Stop light and loss of steering:(

[chris'172]

Hiya guys and gurls, was pulling into a side street tonight, luckily i was going slow. The steering started turning to the left, then it just stopped, my steering wheel didnt want to turn any more, noticed the STOP light came on with another, looked like the battery light but cannot remember, anyway, turned off the ignition, turned it back on agian and everything seemed fine, looked in my manual, but cant find anything, anyone got any ideas please? Cheers in advance, Chris.

 

[RobertCL]

Could it be that your power steering stopped working? I guess that would make the steering virtually impossible to turn on a 172 due to it being heavy.

 

[Adams_16v]

check aux belt mate!

 

[chris'172]

Hi again, cheers lads, why would the power steering suddenly stop working if the car was moving though? I'm not very mechanically minded, but what has the aux belt got to do with that? thought the aux belt was for charging the alternator, lol, I'm probably wrong, but could you explain? And is it easy to find the aux belt in a 172?, as everything seems so compact and hidden under the bonnet, cheers again.

 

[Fred@BTM]

aux belt powers air con, alt, water pump, and PAS

if the belt snaps, you get flat battery, no PAS, no water pump = bad!!!

 

[chris'172]

Cheers for that Fred, guess I'm gonna have to check in the morning.

 

[chris'172]

Is the Aux Belt the one directly under the oil filler cap, been looking on the site, and it seems there are 2 visible belts, 1 the timing and 2 the aux, or are they both the same thing? Think its time for a haynes manual. Cheers.

 

[Fred@BTM]

you can't see the timing belt, its hidden under covers

the aux belt is on the left hand side of the engine as you look at it (drivers side)

 

[chris'172]

Cheers again Fred

 

[chris'172]

I checked the Aux Belt this morning, seems fine, also checked the power steering fluid, brown liquid, seemed pretty full, anyone any other ideas? Its hard to check the full belt as most of it is hidden, but it was turning anyway. Cheers.

 

[Munson]

You say you switched off the ignition...

Was the engine running before you switched it off???

 

[chris'172]

To be honest Roy, I think the engine had cut out, but I'm not 100 % sure, why, what are you thinking it could be?

 

[Rob669]

Chris, if your engine's not running you'll have no power steering. Sounds pretty much as though your engine cut out. I'd be wondering why this happening rather than tracing a problem on the steering.

Cheers, Rob669

 

[Adams_16v]

did u stall it?

 

[BigChris]

STEERING LOCK?
if ignition was off, doesn't the steering lock engage?

 

[chris'172]

Hi, nope, I did'nt stall it and the steering lock was'nt on. The steering wheel would not turn anymore to the left and it was'nt the steering lock that was on. Cheers for the info lads.

 

[chris'172]

I was in 1st gear, but not going slow enough to stall it, another thing i noticed which i forgot to mention, was the degree celcius sign flashing under the clock, not the number though, does it normally do that if the temperature outside is as low as 2?

 

[Munson]

I reckon your alternator might be struggling. That can cause the engine to die, either that or it was just a random stall...it can happen if the revs are low enough, especially if you were on full lock with PAS pump dumping pressure (or whatever it is they do)

Basically your PAS didnt fail...your engine stalled either through driver error or some technical issue - you just need to find out which. All you can really do is wait and see if it happens again, or you could take it to an auto electrician place and get them to test the alternator and battery.

 

[chris'172]

Cheers for that roy, and others, will take it up to kwik fit to test the battery.