Power steering overheating???

[ericgu22]

I'm asking for my Uncle's 10 Corolla which he uses for driver training and does a lot of knock to knock turns with the steering. Recently, have noticed that maybe the Power Steering is overheating because its very hard to turn at somepoint, only when he turns the steering for a while. Normal driving is fine. Do you guys think this is normal, have been arguing with the service manager regarding this and he say its completely normal. Have had 3 techs look at it and found nothing. Is there a fix or its a problem with the motor? The problem is that when he first bought the car, no issues at all but only recently? Any advice?

[dwujcik]

Originally Posted by ericgu22

I'm asking for my Uncle's 10 Corolla which he uses for driver training and does a lot of knock to knock turns with the steering. Recently, have noticed that maybe the Power Steering is overheating because its very hard to turn at somepoint, only when he turns the steering for a while. Normal driving is fine. Do you guys think this is normal, have been arguing with the service manager regarding this and he say its completely normal. Have had 3 techs look at it and found nothing. Is there a fix or its a problem with the motor? The problem is that when he first bought the car, no issues at all but only recently? Any advice?

Hi i was recently a master tech at toyota and i can assure you that is normal on the 1.8l corolla's. i have had that complaint with many drivers who operate here in NYC. On the XRS models we have a higher voltage steering system than the lower grade ones so on my car i have not noticed. But on our customers cars i have. its like a power window motor...use it enough times in a row it will heat up and stop operating.

your steering system has a brush type motor
the xrs system has a brushless system operating at 36V

the brush system is not as efficient as the brushless so the generated heat will affect the performance of the steering.

[cabur]

How did it get 36 volts? Is there a transformer that we do no know about.

[Jeff Lange]

It's all incorporated into the control module/motor in the steering column.

As was said, heavy use of the steering system repeatedly can cause excess heat. When this happens, the computer reduces the power steering assist levels to bring the heat back down.

Jeff