My college age daughter is driving a 2008 kia sportage. She tells me that when it rains the battery light goes on and the steering wheel locks up.What to ask the mechanic?
View 5 RepliesI bought a golf mk4 2000 and sometimes when rains the battery light comes up and the power (electricity) of the golf goes a bit out, but it don't turn off. It is only when is lots of water on the road.
Symtoms:
The handle gets hard
A/C stops for a second
Light flickers
I can solve it buying a splash engine cover? Or I should check something else.
I have a Hyundai Accent 2001 and today while driving the battery light and brake light both went on and the steering wheel became "stiff" - hard to turn - although driving in a straight line seemed to be as usual.
I would just take it to the garage, but although it still starts as usual, it seems hard and probably a bad idea to drive it there in its current condition.
I have a 2004 Saab 9-3. Currently the Battery Warning Light has come on. It came on while the car was being driven. The car's performance seemed to suffer and it was hard to turn the steering wheel. We were about two miles away from home and we somehow managed to get home but we simply couldn't get the car to turn on to our driveway because of loss of power for steering.
We checked the Saab manual and it reads : Warning Charging - This light comes on together with 'triangle/exclamation' light if the battery is not charging. If it comes on while you are driving, stop the car as soon as possible and switch off the engine.Check the alternator drive belt. If the belt has broken, the engine may overheat (cooling system will not function properly), the battery will not be charged, the A/C compressor will not run and power assistance for steering will be lost.
Our observation:- We experienced the a/c not working too well- We had problem with steering - It was almost as if the steering wheel was locked. It was extremely hard to turn. Is this an alternator belt or a battery issue? If so, how do we figure out?
My daughter called me from a gas station where the steering wheel, on her 2012 Elantra,Limited, locked into place and the ignition key wouldn't turn.
I told her that my Sante Fe does this occasionally and I just wiggle the steering wheel a bit until the key freely turns.
She said she tried wiggling the steering wheel several times, before calling me. After some more wiggling, while she was talking to me, she got the key to turn ....
She has owned the car for about 1- 1/2 years and this is the first time it has happened.
My wife drives our 2007 Sonata Limited every day. Over the past year, she has complained to me a few times that the steering locks up on her when she is exiting the freeway. The wheel is just stuck after a few seconds she can turn it and make the exit. I have driven it many many times and have never experienced it. It had new rotors & tires put on and after that, it seemed to stop. That was 6 months ago.
well tonight she said it happened again when she got off the freeway but this time it was at the stop light when she went to turn. Said it was stuck and again after trying to force it to turn it finally turned. I am concerned about her driving it since it is dangerous but since it only odes it out of the blue it's very hard to diagnose. I am thinking it may be that steering sensor that controls the fluid pressure but I don't just want to start changing things since I will not know if that is the problem due to a number of times the problem has occurred.
I have a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. While driving the other day the steering wheel totally locked up. It was not like just losing power steering; you could not turn the wheel at all. I had the same thing happen 3 years ago and knew that if I turned off the car and restarted it the steering would unlock. I did that, it unlocked, and I continued on my way. A few blocks later, the wheel locked up again and this time the engine died after the wheel locked up. A few blocks more and it locked up a third time, the engine died, and I could not get the vehicle to restart for several minutes. The engine would turn over but it would not start. After finally getting it to start I pulled into a parking spot and called a tow truck. The mechanics have had it for several days and can not find anything wrong. It will not repeat this behavior and no codes come up on the computer. When this happened 3 years ago the same thing happened. The mechanics had it for several days and could never find anything wrong. I've been lucky so far in that this has only happened at low speeds and at places where there was not a high volume of traffic.
View 4 RepliesAs I am driving the steering wheel will randomly lock for about 2 seconds. It has happened while changing lanes on the highway, also happening while making turns in intersections. Took it in to the dealer, all they did was clear the code and give it back to me. I have notified Hyundai Customer Care and they are supposed to contact me but right now the car is unsafe to drive.
View 50 RepliesI have a 2005 toyota Highlander with 88,000 miles. Every now and then my steering wheel locks up when I am turning left under 10 mph in the rain. What would be causing this and is it going to cost an arm and a leg to fix the problem?
View 4 Repliesmy truck has been acting kind of funny for the past 2 days. my RPM's are not as high as they usuaully are and my battery volt is 14.2 watts and when i hit the brakes and turn it drops down to 12.5. when that happens my battery light turns on, steering wheel tightens up and truck slows down. the only way to get my truck running after that is turning it off and starting it up again. What might be wrong or had the same problems?
View 3 RepliesI have a 1998 Buick Regal where the steering wheel randomly locks up while I am driving it. I usually stop the car and start it back up with success. The last time this happened was after I had the supercharge engine replaced. Once it locked up it I tried to start it up. The first time it did not restart, but the second attempt worked. I have taken it two really good mechanics and neither were able to diagnose the problem. I cannot remember if I am running the air conditioner when it happens. I know that sometimes I am. What could be causing my car to randomly lock up like this?
View 2 RepliesI have a 2001 ford f150 lariat 5.4 L Trition it shuts off while driving the steering wheel locks up when the truck shuts off I tried everything and it doesn't seem to help the problem. I changed the Iacv idle air control valve,I had a bad o2 sensor changed that, changed the crank sensor, cleaned the throttle body and changed the Tps sensor, got a new battery, changed the vacuum lines.i really don't know what else to do this truck is becoming a nightmare and is dangerous to drive I never know when it's going to shut off and when it does shut off sometimes it starts right up and other times it doesn't.
View 2 RepliesI have a 2004 Santa fe and if it is raining or if I drive through a puddle of water, my steering is locking up, what may be causing it? I am afraid it will cause me to wreck.
View 1 RepliesI have a 2008 Kia Sportage LX. Lately, when I have put my key in the ignition and start to turn it, it starts automatically. On my ignition I have Off, Lock, ACC, On, and Start. When I start to turn my key to Lock position my car cranks up automatically.
View 7 RepliesI have the above mentioned vehicle and have had 5 incidents of the vehicle shutting down on me while I am driving. A warning light (triangle with !) come on, and a message that says "Stop Safely Now", at which point the car shuts down and runs only on electric battery power for a short period of time to allow you to pull over. I have figured out that it only happens when it is either raining outside, or I have just gotten a car wash with undercarriage spray down.
I have had the throttle body replaced as well as the master air flow cleaned out, neither of which have fixed the issue. This is becoming a safety issue, since it has happened twice now on the highway going around 65 mph.
My R32 which has around 45k was running fine until I went to leave work. As soon as I got in and went to back up I noticed, I had a red steering wheel warning light lit and I had no power steering. It ran fine at lunch and had been sitting for several hours at this point.
I only have two other known issues with my car. One the starter motor is squealing and has been for a while. When the dealer looked at it, he said it would probably fail one day, but it wasn't something I needed to take care of now. I have yet to have a single issue actually starting the car. I figured I would hold off until I found a local mechanic I liked since it was out of warranty. The other issue is during two especially hot days my fuel gauge fluctuated and I would get the low fuel warning even though I had more than half a tank. They also looked at that and said it was just the sending unit which failed to respond several times during their tests. It hasn't happened since but it was on the to do list.
Is it common for the power steering to just fail like that? I have read that a low or dying battery will give off weird electrical errors so I am hoping it might be something simple like that or possibly a fuse which I couldn't check tonight.
If it is not something simple like that, what I might be looking at as far as fixing it goes? Of course it had to happen on a Thursday night so I don't even know if I will be able to find somewhere to look at it and I don't have a scanner. Also without power steering I don't really trust trying to drive it anywhere.
I've been having several issues with my 06 Jetta. First, it began by the car dying out of battery, and than i figured out that during the night the break lightswitch would turn on. I would be able to turn them off by getting in and pressing the breaks but they turn on a while after. Now, today I purchased a stoplight switch to replace the old one however, when I recharged my battery before installing the piece the car died a few minutes later, but when the car was off there was a strange clicking sound under the steering wheel it kept clicking for about 10 minutes before it finally stopped. What could be a possible issue or issues that are going on?
View 4 RepliesBoth brake lights on my KIA Sportage 2006 function normally when the car lights (headlights etc) are switched off.
When the car's lights are switched on, the right brake light completely stops working, whilst the left one behaves normally and becomes brighter.
I have a 2006 VW Rabbit with 106k miles. It is an automatic. Strange problem: if it is raining AND the traction control symbol comes on (I slip), then the EPC light comes on and the car is slow to shift and has poor acceleration. This does not happen if it is not raining and it does not happen just when it's raining. One mechanic recommended cleaning the throttle body, but since the car runs great all other times, this didn't make sense to me.
View 1 RepliesRecently purchased this SAAB with 50,000 miles. Can feel a knocking in the steering wheel. The knocks transmitted through the steering column do not seem to be related to the suspension nor conditions of the road surface (irregularities, pot holes, etc.). The dealer (Volvo and SAAB) -- highly recommended -- replaced the left and right front stabilizer links/bushings and the right hydraulic transmission mount. This has reduced the incidence of the knocking, but not eliminated it completely. Have yet to raise with the shop the knocking still continues. What was fixed to eliminate the knocking.
View 19 RepliesI have a 04 stx f-150 4x4, had the front springs changed, shocks and struts! now when I am driving at either 43mph or 53 mph, I get vibration in steering wheel.....
View 6 Replies