searched the posts and can't find anything that exactly matches the problem I'm having. I have a 2005 V50 T5 AWD, with ~120k miles. I was recently in a front-end fender (hood) bender, and the body shop replaced a bunch of items in front of the engine (this is important because of the location of the steering fluid reservoir). A week after getting the car back, I came home from work, shut the car down briefly, started it up again to head back out and got the "Power STeering Service Req'd" message along with no power steering. I drove it approx. 1/2 mile to my kid's school, shut it down, checked the fluid level which appeared to be low. I took my wife's car to go get the appropriate steering fluid, topped up the reservoir, and drove off. After about 1 minute of driving, the power returned to the steering and the message went away.

I've been keeping an eye on the fluid level, and it hasn't gone down since. Then, yesterday, I drove to a store, was in the store for about 1/2 hour, came out and started my car - same thing: no power steering, "Power steering service req'd" message on the dash! I drove it home, approx. 2 miles, and checked and confirmed the reservoir still had sufficient fluid. Let it sit for a few hours, then drove it to a friend's house and about 2 miles into the drive, the power steering came back and the message went away again.

Anybody have this issue? Thoughts on what i should look for? There's no unusual noise, and the steering works perfectly when it's up. There's no indication beforehand that there's anything amiss, and when the power returns, it's like it never went away.

Thanks!
Rick

 

I'm betting that there is air in the system. Normally you can clear that out by cycling the steering wheel back and forth, lock-to-lock a few times (recommend doing this on gravel or muddy / slippery surface to minimize the strain on the system).

OTOH, the fact that your system lost a lot of fluid is concerning, and could be pointing to another "real problem". Thing is, if fluid is disappearing, it's got to be going somewhere. If it's not dripping out (which would be pretty obvious on visual inspection with the splash panel off), it's probably stuck in the bellows at the end of your steering rack, covering your tie rods. That's a "bad thing" since it means your rack is leaking. At that point you have the choice of using some sort of snake oil sealant and hoping it works and doesn't screw anything else up, or replacing your steering rack.

 

Thanks, I'll try the air removal technique. I don't think it's losing fluid, the body shop replaced the reservoir when they fixed the front end and I might have mistaken "normal" fluid level for low as the reason the system quit the first time. The level hasn't dropped since then, which was a few weeks ago.

 

Ahhhh, that makes sense. I'll bet the air removal technique will do the job, then. Good luck, and let us know how it works out (for future seekers' benefit).

 

Thanks for the help, Habbyguy. I did the air-bleed op as you noted, and haven't had any issues since, so here's hoping it worked! If i have the same problem in the future, I'll post back here right away. In the meantime, if anyone else stumbles upon this thread and has the same issue, if you don't see any further response from me, you can assume that it's probably air in your system!

 

Ok, after running about a month with no problem, the loss of power steering returned with a vengeance. I've driven it for around 15 minutes and it persists. The level of fluid is still good, i'm not losing any fluid, and there's no indication that there's any problem.
Does anyone know what triggers a power steering system shut down? Does our shut down on low pressure? If so, maybe my pressure sensor is bad.

Thoughts?

 

Just a thought, but I re-read your initial post and notice that the car has been in a front-end collision. I'd say there's a good chance that one of the (many) hoses, couplings, and pipes might have been damaged, or maybe just assembled poorly.

If this is the case, you're probably not going to see any fluid flowing into the reservoir when it's acting up (there should be continuous flow otherwise). But if there were (for example) a bad crimp in one of the metal pipes that could have been damaged in the accident, it could close down under certain temperature / fluid flow conditions. The other thing I'd try if it was my car would be a power steering fluid flush. I've never done one of those, but it's pretty simple in concept, and there are lots of internet resources out there to discuss it in depth. If there is debris in the system, flushing it might well clear it up (but obviously won't fix a bent tube or hose).

 

FINAL UPDATE: knowing that the body shop had messed with the whole front clip, I got into the right front wheel well and checked out the PS pump. Turns out one of the electrical connectors was not fully engaged. I cleaned all connectors with contact cleaner and reassembled, ensuring the connectors were fully plugged in, and have no problems since.

 

I love a happy ending - thanks for the update!