Broken Steering Motor?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I was cleaning out my power steering assist motor and notice it had a great deal of play in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSCoDUKRTc

Is this normal?

2

I saw a video of a tech changing the plastic coupler in a Kia I think? He did it to fix steering rattle. The plastic couplers do wear. My equinox has a rattle also. I have not heard of a similar issue on my gen equinox on any forums. Your play could be normal for the elec drive side of unit.

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3

That movement, I think, is to account for small misalignment between the motor and the steering column housing. Binding of any kind would not be acceptable.

I think it is OK.

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4

If the part it connects to in the steering column is tight with no play then I would think that it is for alignment/misalignment between the two… as mentioned above…

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5

May we ask why you had everything on a bench and were cleaning it?

Were you just cleaning it because it was somehow really dirty?

Were you cleaning it because you had the dash out for some reason and decided to clean the steering while you were at it?

Or were you cleaning it because you’re trying to fix some problem . . . such as a fault code and/or warning indicator . . . with the steering?

6

As referenced above, Hyundais (and Kias) have a rubber coupler that marries this motor to the steering column and the coupler notoriously fails. Mine had liquefied into a black sludge. Some people take apart the motor in the car, with the knuckle attached, but others, myself included, take the column out and open it/clean it on the bench.

So far, with the laborious cleaning I had to perform, I think removing the whole thing was the best choice, but, I won’t really know the full extent of the additional headache until I’ve put it back together. Taking it apart was definitely a major pita.

7

Thanks, everyone. I feel much better about putting this back together.

8

I used to see vues at junkyard with elec steering motor removed. Vue and equinox have same steering. Zero info online at vue forums and equinox forums. Motor is under dash. Newer equinoxes have motor on rack. Different design.