Audi A3 2.0tdi Steering Gone Mad!

[A3king]

Hi biff,

Thanks for that, mine has to go in soon for its brake fluid change so i will get them to have a good look at it then.
Thanks and would be interested to know what they say about yours
all the best
jem

[RickT]

Brake Fluid change?? whats making you change the brake fluid??

Is that all you are changing??

Thanks

[A3king]

Hey,

Sorry for late reply!, they want it in because it will be two years old middle of feb and they say it has a brake fluid change after two years?......also they are doing a mid term safety check, not sure what that is all about!!
cheers

[ehp]

Hi All,

I have bench tested an Audi A3 steering gear and found that it takes something like 60 to 70 inch pounds of torque to move the steering wheel whenever the electric steering unit has turned itself off (e.g., goes into its shutdown mode). This is because the power assist sub-module includes a worm gear set driving a second pinion that in turn drives a second set of rack teeth on the steering rack. The 60 to 70 inch pounds of torque is required whenever the unit goes into its shutdown mode. Evidently jem's electric steering unit is intermittently going into its shutdown mode. I certainly hope that neither jem nor anyone else experiences such system behavior when their cars are in serious motion such as on a freeway or a mountain road!

ehp

[bacbourne]

Hi Jem, I have a 2007 2.0 TDI A3 and have had similar issues. The steering is generally heavier. I originally called Audi roadside support out as i thought the car might be dangerous to drive on. They plugged a diagnostics laptop in and no faults came back (annoying).

Unsatisfied that they thought nothing was wrong, i took the car into the dealer and they ended up replacing the whole steering rack (slight overkill i thought!)

Anyway, this solved the issue for about 6 months, 10000 miles and the other day it's gone again! So i think this is an electrical issue.

The idea is that the steering is supposed to be light at slow speeds and heavier at high speeds to stop you swerving if you sneeze on motorways etc!

Clearly the CPU is getting in a muddle and it is heavy at low speeds like yours.


I'm off back to the dealer but i'm glad it's not just my car; no offence )


Any one else found this??

[panzrwagn]

Hybrid electric steering means the power steering pump is electrical, not belt-driven off the engine. It does not mean there's no oil involved.

Full electric power steering, like in an A3, is 'dry' and a motor applies boost directly. A problem in reverse is either a software (steering is getting boost signals based on faulty logic) or signalling issue (steering is getting boost-signals based on wrong data) or a mechanical - the mechanism is simply binding to to wear or misalignment of components.