Hello everyone. I have a few questions. Today I lost power steering in my 2008 Pontiac Torrent 3.4l v6. After doing some researched, I learned it was a blown 80amp mega fuse. So I replaced it and so far it’s working again.
My questions…
- What could have caused this fuse to blow/will it blow again (I have not jumped anyones car or jumped mine). Could it be a bad battery?
- While I was purchasing the fuse I had them check the codes on my car b/c I have had stablitrack and traction control errors on my dash board. I was told I had errors P0405 (egr sensor) and P0300 (misfire). It seems like these two errors maybe linked. Will replacing the EGR valve fix this?
Thanks a ton!
I do not know the wiring schematic details on this car so anything posted is theory only. An electric steering motor will be a high current (amperage) draw part; meaning it uses a large amount of electricity in operation.
It could be that the fuse just gave up due to a combination of age and high current. Amperage will increase in situations where steering requires more force. This could mean turning the wheel lock to lock while squeezing in or out of a tight parking place, worn steering motor, binding steering column, etc, etc.
My feeling (right or wrong) would be to give it some time and see if it happens again. If there’s a real serious current draw issue it will likely pop again, If not, it may have just been age/high current. If one wanted to dig a bit I suppose current draw could be checked with an ammeter.
As to the other issues, those could be related. Whether replacing the EGR will fix it I cannot say as there’s more to a repair than changing a part with a related code.
It could also be that the 300 random misfire code is due to a faulty crankshaft position sensor.
Sorry I can’t be more definitive but hope this helps in at some small way.
The stabiltrack may disable if power is lost to your electric steering. There is a steering angle sensor related to stabiltrack and may have disabled itself throwing a code.
Lastly some vehicles will disable traction control/stability if certain check engine lights are present even to EGR. The reason is stability control actually will control the engine in certain conditions (less throttle) and may not be happy with. My MDX throwing the similar code related to EGR shuts down AWD and stability control until you restart the vehicle.
In my case though it turned out to be a power problem as my battery was weak. A simple $120 battery replacement made my christmas tree of a dash and various errors/warning/check engine disappear.
Did you actually check the fuse to see if was blown or replaced and it happened to work?
Good point by Andrew above about checking the battery condition. Electric motors will often draw excess current if the battery voltage is low. The reason is they need a certain amount of power, and power = voltage * current , so if the voltage is low, the current has to be high. So ask your shop to check the battery and charging system.
Unless you are having drivability symptoms or the check engine light is on and won’t go off, I’d ignore the egr and misfire codes for now.