EPAS Failure and/or overheat? Time for a manual rack and pinion?

[Philld_with_donuts]

Hello Everyone!

Has anyone else experienced what I assume is an overheat of the EPAS system?

I was at a rallycross race last month and we were running our first mixed surface event. It was a mix of deep grass, dirt, and paved sections from an old road course.
After about 6 of 8 runs, the power assist for the steering suddenly died, and the steering effort suddenly became quite heavy.

I finished the last two runs and parked the car for about an hour. When I started the car back up, there was a bit more steering effort than normal.
Loaded the car up and trailered home, and after that the car seemed to be fine. Steering felt nice and light per usual.

With everything feeling fine, I did another race this past weekend, and at the second day of racing there was a noticeable creak when turning the wheel left and right.

Anyone else have these issues after a rallycross / track day? Time to go to a manual rack and pinion?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[PunkST]

Ive never had it overheat on me while tracking. But i tend to stay on roads. Have never rally crossed a car. Might have to figure out some sort of power steering cooler if we can even modify the rack.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

Ive never had it overheat on me while tracking. But i tend to stay on roads. Have never rally crossed a car. Might have to figure out some sort of power steering cooler if we can even modify the rack.

hmmm since it’s an electronic system, maybe I could run something similar to a brake cooling duct over to it? Good idea!

 

[PunkST]

Its possible. Might want to evacuate the old burnt fluid and put fresh in as well.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Its possible. Might want to evacuate the old burnt fluid and put fresh in as well.

The system if purely electric now...no more hydraulics. helps with MPGs..thought you knew!

 

[PunkST]

I figured it had an electric pump on the rack to make hydraulic pressure using less fluid and no drag.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I figured it had an electric pump on the rack to make hydraulic pressure using less fluid and no drag.

NOPE

 

[PunkST]

Weird.

 

[Fusion Works]

For what you are doing, a duct is a good idea. Also might stick a few temp stickers on the rack to see what its seeing for temps.

When I was measuring engine bay temps last week, I was only measuring about 124F. That was parked as I couldn't read the meter from inside the car. However the AP shows cat temps of 1500-1600deg. I would imagine that could hurt steering rack cooling.

 

[Philld_with_donuts]

For what you are doing, a duct is a good idea. Also might stick a few temp stickers on the rack to see what its seeing for temps.

When I was measuring engine bay temps last week, I was only measuring about 124F. That was parked as I couldn't read the meter from inside the car. However the AP shows cat temps of 1500-1600deg. I would imagine that could hurt steering rack cooling.

Temp stickers are a great idea! I'm also running a skid plate under the car so I'm sure it's trapping quite a bit of heat.

And as crazy as those cat temps sound, they are likely even higher. That's likely reading a modeled temp, and short excursions take place during different transient events that can peak ~1800F, but those excursions might be lost in the resolution of the refresh rate.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^That's why I only install the skid plate on mine when I am going to be working an ARA event.
It's also another motivation for me to get an aftermarket radiator, and to NOT ever put a huge, fully radiator blocking IC on this car as well.

 

[Fusion Works]

Agreed, I don't think there is any kind of actual sensor in the cat, its probably modeled so the ECU can pull back power levels to cool the cat in an extreme use situation. I think Ford Racing made mention of that in info on the Focus ST tune.

I was looking for air pressures under the hood, but I can't find my Magnahelic gauge.