EPS

[Papalazarou]

Hi,

had my 96' NSX for less than two days and now have the EPS light on and no power-steering.
I tried to reset the EPS by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery which got rid of the warning light, but as soon as I operated the steering it came on again.
Originally I thought that no PAS was very bad, but after driving the car on Sunday I may actually prefer it!
OK so slow speed stuff is a pain but once out on the road, the extra weight and feel made the drive more involving.
However, I should really get it fixed so I'm going to my local dealer to get the fault codes checked out.
During my search for answers yesterday, I found this link on NSX Prime which describes the EPS system if anyone's interested:

[b]http:/www.nsxprime.com/FAQ?Technical/eps.htm

I will keep you posted to the outcome at the dealer i.e; what the problem was and how much money it will cost. If it's silly expensive, I'm going to start weight lifting!
Alternatively, if anyone else has experienced this problem, please let me know.

Regards, James.

[duncan]

James,
Prior to taking the car to a dealer, check the fault code yourself, at least then part of the dealers charge will confirm or otherwise your ability to count.
If you pull back the leading (front) edge of the passenger foot well carpet you will see the service check connector, that plus a bent paper clip to short it out is all that is required. Honest. The full instructions plus what the codes mean can be found via prime as the full service manual for the earlier cars that is posted there.
I found that I took half a dozen attempts at swiching the ignition on and then counting the "dots and dashes" that the warning light will make before I got my eye in fully. 10 to 15 minuites at zero cost to discover the bad news!
To clear the EPS memory; pulling the clock fuse is quicker and easier than trying to disconnect the battery, again; see the service manual.
Best of luck,
Duncan

[Papalazarou]

Wow, thanks for the advice Duncan,

I'll give it a try tomorrow and see what happens.
Do you think that driving the car without the EPS working will damage it?

Best regards,

James. :)

[Papalazarou]

Hi Duncan,

As you suggested I surfed NSX Prime looking for info. on EPS.
Whilst on the site I read some postings regarding 'moving/adjusting the steering wheel whilst starting the car.'
Anyway, about a second before starting the car on saturday, I moved/ repositioned the steering wheel and that's when the EPS light came on and I lost my steering!
It turns out that there was a recall in the States for this problem and looking at the NSXP forum it appears that many different model years were effected.
Anyway, I crept up to the garage tonight and took out the clock fuse, replaced it after 10-15 seconds, de-armed the imobilser, turned on the ignition, and started her up.
The EPS light disapeared and I now have power steering!!!!

Fantastic.

The moral of this story then, 'Don't mess around with your wheel during start-up!!'

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

James.

[Papalazarou]

As I suspected, nothing lasts forever.
The EPS light is back on again and the quick fix of taking the fuse out has ceased to work.
So I bit the bullet and went to Eastgate Honda to get a diagnosis.
Unfortunately, a relay has gone in the EPS control box. I suppose technically it may be possible replace this part but I'm not sure who to ask really.
The other alternative is to buy a new control unit! Apparently, Eastgate Honda have replaced about half a dozen of these boxes in the last few years and they said there is a chance Honda would meet me halfway on the cost of the item (However, the recall for this problem was limited to America so I'm not sure).
Anyway, If anyone has a spare EPS control unit or is bored with power steering and wants to donate the one from their car?? ha, ha. please let me know.
Finally, 10 points for the person who can guess to the nearest hundred how much a new control unit will cost. :)

Cheers,

James.

[Papalazarou]

Anyone........?

[UltraViolet]

£1,300??

[Papalazarou]

Ladies and gentlemen at only £5.00 away from the target price, Ultraviolet, you are our winner!!!

Cheers, James.

[UltraViolet]

Lol - complete guess too!!

What do I win? Cuddly Toy? A Cappuchino at the Gaydon meet if you make it along? :wink:

[TheQuietOne]

Gaydon meet?

That is a serious amountof money James :shock: , hope you can find an alternative way around it....

Matt.

[Papalazarou]

First of all 'Ultraviolet' unfortunately you don't win anything. However, you can rest comfortably in the knowledge that your EPS is still working. (unless you never had it in the first place in which case - I welcome me to your club!!).

Second, to X626BLB, Thanks for the kind word, I'm working on two possible lines of attack at the moment;
1. To try to get Honda UK to meet me half way (after all, it was a recall issue in the States).
2. I talked to guy from an electronics firm who said he could fix it.

Last resort = I know a breaker who has one, but I fear that it will develope the same fault as the one I already have.

Regards,

James.

[TheQuietOne]

James,

Sounds like you at least have a couple of options, even though they are not enviable!

Matt

[Papalazarou]

After consideration of my options, I have decided to get a new EPS control unit from Honda!
Actually it's not as bad as it sounds.

Basically I had three options;
1. Buy a new control unit from Honda (£1295.00) 12 month warranty
2. Buy a salvage control unit from a scrap yard (£400.00) No warranty + possibility of developing the same fault.
3. Try to get my current control unit repaired (?? and doubtful). ??

I spoke to Honda on friday and they are willing to absorb £500.00 of the value of the item, which technically they didn't have to do, so I'm as pleased as I can be about an £800.00 bill which luckily wasn't a £1300.00 one!!

Just as background, if anyone else experiences this problem; Apparently the US recall for this item was limited to the 97' model year, but if you research NSX Prime, you will see that many other year prefixes suffered the same problem.


Hope this helps someone.

Cheers,

James.

[vic]

i had an issue with the EPS and like yourself, i did just reset this by pulling out the fuse for the clock..... however, a month or so later, my TCS also came on and again, this was 'fixed' simply by pulling out the fuse....eventually, my speedo also started to misbehave and not work properly and it was at this point that i decided that a permanet solution was required.

My conclusion was that it must have been down to the malfunctioning of the speed sensor...... i had the part replaced by chiswick honda and haven't had a problem since...

[Papalazarou]

Very interesting, my TCS light came on only yesterday. I'm reasonably close to driving the car into the nearest lake.

Cheers,

James. :cry:

[Papalazarou]

To continue the EPS saga. Tonight I decided to find out what my new fault codes were; currently I have the engine check light on and the TCS. They came on at the same time on monday night much to my total frustration.
Anyway, equipped with diagrams for two pin plug bridging and a list of fault codes I went to the garage with my long suffering father and a torch.
Anyway, we took out the glove box and rolled back the carpet to find the plug but got side tracked and decided to remove the EPS control box instead to see whether it was possible to get into it and find the offending relay.
Unfortunately it didn't want to come out, so with the torch failing we decided to have another look tomorrow.
However, when I turned on the engine the EPS actually worked for a split second. This lead me to believe that it was in fact a mechanical and stuck relay and the attempted removal had freed it slightly.
With this shot in the dark, the old man (sorry father) gave the box a few careful taps and hey presto, my EPS now works fine (for how long I don't know).


James :?

[AR]

Sounds like my father in law. All the tools he need are a hammer, flat head screwdriver, mole grips and electrical tape.

[Papalazarou]

Hi kids,

Just got my EPS control unit replaced by Honda at Cribbs Causeway. Now I have proper adult steering!! Actually, it was a relief because the steering never really felt right unassisted.
Anyway, they gave me my old unit back and this is what was written on the back; (I considered not printing this pic because it's another step closer to anoraksville but here it is anyway)!

Cheers,
James.

[ctrlaltdelboy]

yeah, Japenglish is great isn't it :lol:

[duncan]

James,
Assuming you have an eternal sportsmind, if you open up your old unit does it show any signs of a) discrete component failure a.k.a the capacitors on the Bose and air-con boards or b) solder falure a.k.a the main relay.
Interested to know, in the potential event of similar problems.
Regards, Duncan

[Papalazarou]

I'll let you know when I get it back.

Regards,

James.

[Papalazarou]

Hi,
Whilst I'm not naive enough to expect that I have seen the last of the odd electrical hiccup. For the last 25 minutes everything on my car has worked!!! (I'm crossing my fingers touching the wood and doing the salt over the shoulder thing!?? or is that a different one?
Anyway, As you may have remembered from reading my thread, I took the car to the dealer to have the EPS unit fitted and they also detected a rear oxygen sensor failure and TCS failure! (yours for 2.4K)
Well I've just fitted a new O2 sensor switched the engine on and not only did the EC light go off but also the TCS light!!

Happy bunny until the next exciting installment. :)

Cheers, James.