Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg

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Mon 12 Jan 2015 14:19
Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg - John82

Hi everyone, This is my first message on here.

I have a problem with my Zafiras power steering, we drove over a bump and the power steering stopped working, a few minutes later it kicked in again, a short while later it went off again....

I checked the fluid, which was slightly low, so topped it up, turned the wheel left and right full lock, no difference.

A few days later, I checked that there was a good earth connection, which seems ok, PAS pump is awkward to get to, however I noticed that if you shake the PAS bottle the pump is loose, I think that there is a bolt missing right at the bottom on the right hand side as you are looking at the engine bay, could this cause the pump to work intermittently?

Today, I took it for a drive, it seemed to work fine at first and then the PAS kept coming on and then cutting out.

I am no expert with cars, and any help would be appreciated.

Regards

John

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Mon 12 Jan 2015 14:57
Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg - RobJP

If, as you say, there is a good earth connection, then the cause is most likely a poor positive connection from the battery to the PAS pump, or the pump is starting to fail.

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Mon 12 Jan 2015 15:07
Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg - John82

Thanks Rob, Ive cleaned up all the connectors I can get to, Cant quite see and I might be wrong but I think the cables running from the PAS Pump are fixed to the unit rather than a connector.

It just seemed strange that it only started playing up when we went over a large bump in the road and the PAS pump appears to be loose.

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Mon 12 Jan 2015 17:46
Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg - elekie&a/c doctor

Some of the pumps on these are remote mounted,so there may be some movement in the unit.I would check the alternator charge voltage as any low output will cause the pas to not work correctly.The earth lead bolts to a ground point up near the left suspension turret and the power lead runs to one of the mega fuses near the battery .

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Mon 12 Jan 2015 19:02
Vauxhall Zafira - Power Steering intermittent Zafira 2ltr Di Wreg - John82

Thanks elekie, I will recheck the earth again tomorrow, I have no way of checking the output from the alt so will try and find someone to check it for me. At least my arms are getting a bit of a workout while its not working properly :)

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