Hi I wanted to Share my recent Experience, first lets explain the 8 it’s a 04 (Sept,03 build date ) with 34k all options (No Nav) and kept Pristine and Stock.

This past Saturday, the POWER STEERING stopped working and the PS light came on. Only once I promptly turned off the car and back on, Light went off and car drove normally.
Sunday morning PS failed again and would not be reset. So Monday off I go to the dealer ship (BTW I love the way the car drives with out PS on the freeway much more responsive).

The crack pot dealer ship claims I inadvertently crimped\crunched wire’s under the air box when I installed A K & N filter last year (not a typhoon just the filter)
Which is what caused the failure and there is now a short in the system, and there for is not a warranty able repair, and required extensive diagnoses at least 3 hours just for diagnosis. I dismissed this as BS and retrieved my car.

When I got it back the PS was normal, however When I made my 3 mile jaunt home the car Stalled in Neutral in the drive way. I proceeded to take it for a 2 mile drive and it stalled at every stop sign and light. I was Irate and ready for war however it was well after the dealer closed. The next morning I proceeded to take the Vehicle back to the dealer again, however the car drove normally everything was working the way it should.

It has been 2 days and nothing has changed So far.
I will wait and see if anything else happens. This is an odd mechanical conundrum I will report if anything else comes of it.

P.S. since I’ve gotten the car back it is backfiring slightly I have no clue what the cause is.

 

Wire under the airbox ? what wire ?

I took the WHOLE airbox out. where is the PS wire your dealership is talking about ? I dont have the wire diagram but I seriously dont see any freaking wire.

34K ? did you ever change the plugs ?

Post a copy of your 8's history (like stuff that has been replaced)

Your dealer is giving you BS , however.

 

Wiring harness for the PS is just to the passenger side of the lower airbox tray. They are full of **** if they think you did that putting in a drop in K&N filter.

Take it somewhere else!

 

Look around on the regional forums here and see where people recommend you go near your area. Most of the regional forums here have a thread for good service and dealerships.

 

i will bite.

there have been a couple of issues with the connector of which you speak.. the replacement of the connector harness fixed the problem...

also a few bad sensors inside the steering rack... and the whole rack has to be replaced...

are you sure you did not spin out and have you diff lock up???



beers

 

can set your mind at ease re the stalling thing . The dealer probably disconnected the battery which would hev reset the ECU . This causes the idle to be a bit rough till the ECU relearns its trims.
I've also had the PWR steering thing happen similar to your experience . Pretty sure it was just the connector under where the battery is .

 

thanks 4 your feed back. All services are current and all fluid is Royal Purple Plugs are new and the recall a few months back replaced 2 plugs.

 

My rack has just been replaced at 48K, due to steering torque sensor failure looks to be an
epidemic condition, maybe they will have to recall or extend warranty for the steering system.

 

what does replaced plugs and royal purple fluid have to do with you problem..

Duh.

beers

 

Hi I wanted to let anyone intrested know everything is running normally. I guess the problem is dorment right now I have had no problems with the PS for the past week.
The ECU probelm corrected it self the next day and have had no stalling issues since.

I will update this once my mazda mechanic takes a look at it next week.

or if there is another failure with the PS.

 

thanks your right about the ECU

 

nycgps asked about the plugs and a diff lock up.

 

I talked about that 1 year and a half ago and you know something nobody fix the power steering.
They changed ,you use your car for a couple of month and the problem continued I think it`s a voltage problem.

 

I had a similar issues this summer. Started the car up and no power steering so I took it in and I had a faulty wire harness. It took them a few hours to track down the problem and they replaced the wire harness. Since then everything has been fine, but now I'm having a variety of issues.

Just last week we hit a cold snap. I was coming home from a dinner about a half hour away from home and the engine light came on. Thing ran fine, but I didn't have any coolant, so I filled it up and brought it in. Hooked it up the computer and found out some sensor was faulty and a rod was sticking due to the cold and sensor issues. It took them 3 days to figure out the issue and so far the car has been running fine, but I'm still going through the coolant. The dealership said they couldn't find a leak and the pressure was fine during their tests but after a 6 hour drive the coolant was down about 1-1/2" from the mark I made when I topped it off. If its not one thing its another...