Installing Power Steering. Cost to fit or DIY ? plus others

[Rumley12]

So I have had to replace my beloved Pug 306 HDI with a 1994 Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Merit E-Drive.

The car doesn't have anything up to date it literally is an A to B car which don't get me wrong is what cars are really for however I love to add and tinker with cars hence buying a cheap run about plus the car was pennies to insure.

So simply I am looking to do a few things but the biggest and main thing is power steering.

I want to add power steering to the car. Now I have watched a fair few youtube videos however they are all american and never on corsa's.

I want to know if anyone has any experience or knowledge of how much it costs to have it fitted or is it easy enough to fit yourself?

Second thing I want to do is put electric windows in which I can do however I cannot do the electrics. I wouldn't know where to start.

Thirdly I want to add central locking again installing the barrels is fine again its the wiring.

any advice on any of these ideas would be great.

Other things I am going to do is dye all the upholstery, give all the trims a re colour add in new speakers and cd,dvd,sat nav system that I have from my pug still.

Any other ideas for the car ?

I bought it for £200 from a chap who had it from new only has 70,000 on the clock and had it serviced every year, garaged every night the car is in great shape literally one scratch on the car which can be buffed out. would have been a shame to scrap it so I bought it for fun and learning more about engines and wiring because if i mess it up i will just buy a new one

[E-bmw]

It looks like you can do all that in about 5 mins & it should cost under £500.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[Rumley12]

wasn't really looking for silly answers. :rollseyes: thee reason I didn't buy a newer version is that I don't like them. I like the fun that comes with upgrading a basic car

[lucido grigio]

Does it actually need power steering ?

[M_A_S]

Rumley12 said:

wasn't really looking for silly answers. :rollseyes: thee reason I didn't buy a newer version is that I don't like them. I like the fun that comes with upgrading a basic car

Ask a silly question. The only financially viable to way to add power steering to your car is to buy one with it on already. And that's when you know what you're doing.

[Rumley12]

Doesn't really need any of it doing to be fair just want to learn if its possible

[Rumley12]

M_A_S said:

Rumley12 said:

wasn't really looking for silly answers. :rollseyes: thee reason I didn't buy a newer version is that I don't like them. I like the fun that comes with upgrading a basic car

Ask a silly question. The only financially viable to way to add power steering to your car is to buy one with it on already. And that's when you know what you're doing.

Do you know how much it costs then ? or know how to do it ?

[aka_kerrly]

I've seen quite a few different cars that have had the Vauxhall Corsa electric power steering conversion done on them a basic list of items would be:

EPAS clutch pedal assembly
Steering column cradle
EPAS column surrounds
EPAS Ecu
EPAS column and universal joints
EPAS steering rack
Wiring loom - your existing fusebox will have a spare socket and space for a fuse.

from a quick google for a corsa specific install you'd also need
Heater box ( complete )
Drivers heater pipework

Does seem like a bit of work. What size wheels/tyres does the car have?? I haven't owned a car without PAS for a number of years, my last being a mk2 Golf GTI which had the best weighted steering ever but you could certainly feel the difference between the 185/60/14 tyres, 195/45/15 and very much so on 205/45/17!

Your best bet is to either live with it or find a Corsa in the scrappy and raid it for everything rather than try and buy all the parts individually!!

[Rumley12]

aka_kerrly said:

I've seen quite a few different cars that have had the Vauxhall Corsa electric power steering conversion done on them a basic list of items would be:

EPAS clutch pedal assembly
Steering column cradle
EPAS column surrounds
EPAS Ecu
EPAS column and universal joints
EPAS steering rack
Wiring loom - your existing fusebox will have a spare socket and space for a fuse.

from a quick google for a corsa specific install you'd also need
Heater box ( complete )
Drivers heater pipework

Does seem like a bit of work. What size wheels/tyres does the car have?? I haven't owned a car without PAS for a number of years, my last being a mk2 Golf GTI which had the best weighted steering ever but you could certainly feel the difference between the 185/60/14 tyres, 195/45/15 and very much so on 205/45/17!

Your best bet is to either live with it or find a Corsa in the scrappy and raid it for everything rather than try and buy all the parts individually!!

Interestingly The scrap yard round the corner from me has a corsa that has been untouched so far so I asked if I could get the whole power steering system out and for £125 I can which sounded good to me it's just fitting it in. posted this wondering if it would be worth it, would it cost thousands or can I do it myself.

[GreenV8S]

Rumley12 said:

Doesn't really need any of it doing to be fair just want to learn if its possible

Anything is possible if you are willing to spend enough time and money to achieve it.

In this case the procedure would be:

1. Buy a more expensive and later model Corsa with the features you want as standard.
2. Spend a lot of time and skill (or money) transferring the various features to the older car.
3. Scrap the newer and more expensive car.
4. End up with something which will be harder to insure, harder to sell and probably less reliable than either of the cars you started with.

It's not a sensible thing to do, obviously.

Equally obviously, it's your car, your time and money and no reason not to do it for the fun of it if you want to.

[aka_kerrly]

GreenV8S said:

1. End up with something which will be harder to insure, harder to sell and probably less reliable than either of the cars you started with.

It's not a sensible thing to do, obviously.

Equally obviously, it's your car,your time and money and no reason not to do it for the fun of it if you want to.

Harder to insure because of a PAS conversion? that's a new one, I appreciate that modifications can indeed lead to price rises but PAS is hardly a performance modification or likely to increase the chance of theft. Why would you think a useful upgrade that people want would make the car harder to sell, I imagine plenty of people expect PAS even in a 25 year old car. As for unreliable, that's odd since the Corsa setup regularly gets recommended and I've seen it installed in all sorts of cars from MGBs, mk1 Escorts, mk1/2 Golfs and of course Corsa Bs (its handy when doing a 2.0L 16v swap) hence I get the impression it's a reasonably reliable setup as well as being compact.

[GreenV8S]

aka_kerrly said:

Harder to insure because of a PAS conversion? that's a new one, I appreciate that modifications can indeed lead to price rises but PAS is hardly a performance modification or likely to increase the chance of theft.

Modifications to safety critical systems will rule out the majority of underwriters and limit you to people willing to take on that extra risk (that it is badly designed, constructed or installed). They will pass that extra risk back to the owner in the form of a higher premium. Just the fact that they need to stop and think about what risks they're taking on with a non-standard car will push the premium up.

aka_kerrly said:

Why would you think a useful upgrade that people want would make the car harder to sell, I imagine plenty of people expect PAS even in a 25 year old car. As for unreliable, that's odd since the Corsa setup regularly gets recommended and I've seen it installed in all sorts of cars from MGBs, mk1 Escorts, mk1/2 Golfs and of course Corsa Bs (its handy when doing a 2.0L 16v swap) hence I get the impression it's a reasonably reliable setup as well as being compact.

Simply being modified will make it harder to sell since it will exclude the majority of potential owners who don't want to take on an unknown. Who knows how reliable it is, how easy will it be to figure out what's wrong if it fails? For anyone wanting these features, there are plenty of alternatives that already have them as standard for similar money. For those not fussed either way, the DIY changes have a downside but no upside.

These modifications will make the car harder to insure and sell. That might not be reason enough to stop you doing it, but it's still true.

[helix402]

Put loads more air in the front tyres.

[E-bmw]

GreenV8S said:

aka_kerrly said:

Harder to insure because of a PAS conversion? that's a new one, I appreciate that modifications can indeed lead to price rises but PAS is hardly a performance modification or likely to increase the chance of theft.

Modifications to safety critical systems will rule out the majority of underwriters and limit you to people willing to take on that extra risk (that it is badly designed, constructed or installed). They will pass that extra risk back to the owner in the form of a higher premium. Just the fact that they need to stop and think about what risks they're taking on with a non-standard car will push the premium up.

aka_kerrly said:

Why would you think a useful upgrade that people want would make the car harder to sell, I imagine plenty of people expect PAS even in a 25 year old car. As for unreliable, that's odd since the Corsa setup regularly gets recommended and I've seen it installed in all sorts of cars from MGBs, mk1 Escorts, mk1/2 Golfs and of course Corsa Bs (its handy when doing a 2.0L 16v swap) hence I get the impression it's a reasonably reliable setup as well as being compact.

Simply being modified will make it harder to sell since it will exclude the majority of potential owners who don't want to take on an unknown. Who knows how reliable it is, how easy will it be to figure out what's wrong if it fails? For anyone wanting these features, there are plenty of alternatives that already have them as standard for similar money. For those not fussed either way, the DIY changes have a downside but no upside.

These modifications will make the car harder to insure and sell. That might not be reason enough to stop you doing it, but it's still true.

^^^Wot 'e said.

[Penelope Stoppedit]

Windows is no problem
CLS is no problem
The electrical part of the above is more about running wires than knowing how to do electrics, as long as you don't have a problem with running wires you will find these jobs very easy