woo this is my first post!! gettin on with it anyway,my power steerin is mostly useless(i say mostly as sometimes its good) so i used a multimetre and checked voltage across + & - terminals and got 11.8 (not so good) do i get an alternator? or cood this just b a battery? the traction control light is on after 10mins so those wires will b broken i guess but wil that cause a problem? cheers for any advice u can give

There is a ton of info relating to battery/PAS issues on this forum. Take a search and you'll learn a lot in no time! Did you take that reading with the engine turning over or not? It should be 14V+ with the engine turning over.

Likely culprit is DMF wire, alternator not charing battery until engine hits a certain speed. However a poor battery will cause power steering loss and ABS loss. Replace it.

Finally, if power steering fluid is low, steering will be heavy and unresponsive to small movements.

engine turned on but only idling,i just dnt wana hav to buy a battery and an alternator as thats a lot of money for me there lol im goin to check that wire now!! i hav been readin loads of stuff but wanted an opinion of a more knowledgable person rather than guessin my way from stuff i have read! also i have no power steering light on the dash! goin to see if my battery light comes on wen i turn ignition on

Rev the engine past 2.5K and then check the voltage across the battery. If it jumps up, your DMF wire is broken near the gearbox. Not hard to get to, under tray off, car on ramps, crimp a new piece in or solder

cheers man, got the car jacked up (mates ramp was taken by some stupid mustang!! joking its pretty rad to be honest but anyway yea that dmf is broken except to make my life much more fun one of the two wires has broken flush with the little rubbery bit in the plug so i cant get that out at all, whilst i was hanging about under the car my eye was drawn towards an oily steering rack,turns out my turbo is dribbling oil :( this is not ideal obviously,turbos cost lots dont they

i need to get a new plug but what is it called exactly? i cant seem to find one online

Mine was the DMF wire aswell!

I brought a new alternator and took it back and exchanged it cus it was only putting out 11 volts, fixed the wire and now it's 14 volts

hi guys im having similar problems. power steering will only work in the very rarest of times. fluid is fine. have picked up another alternator as when it went last year the mechanic had a choice of 70 or 90 amp and chose the 70 ( so testing this 90 amp one) howver whilst im under the car might check out this dmf wire... however no where online i can find a diagram of what and more importantly where this cable actually is, can anyone help?