The Lemon Fool

Hi Folks,
Friend of mine has a 2014 Vauxhall Meriva 1.4 manual Power steering went a few weeks ago. Garage had trouble sourcing parts, finally fixed it, not original Vauxhall parts I understand. The steering works fine, no leaks etc. But the dash warning light for the power steering comes on with a Code 68 warning. He's tried disconnecting the battery, I don't know how long for, and press and hold the brake pedal to dissipate something or other (new one on me). Can't get rid of the warning light.

Any Meriva experts out there?

Ray.

Is it electric or hydraulic PS? I've not seen this on a Vauxhall, but on small Fiats when the battery is on the way out or very low in charge (such as when the car is left standing in winter for a week or two) you get several random warnings, one of the most common being electric power steering failure. Give the battery a good full charge and see if that sorts it.

raybarrow wrote:
Friend of mine has a 2014 Vauxhall Meriva 1.4 manual Power steering went a few weeks ago. Garage had trouble sourcing parts, finally fixed it, not original Vauxhall parts I understand. The steering works fine, no leaks etc. But the dash warning light for the power steering comes on with a Code 68 warning.

He's tried disconnecting the battery, I don't know how long for, and press and hold the brake pedal to dissipate something or other (new one on me). Can't get rid of the warning light.

Any Meriva experts out there?

Always worth going to the brilliant Vauxhall forum for stuff like this I think Ray -

https://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/forums/small-medium-vauxhall-cars-area.83/

Here's a 'Code 68 Meriva' Google search using that specific forum site, which brings back lots of stuff that will warrant some investigation -

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk+meriva+code+68+steering

Battery voltage and alternator output crop up quite a lot, daft as it sounds. Probably worth making sure those easily-checked bits are OK before putting any funds into a paid-for investigation...

The above forum is extremely helpful though, and it will be worth posting a specific question there to get some specialist advice...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Surely the easy answer is to take it back to the garage, get them to plug in their OBD-2 tester and delete the code.

John

I'd say IAAG and Padders are probably on the case. When my alternator failed last year, the first thing I noticed was a power steering light - closely followed by the power steering itself dropping out. Your friend hasn't had that yet, but it's definitely worth getting the charging rate looked at.

Of course, it could be just a battery or a loose earth strap? How are his headlights? Do they flicker at idle revs?

Either way, as RS says, a computer checkup will probably nail the trouble in minutes. There are other candidates. Take a deep breath before you suggest your friend looks at https://www.mokkaownersclub.co.uk/threa ... e-68.6653/ .

BJ

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the replies. I'll point him to the sites mentioned. I'll ask him why the garage couldn't sort it. The battery etc sounds as a possible as it was off the road for some time as they couldn't source parts (war in Ukraine).
He's on holiday in the car at the moment so I'll se him when he returns.
Ray.

raybarrow wrote:Hi Folks,
Thanks for the replies. I'll point him to the sites mentioned. I'll ask him why the garage couldn't sort it. The battery etc sounds as a possible as it was off the road for some time as they couldn't source parts (war in Ukraine).
He's on holiday in the car at the moment so I'll se him when he returns.
Ray.

If it is a battery voltage issue, the use it's getting now might cure it.

staffordian wrote:

raybarrow wrote:Hi Folks,
Thanks for the replies. I'll point him to the sites mentioned. I'll ask him why the garage couldn't sort it. The battery etc sounds as a possible as it was off the road for some time as they couldn't source parts (war in Ukraine).
He's on holiday in the car at the moment so I'll se him when he returns.
Ray.

If it is a battery voltage issue, the use it's getting now might cure it.

Indeed. I'd expect it to be fully charged after running for a couple of hours (following advice I've previously been given when batteries have been accidentally depleted)