Electric power steering failed

[m4sta]

Hi there.
So it happened to my wife's car. The electric power steering stopped working and the red PS light came up on the dash. I tried scanning for the fault code with my little device I bought from eBay but it's not finding anything at all. Perhaps it's just useless. Is there anything I can do to check if it's just an error before I take it to Nissan and pay fortune for fixing it?
I know that replacing the power steering won't work as it needs to be programmed into ecu. I don't know what else can be done to fix it.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[chakota]

I ended up taking my wife's micra to garage back in Oct. The fault is quite common and rather expensive to rectify . What they did was bought in a reconditioned one and works fine now ,only drawback was £1010 to replace ...ouch. But there is a place on ebay will take yours of and repair for £350 , I only saw this after having mine done . Whatever you do it will have to be repaired so good luck mate

 

[plmval]

EPS Fault

There are several threads on here regarding K-12 electric power steering faults that you may search and review. Some members have successfully reset the fault codes with simple 16 pin OBD2 fault code readers (OBD tool N607 Nissan consult II copy cat). Link to get you started. Reference; http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/micra-steering-problem.59442/#post-661452

If there is a physical charging fault in alternator charging or electric power system then it could affect the steering - being electronic it requires the electric power supply in good order as well as the battery. Supply/charging/battery voltage needs to be verified correct at the EPS power supply terminals, before replacing EPS assembly.

Find a local automotive electronics/electrical technician service for a second opinion to interrogate the codes from the steering control unit - they can confirm and try clearing the faults stored in the steering ecu. Sometimes the steering will then work ok for a while. Checking the connections into the column and fuse power distribution boxes can resolve loose/corroded connections that the K12 is notorious for,

There are places online that do repaired/supply/exchange EPS columns (long term durability unknown) maybe be worth searching for example:

reman.com/index.aspx / http://www.ecutesting.com/nissan_micra_k12_eps__electric.html ...

I do hope this helps with this very difficult issue with your vehicle?

Best of luck and let us know how this pans out?

 

[m4sta]

Hi there.
Thank you very much for your replies.
I took the car to a technician who ran all the diagnostics and managed to clear the fault from ecu. That made the power steering work again.
Now we don't know if the power steering is at the edge of it's life or was it a one off incident.
However... I also had a problem with flashing green Key light on the dashboard while driving. It was a result of having a faulty led sidelight which was flashing now and again. Replaced them leds with normal w5w bulbs and the flashing key light isn't there anymore. Could that faulty led trigger some electrical error which resulted in ps fault? I don't know. But for now everything is working and let's hope it stays like this.
If anything changes I'll update you asap.