Car mysteriously repairs itself dilemma.
Discussion
Hi All,
About 6 weeks ago the Power steering in my Infiniti Q50 broke. It's not fixed yet (long story, authorised Infiniti repairer (Nissan main dealer), slow in getting parts, cancelled bookings by dealer etc) but the part has arrived (Steering force controller - a grey box) and its booked in for 4th November.
I've not used the car in the last 3 weeks at all but I thought I'd better start it up today and drive it around a bit to keep it happy. Weirdly, no warning lights and power steering worked OK. The wheel was still at 15 degrees when the car was going straight however but it did that ever since it broke. The car was started and driven about 10 times since the steering broke and every time the same fault and the same angle, which is why i left it alone.
I decided to therefore go fill up with diesel, restarted after , still no problem and now the angle of the wheel matches the angle of the front wheels. Straight = Straight. Note - the Infiniti Q50's Direct Adaptive Steering (DAS) means if all is well, there's no mechanical link between steering wheel and actual wheels.
Now. the cost of the little grey box and someone to put it in is about £1300. I could do this and I'd *presume* the repair is warranted for 12 months meaning that if it reoccurs, they deal with it? I could leave it and see what happens but go through all the same waiting grief again if it reoccurs. Last resort is part-ex the car as-is (working) and not deal with it, although I've not had it that long and I'm sure I'd lose quite a lot and aside from it's recent problem, I like it very much.
Note the car broke just as promptly by itself too. I'd driven it about 150 miles early one morning, parked it in an NCP in Reading all day and then 12 hours later came back to it and there it was, no working power steering and lots of lights.
Thoughts and comments welcome.
About 6 weeks ago the Power steering in my Infiniti Q50 broke. It's not fixed yet (long story, authorised Infiniti repairer (Nissan main dealer), slow in getting parts, cancelled bookings by dealer etc) but the part has arrived (Steering force controller - a grey box) and its booked in for 4th November.
I've not used the car in the last 3 weeks at all but I thought I'd better start it up today and drive it around a bit to keep it happy. Weirdly, no warning lights and power steering worked OK. The wheel was still at 15 degrees when the car was going straight however but it did that ever since it broke. The car was started and driven about 10 times since the steering broke and every time the same fault and the same angle, which is why i left it alone.
I decided to therefore go fill up with diesel, restarted after , still no problem and now the angle of the wheel matches the angle of the front wheels. Straight = Straight. Note - the Infiniti Q50's Direct Adaptive Steering (DAS) means if all is well, there's no mechanical link between steering wheel and actual wheels.
Now. the cost of the little grey box and someone to put it in is about £1300. I could do this and I'd *presume* the repair is warranted for 12 months meaning that if it reoccurs, they deal with it? I could leave it and see what happens but go through all the same waiting grief again if it reoccurs. Last resort is part-ex the car as-is (working) and not deal with it, although I've not had it that long and I'm sure I'd lose quite a lot and aside from it's recent problem, I like it very much.
Note the car broke just as promptly by itself too. I'd driven it about 150 miles early one morning, parked it in an NCP in Reading all day and then 12 hours later came back to it and there it was, no working power steering and lots of lights.
Thoughts and comments welcome.
Scootersp said:
Not sure what i'd advise but the above just feels so weird/wrong!
If it's literally true that the steering wheel isn't capable of turning the steering mechanically, that introduces some pretty scary failure scenarios. I've no idea how that system works, but I suspect there's just a servo in series with the steering column so that the steering can turn more or less than the wheel, within the travel limits of the servo. That would mean worst case you may need to turn the wheel a little further but would always have some steering control. If it works like that and the servo has an intermittent fault, that would produce the symptoms. Obviously the component with the intermittent fault needs to be repaired/replaced, even if the fault isn't apparent right now.Just to clarify on the "when it's working normally". Although the Q50 has no physical link under normal conditions, under any kind of failure condition there's some kind of bolt or whatever that activates and then does join the steering wheel and the front wheels mechanically.
Direct Adaptive Steering wasn't a purchase reason for me. I think it's probably more trouble than it's worth. I don't see Nissan introducing it on all their cars but I suppose with the Q50 being important for them at the time, and what with it also being known as a Skyline back in Japan, they felt it needed some technology to distinguish it from other cars.
Direct Adaptive Steering wasn't a purchase reason for me. I think it's probably more trouble than it's worth. I don't see Nissan introducing it on all their cars but I suppose with the Q50 being important for them at the time, and what with it also being known as a Skyline back in Japan, they felt it needed some technology to distinguish it from other cars.
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