Power Steering turned off!

[Roman]

Hey guys I own an mr2 1990,one day I was driving,parked up at my friends house then when I started my car again my power steering "P/S" light came on. WEIRD I TELL YOU,I cheaked to make sure I had power steering fluid,everything looked all right,and I went for a drive,and parked up again and while my car was still running it just turned on again,what do you rekon it could be,a loose earth or somethin? freaken weird and it still happens now and then.

[GEOFF]

Hey dude, so is it just the light or is it heavy to steer?

If it is, it could be ya belt.[/b]

[MrOizo]

might be a fuse...

the power steering pump is in the front and is electric... no belts up there AFAIK.

yeah might wanna check fuses and relays relevant to the PS System

[GEOFF]

Ahh yes, rear engine.. of course.

[anthonym]

It'll be the relay, flick the ignition switch on (to ACC) and off several times to clear the contacts.

[Mr Revhead]

hehe welcome to MR2s they have a computer running the steering in those.. also a driver box and an electric pump, nice things to replace. a
mate has one that does some thing simalar... if it idles too long the light will come on and the steering will become heavy, rectifys itself once ignition is turned off then on. this has been diagnosed as the valve in the pump on his one, also the pump is a very popular item 2nd hand so it may be that the majority of failures are the pump. we have had a few in here that needed the driver box replaced.

[fivebob]

hehe welcome to MR2s they have a computer running the steering in those.. also a driver box and an electric pump, nice things to replace. a
mate has one that does some thing simalar... if it idles too long the light will come on and the steering will become heavy, rectifys itself once ignition is turned off then on. this has been diagnosed as the valve in the pump on his one, also the pump is a very popular item 2nd hand so it may be that the majority of failures are the pump. we have had a few in here that needed the driver box replaced.

Welcome to the world of MR2's indeed, but Nemesis is right on the money with this one, dirtry relay contacts are the cause of 99% of problems with MR2 power steering, switching the ignition 20 or so times generally cures it. As for the valve in the pump, there isn't one in any I've dissassembled, well none I can identify, any valves should be in the steering rack and shouldn't give the symptoms you describe anyway.

The pump is a very simple vane unit that just uses an alloy rotor disk with slots cut in the disk and small steel blades in the slots, as the disk rotates the blades move outwards and seal aginst the housing, there is an inlet and an outlet in the housing. The faster the motor rotates the better the blades seal and of course the more volume it pumps through. Simple really and not a great deal that can go wrong with it.

The relay can be replaced by an external HD item if it finally fails,doing the repair this way means it should never happen again, or if it does it's just a cheap relay replacement, not an expensive control box.

The reason for the popularity of the secondhand pump is that the speedway guys use them to put power steering in their cars, not a reliability issue at all

[Mr Revhead]

dirtry relay contacts are the cause of 99% of problems with MR2 power steering, switching the ignition 20 or so times generally cures it

that would maybe explain why ppl replace the driver box



[/quote]As for the valve in the pump, there isn't one in any I've dissassembled

could have been a miss comunication there.....

The relay can be replaced by an external HD item if it finally fails

thats a good idea, ill look at doing that on my mates one, well sugesting it anyway.. no way im mucking with the electrics

The reason for the popularity of the secondhand pump is that the speedway guys use them to put power steering in their cars, not a reliability issue at all

that sounds logical but there are a lot of wreckers that are after them to fix the steering problems common in the sw20, sounds like they maybe after the wrong bit then...

[Mr Revhead]

oh bugger that didnt work well did it u get the idea