Megane giving me a message I can't ignore? STEERING FAULT !!

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Kenfuego

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One wonders what next? was at a local shopping Centre with the car parked in a parking bay on the roadway, and as I indicated and pulled out of the parking bay, the car beeped at me and a message came up "STEERING FAULT" and a strong smell like a burnt circuit board in the car. :eek: turned it off immediately removed the key and tried a restart, and of course it had difficulty in starting, finally fired up and I limped home with a very heavy unresponsive steering.

Anybody else had this fault, and the likely cause/remedy ? It was just about to go in for repairs to the rear end bodywork as a result of a neighbours newly licensed daughter running into the rear of the car on the 16th of December 2020. Fortunately that was confined to bumper and plastic panel damage and had the indignity of being duct taped to hold things together as we needed to use the car and haven't been able to arrange a suitable time for the repair. I don't suggest that the rear ending way -back-then caused this steering fault.

I note that at the last fill of Diesel the odometer was registering 212,915 kilometers so the kilometers have been building up, but not as quickly as when pre-Covid, we were doing almost two to three hundred km a week. With all the restrictions and other things our travel has been been Limited to Melbourne and not much fuel used in the last 12 months.

Any advice or owner experience, with this fault would be appreciated as I will need to decide if to fix it or move on. The only other major problem in the past was the auto transmission refurbishment some years ago, and I felt I got my monies worth out of the transmission since then. The main reason I kept it going.

Regards.

Ken
 
Kenfuego said:
One wonders what next? was at a local shopping Centre with the car parked in a parking bay on the roadway, and as I indicated and pulled out of the parking bay, the car beeped at me and a message came up "STEERING FAULT" and a strong smell like a burnt circuit board in the car. :eek: turned it off immediately removed the key and tried a restart, and of course it had difficulty in starting, finally fired up and I limped home with a very heavy unresponsive steering.

Anybody else had this fault, and the likely cause/remedy ? It was just about to go in for repairs to the rear end bodywork as a result of a neighbours newly licensed daughter running into the rear of the car on the 16th of December 2020. Fortunately that was confined to bumper and plastic panel damage and had the indignity of being duct taped to hold things together as we needed to use the car and haven't been able to arrange a suitable time for the repair. I don't suggest that the rear ending way -back-then caused this steering fault.

I note that at the last fill of Diesel the odometer was registering 212,915 kilometers so the kilometers have been building up, but not as quickly as when pre-Covid, we were doing almost two to three hundred km a week. With all the restrictions and other things our travel has been been Limited to Melbourne and not much fuel used in the last 12 months.

Any advice or owner experience, with this fault would be appreciated as I will need to decide if to fix it or move on. The only other major problem in the past was the auto transmission refurbishment some years ago, and I felt I got my monies worth out of the transmission since then. The main reason I kept it going.

Regards.

Ken
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Not a 100% sure but it sounds and smells like the electric motor may have burnt out, Have you checked the fuse for the power steering? I think the fuse size is something like 40 amps. Other than that i'm not much help.
 
Hey Ken - i can help you out with a replacement steering column. I kept it from the hail wrecked one, but I already have another spare steering motor. Its not a super hard job to swap, and the steering ecu isnt VIN coded.
 
Pictures ;)
IMG_8042.jpeg
 

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Haakon said:
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Yep read that, and it is probably easy as you say, but old age and present fragility, tells me that I need to get someone a bit more competent than I feel at the moment to do that. If you feel like a visit to Melbourne I'd be happy to watch you work magic and pay for the exercise in a package deal, cars and me seem to be at odds these days, never been so tired in my life as I am now, between balance and tiredness, it takes all the joy out of doing all those things, not to mention the mental exhaustion that seems to make some jobs impossible..

Maybe after a few days and a short holiday to recuperate, I might be in a different frame of mind :unsure::) Lots of things to think about including tackling the fix!! Son says time to get a new car Dad!

Thanks for the food for though and Haakon I really appreciate your positive advice and perhaps a route to commit to. Thanks again.

Ken
 
It is a little fiddly to get the rear mounting bolts out, it needs you to climb under the dash and smaller hands help... So yes, perhaps someone else doing might be a good idea ;)

Would be happy to, but don’t think I’ll be down anytime soon...
 
See how you go. A nominal donation perhaps, not too fussed - but shipping might be 30-50 bucks I suspect.
 
Not much progress on this as we had booked in at Portland Victoria, for a relatives 90th Birthday Party on the Saturday, best I could do was strong arm the Megane into a new parking spot, and get the trusty Laguna V6 rushed ready for the trip. Bit of a slight worry as it hasn't done many km's during the last 12 months, but I am now thankful that I had the RACV fit a new battery to it recently in case my son needed it during a brief visit from Queenland -in that case it wasn't needed.

Started the Laguna up and it ran on about 4 cylinders, took it over to Costco to fill up on some fresh 98 RON fuel and it finally settled down to run smoothly, the $131.7 price was a bit steeper than the last Diesel fill at $117.7 per litre :eek: oh well I still had a 20 litre jerry can stored and I filled a 10 litre jerry can as well, so that should help.. I thought..:) but as we travelled away from Melbourne we noted that fuel in the country was much cheaper in fact I could have filled at Portland at almost the same price as I ended up paying at Costco on the following Tuesday and that was now $138.7 a litre for 98 Ron and at the same time ULP (91 RON) was priced at $118.7 and Diesel $128.7 so it seems even COSTCO's fuels have had some violent price hikes for the long weekend. (from the looks of the long lines for fuel at Costco, that increase hasn't really effected their sale of fuel, just as busy as always..!!)

We did hear some radio reports that indicated some Melbourne Servo's were charging up to $169 cents per litre :eek: for their posted ULP 91 board prices. Obviously most country sellers didn't follow that trend. One wonders about the old times when the difference between ULP 91 and super was 5 measly cents.

Swung past Skipton on the way home for a pleasant meet up with Bob and "Mrs Bob" viewed his new acquisitions and added some and returned with some to Melbourne. Found I was out of practice in driving long distances and dealing with the "after lockdowns - after long weekend traffic" nose to tail in wet weather idiocy of Melbourne "freeway" ???? stop go traffic between Geelong and Melbourne, though I made the right decision to turn off onto the Melbourne bypass and get to drive at 100km... in depressing miserable weather.

Twas good to get home safe and sound and be thankful the Laguna ran so well, at 320,540 km recorded at the Costco fill, a pretty amazing vehicle, roomy and comfortable to drive. I wonder how long it will continue to serve!

Now Wednesday and I need to make some decisions as to the future of the Megane, it is hardly worth putting extra money into its survival. It is due for repair and cleanup courtesy of a neighbours insurance, but to get that done, it needs to be mobile and driveable. Age of car and age of owner also comes into the equation - do I really need all the physical work to do it myself, and the difficulty of getting someone else to sort it out, apart from all the other projects now lining up and needing to be completed?

Maybe a few days looking at what is available on the market...Decisions, decisions....let you know in due course, maybe an early move to battery electric? who knows.

Ken
 
Ken I would get a quote off a local mechanic that you trust to swap over the steering columns, most likely 4 to 5 hours work, and if reasonable get the steering column that Haakon has offered you and get them to replace it.

I have just put back the original alternator into my Laguna after reconditioning it. Bearings, brushes & slip ring was roughly $50, took 3 hours to swap it over. I was getting battery not charging messages on the dash, so thought there must be something wrong with the second hand one I put in there about 2 years ago.

The Laguna sure is a comfortable touring car, love driving mine.
 
COL said:
Ken I would get a quote off a local mechanic that you trust to swap over the steering columns, most likely 4 to 5 hours work, and if reasonable get the steering column that Haakon has offered you and get them to replace it.

I have just put back the original alternator into my Laguna after reconditioning it. Bearings, brushes & slip ring was roughly $50, took 3 hours to swap it over. I was getting battery not charging messages on the dash, so thought there must be something wrong with the second hand one I put in there about 2 years ago.

The Laguna sure is a comfortable touring car, love driving mine.
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Thanks Col
Appreciate the advice. Lot of things happening here, Di is still two weeks off driving as her broken shoulder heals sufficiently and my 4 year older brother is unfortunately in palliative care in Bendigo, not to mention a few other small considerations, so each day things change and require a re-evaluation.

We will get by and I am sure that I will work out a solution to a few logistical issues. I'd like to do that and take advantage of Haakons appreciated offer, as the Megane itself has served me well. Family urges move on to another vehicle, and that would be the easy, least complicated fix, in the short term.

If I get time tomorrow, I'll be delving into the system to evaluate what went wrong, I could be lucky with a less serious alternative as you originally suggested, then weigh up all alternatives. At least I have the Laguna and if all else fails the Fuego to fill in, both going and fully road registered, so all is well, provided not too many other things pile up. The old saying it never rains but pours! :rolleyes: if anything else can go wrong... who knows..

Regards

Ken
 
FWIW, I can change the column in one hour having done it a couple of times. So I’d suggest two hours for someone doing it for the first time.

I also have the factory workshop manual on pdf I can send.
 
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But it would worth checking the fuse (it’s a prick to get at, under the battery...) and the wiring connections under the dash.
 
Haakon said:
But it would worth checking the fuse (it’s a prick to get at, under the battery...) and the wiring connections under the dash.
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I just spent the latter half of the morning trying to inspect the fuses, and they did not make that easy, :( had two easy to remove screws in the cover, that was easy, but from there on everything went downhill, in the end I just put the battery back, tidied everything up. Working on cars is now a much younger man's game.

As it stands I think I am ready to give up on it as I neither have the energy or patience I once had. I agree it would be an excellent project for a keen young skilled person to undertake, but realistically I don't think this old aging body is up to the task, particularly with all that we are coping with at the moment and of course at the end of the day the car itself is stretching its days and pity not to get the damaged rear bodywork fixed to make it look more presentable, so likely be sold as a project or parts.

Has been a cheap car to run on Diesel fuel, but that will get dearer in the future, judging from some of the displayed prices around Melbourne. Not sure what its replacement will be, and while the Laguna runs it does the job for us, but a new or newer car would appear to be on the agenda - may take a ticket in Tatts to see if luck has changed!

Hate to be defeatist and walk away from a challenge. No 1 son would like me to buy a Porch err Porsche, and yes they are comfortable, but not what we are thinking right now. Will all play out in the next few weeks and driven by other externalities.

Thanks everyone, particularly Haakon, tis a pity you aren't just around the corner like the old days, if I can convince someone to take up the offer of the parts, hopefully that would be a happy result for all.

Ken
 
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No worries, I understand. After literally building up a megane from a bare shell i can say im with you on being over it!

Well, if someone wants to take on Ken's megane as a fixer upper the column is here for sale with instructions on swapping it.

Ken, if you've still got it the next time im in town I would be happy to toss it in for you - just cant say when they will be! Might be a while...
 
Same thing happened to my old Megane.
Any series two Megane steering column will fit, the computer just tells the steering motor what assistance is needed depending on the model (standard, Sport, Cup etc).
Dave Collier did mine, he sourced one from a wrecker.

Dave
 
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