electrical problem / warning lights / no power steering

[jiggersplat]

So I'm taking guesses on what I managed to f*** up this time... I am having NO luck modifying this car. Everything I touch on this car I ruin.

Every light on my gauge cluster is lit up, the speedo and the odo aren't working (tach is though) and I've got no power steering. But hey, besides that, the car runs fine.

Most of the other threads that seem to have been resolved with a new IPDM also involve problems with the engine and loss of power but mine's running just fine.

[svard75]

How about telling us what you did just before this happened? You mentioned you were playing with a plug and play module in another thread.

[jiggersplat]

How about telling us what you did just before this happened? You mentioned you were playing with a plug and play module in another thread.

well i wouldn't want to ruin the fun and send anyone down the wrong path by telling them what i was doing...

i was installing the kp tech foglight module which involves installing a relay, some harness hacking at the IPDM and the BCM.

i'm seriously hoping i just blew the main fuse to the IPDM (if there is one... don't have the manuals handy at work).

[jiggersplat]

Well apparently this is what happens when your ABS fuse in the IPDM is blown on a car that is totally computerized. I'm going to pull the fuse back out and see if it does the same thing just to confirm.

I can probably explain most of the behavior away if you assume that the ABS systems is actually also in charge of reading all the individual wheels speeds and using that for the speedo, odo, radar cruise, vdc, etc. The power steering one was tricky to convince myself of since its all hydraulic but it's *speed sensitive* so it provides more steering assist at low speeds. Plus it probably affect the LDP system since it can't actuate the brakes and on and on and on...

[veery]

I am 99% sure the ABS sensors do feed wheel speeds to the system, since it is wheel speed variation which triggers ABS.

But thanks for supplying the ABS fuse blown results as this is very helpful to the rest of us.

[jiggersplat]

yeah... so... new wrinkle... battery dead this morning. charging it now. hoping it was a fluke.

[svard75]

ABS sensors (Or Wheel Speed Sensors) are used for many vehicle control systems like stability control, speed, wheel slippage, and in AWD versions the transaxle torque management. I'm not surprised that all of those lights appeared.

The PS light may have to do with the Steering angle sensor for the AFS lights?

There are also a few other systems that rely on vehicle speed to determine function such as windshield wipers, Drivers side AFS, Yaw/side G sensor, Snow Mode and torque management

As far as I know Infiniti didn't have anything specific to the power steering system in terms of speed variance based steering input until the new Q models steer by wire.

[jiggersplat]

just to clarify, there was no power steering light that was on... there was NO POWER STEERING (or at least the amount of assist was greatly reduced). It was physically harder to turn the steering wheel, especially at low speeds.

[svard75]

Ah. Well power steering on our cars is fluid/pump driven from the accessory belt. Interesting issue. Perhaps the power steering pressure valve is somehow connected to the ABS system.