Has anyone had their power steering go out and then come back on a T2. While driving slowly through town today and I can feel steering tighten up.I stopped car and steering seems normal-(power assisted again).There are no warning beeps when it goes out. I know the T2 has speed sensitive steering but it seems to be cycling when it shouldn't. Fluid level and belt ok. Any suggestions on what might cause this problem.


Thanks,
Ray

 

s4 or s5? i believe the s4 had a better system than the s5 (or so i've been told; this is hear-say). mine did that to me on my s5. when going extremely slow, the power steering would get stiff, then shoot back. very dangerous even going slow. thats the only time it happened.

 

Mine does the same thing. '88 SE (S4).

 

cold solder joints in the power steering computer

 

More common operation on the engine speed sensing power steering found on the 89-90 GTU, 90 GXL, 90-92 vert, and 91 coupe.

The steering boost on those cars is based on the speed the engine is moving

 

YES. thank you very much. i have the 91 coupe. no more power steering, but still the power steering rack. i like it just fine.

 

wow this happened on my way home from school. mine just cuts out then cuts back in at random but it only seens to do it when its cold out

 

thats funny you guys started talking about this.. my car is steering better/smoother as of tonight.. i thought i was bugging out... guess not, its cold outside. didnt occur to me mazdas robots didnt even solder that stuff right to go along with the rest of the car.... 88 t2 by the way

 

Seeing as how it is winter right now....how the heck do I fix it? Same problem on my 88 anny

 

Yeah, I have been working on trying to trace (pardon the pun) what joint is failing on that when you need to replace the cold solder joints. As soon as I figure it out, i'll post it.

 

That would be great, So when I take off the control unit to troubleshoot later I'll know exactly what solder joints to look for.

 

Hmm, my car seems to have a mind of its own as well. When the car is cold, the power steering works fine. After 30 min of driving you get no assist until it cools down again...

I swapped the pump twice and flushed the lines once per pump. I re-soldered the p/s ecu connection joints to the harness. I guess next I will go through a section at a time of the board de-soldering and re-soldering until it works.

I also swapped the p/s ecu once just with a spare one to see if it made any difference... None of course..

If I figure out the general alrea my problem was happening at I'll of course pass it around.

Glad to know its not only me with this little issue.

 

any ideas yet??

 

I had that problem on my old gxl and i liked the way it felt when it went out so i yanked the pump. im glad my new t2 didnt come with power steering so i dont have to yank it out.

 

I have narrowed it down to the feed for the power relay in the power steering CPU, but I need to spend more time on it.

See in the one power steering CPU I have that has the problem, once the traces I work on get touched it works. So I have to let the whole thing cool down and sit unpowered for a while before testing it.