So, my power steering went out.
I cleaned all the connectors and hit them up with dielectric grease. That didn't work.
I went and bought a new harness. That seemed to fix the problem for a day, then it went out again.
It seems there's one connector that the new harness does not replace--the one up by the battery. So, I replaced that with an 8 gauge butt connector.
When the ps goes out, I've found that sometimes I can reset it by stopping, turning the car off, then back on-or jump starting the car while it's moving.
The butt connector is on tight and it's the correct gauge, so I've gotta assume that it's a good connection.

Are there any other connectors that are not covered by the new harness that maybe I missed?

 

Did you check the connector at the EPS module?

It is relatively protected in the ECU case...but I had an issue with mine once. Also the connector on the rack itself can be an issue.

it is usually the CAN connection that is causing the problem...not the power connector
​​​​​

 

I read a post that stated that butt connectors are not recommended-resistance issues. So I'm going to mesh, solder and heatshrink that wire, then check the eps module connections.

 

I checked all the eps module connections (also picked up a used eps module) but the problem persists.

Specifically, which connector is the CAN connection that ususally causes the problem and what should I be looking for? To my inexperienced eye, it looks good to me. What could I be missing?

 

Hello I have a Mazda RX8 and I was driving along fine pulled up out side my house, and it was on then I went to pull away stooled the car turned it back on and I get the power steering light come up, I plug my scanner in and the code b1342 ecu is defective or module not enabled/switched on, Is what is in the car I really don’t no what to do I’ve checked connectors and they are ok, I did the steering angles and it done them fine,

i can turn turn the car off clear the code and re scan codes and the code isn’t there, start the car and light is off, it’s only when I turn the steering wheel the slightest bit the light is back in with this code.
what do I do please help me

 

CAN wires are the small gauge wires....

did you clean the plug at the rack end?

 

Yes I did. Prior to purchasing a new harness, I followed the instructions on another post to clean and grease all the connections. Then I purchased a new harness.

 

Bumping this thread hoping you solved your problem. This is the only acutely accurate description of what I'm experiencing I've been able to find, and I've read through all the top PS threads.

Background: The car encountered it's first PS issue (since I've owned the car, ~4 years) randomly one morning. Just showed the b1342 code and didn't have PS. Cleaned and reseated the connectors, and cleared up for a few weeks. Unsure if related, but I changed the battery and starter about a week after the initial issue. After about 3 weeks, PS went out again during a drive. Repeated the cleaning and reseating. Came back temporarily, but then went out again after about a mile of test driving. At this point after reading all the threads about this issue and the symptoms I was getting, I immediately went after the connectors.

What I've done for troubleshooting so far is de-pinned the torque sensor pins and re-connected them without the plastic shroud. When nothing changed there, I clipped the torque sensor pins and straight soldered the wires together. Still nothing new. When I unplug the torque sensor wires and check the codes, I get the b2278 (specific to the torque sensor) code in addition to the b1342. When everything is hooked up, the b2278 code goes away. This makes me think it's not a connector issue, and it might actually be the PS ecu. And like James Saunders mentioned, I can sometimes get the PS light to turn off and show no codes with the car idling, but as soon as I touch the steering wheel, it comes on. I have a new short harness coming in later today that I'm going to throw in and see what happens, and if that fails, I'm going to try swapping in a different PS ecu.

Does anyone have more info that either shuts down my line of thinking or adds to it? Like I stated, I'll be swapping the short harness with a new one, and then trying to find a used PS ecu and swapping that. Famous last words, I'll report back if those work. Otherwise, I'm probably going to be taking it to the dealership and let them throw parts at it.

 

This is what solved my problem..I cut the main connector (the problem one that is under the coolant overflow) and soldered the connections. That fixed it. Replacing with a new one from Mazda didn't fix it.

 

If cutting the connector and the top and soldering the wiring directly, eliminating the male and female portions of that end of the connector, I wonder if the issue is simply just in the pin fit.

Perhaps over time the female pins spread just enough that the male pins are not very secure when mated with the female pins..
So while you're getting a good connection at the connector, the pin fit is will poor, resulting in loss of power steering function.

 

I tried soldering the wires of the torque sensor together at that connection point (ie no connection point any more) and no dice.

I'm still waiting on my new sub-harness to arrive from the USPS, which is why I haven't updated. Expedited shipping apparently doesn't mean what it says it means on their website.

 

Figure I drop my fixes that have worked for me on both my rx8s. On both occasions after doing engine work with the car in the air, after everything was back together and on the ground the power steerings went out.

The first time around was fixed by replacing the power steering unit underneath the ECU. My father, 6 years ago, found someone who was rebuilding the PSUs for cheap.

On the recent occasion I had put my car on the lift and rebuilt the engine. A week of driving around with the new engine I put the car back in the air to check for leaks. Power steering went out after I got it back on the ground. Which got fixed for a month by swapping out the 1st Rx8's PSU like before. Power steering went out again after a while, and then was fixed by hardwiring the torque sensor 3 wire connection above the radiator. I simply cut out the plug connector and crimped the wires together.
-Previously I had checked continuity across this connection and it read fine.....road vibrations messed with connection, then PSU freaked out?
-Previously cleaned and used dielectric grease, which didn't work, but hardwiring solved the issue.

 

So I ended up having someone else look into this issue who's more electrically inclined. He seemed to think it was the connector as well after fixing it. Didn't find a smoking gun, but he re-did both connectors at the coolant overflow location, installed the new short harness that finally came in (USPS late as usual), and it worked. No more PS light, no more PS related codes.

Except now, I've got an issue where turning right will sometimes cause the steering to stick. It feels mechanical, not like the PS rack or module is freaking out. And it doesn't happen with every right turn, but it does seem to happen when turning sharply right while going a decent speed, i.e. putting stress on the steering system. Simply backing out of a parking space or taking a turn from a stop will either not trigger it, or it'll be less severe where I only feel a little resistance that's easily overcome. In any case, overcoming it feels like something is popping into place, like the feeling of catching and then suddenly slipping past it. I've been looking up possible related threads, but I haven't found any that are both solved and relate directly to what I'm experiencing. I'll be taking a look sometime this week to see if I can see anything obvious. If I had to guess, it'd be related to the steering shaft or U-joint near the rack after reading this post. Either a bushing is getting caught in a weird place, or the knuckle is worn in a weird way.

I'm going to go ahead and hypothesize that this is the consequence for driving without power steering for close to three weeks, and man-handling the steering.

 

Mine went out for about a month and my power steering took a while to get back to normal after it was fixed. I think it was easy to turn left and was hard to turn right. It slowly got back to normal over time, but I sped up the process by doing hard turns all the way left and all the way right.

 

I should clarify that I don't feel any resistance or "rotational lumpyness" for lack of a better term when I turn the wheel right. Only when turning the wheel back from a right turn, like something is on the way back to center. Very similar to the feel of backing out a bolt, but the thread has a burr or something on it in one place, so you put a little more torque on it, feel it squeeze past that point, and then its super loose again.

I suppose I could try to iron out the lumps and go do some hard circles in the parking lot, though I don't want to exacerbate the issue if it's something broken or misaligned. I think I'll poke my head under the car first, take a look around the steering rack. Donuts in the parking lot second.

 

Same here-after I soldered the connections, right hand turns would sometimes be a bit stiff-but it evened out and went back to normal after a few weeks.

 

Well, my problem ended up being a one off kind of thing. Forgot to tighten up an AC compressor bolt after doing an engine swap. The bolt was able to slide freely, right into the joint. So when I took a relatively sharp right turn, it'd slide and interfere with that joint. Needless to say after tightening it up, no more problems.