Power Steering Issue in Winter

[yunnie]

My Rogue is about a year old now.I live in southern Wisconsin, less then 3 hours from Chicago. Last winter on the days it was really cold with negative Wind Chill, I had an issue with my power steering/ PS fluid. The PS light lights up and I can barely turn my steering wheel at all. Basically I cant move it enough to even get my car out of my drive way. This happened several times. My Rogue is parked outside ( I wish I could park it inside ). So pretty much I was told my PS fluid froze up. And I would need to warm the car up. I've never seen this issue before. I took it to have them check it, and sadly it was on a warm day and they didnt find anything wrong.It would take me 30 mins to 1 hour of running my car and constant restarting to get my car to be able to be steerable.

Winter is coming up and I'm getting worried again if its a cold winter since winter seems to be coming early now.

I was wondering if this happened to anyone else last winter?
Modified by yunnie at 1:45 AM 10/13/2009

[Nick 568]

The Rogue actually uses an electric motor to turn the wheels instead of a hydraulic pump, so there is no power steering fluid. I have experienced the issue you speak of on my big Dodge Ram when I had it because it would always be outside in the -20 F weather. However, after either 30 minutes of idling on the coldest days, or 5-10 minutes of driving, it'd be back to about normal. But I digress. In the case of the Rogue, on very cold days, I do experience it a little bit, but it usually only lats a few seconds. After I've moved out of my parking spot, it's usually about back to normal.

However I do believe there is something wrong with yours if it's really taking an hour to go back to normal. I would recommend dropping it off at the dealer on a cold night so that way when they get in it in the morning, they have the best chance of replicating the issue you've been having.Unless of course someone else here has a better idea of what might be going on.

[Couz]

The Rogue actually uses an electric motor to turn the wheels instead of a hydraulic pump, so there is no power steering fluid. I have experienced the issue you speak of on my big Dodge Ram when I had it because it would always be outside in the -20 F weather. However, after either 30 minutes of idling on the coldest days, or 5-10 minutes of driving, it'd be back to about normal. But I digress. In the case of the Rogue, on very cold days, I do experience it a little bit, but it usually only lats a few seconds. After I've moved out of my parking spot, it's usually about back to normal.

However I do believe there is something wrong with yours if it's really taking an hour to go back to normal. I would recommend dropping it off at the dealer on a cold night so that way when they get in it in the morning, they have the best chance of replicating the issue you've been having.Unless of course someone else here has a better idea of what might be going on.

Great...I live in Montreal and -20F is the norm in winter, we'll actually get closer to -25F quite often.

The issue I'm noticing now as its getting chillier is the bloody plastic console part of the steering wheel gets a more pronounced creaky sound, like the plastic stiffens up in the cold.

I noticed there's a little clip on the steering wheel console which clips off to get access to a screw, if i unclip that little cap and just grab hold of the console and move it around from there I can duplicate the creak, all this with the car off.

I wonder if I can shoot some lube in there or something.

[kerrton]

I can't believe your service guys are so clueless that they don't even know that the Rogue has no power steering fluid, no power steering pump, just an electric motor - that is ridulous, I'd definately call them on that one, unbelievable crap!!!

Last winter was terrible here in Alberta, -30 C was normal for extended periods and the whole winter was just cold as hell, and I never had an issue with the power steering, the wheel always turned just as easily as in summer, so I'd say you definatley have a problem. I'd wait until it gets cold, check the forcast to be sure you're going to have a few solid days of cold, then take it to the dealer and tell them to fix it. I'm sure it just has a defective power steering electric motor that will be replaced on warranty. The first step is getting them to check it when it's cold so the problem can be reproduced, and my advice, don't take any crap from them, and if they try to patronize you and tell you it's fine, put your foot down and say enough is enough, there is an obvisous problem and you're smart enough to know it, so take the issue seriously and fix it.

[Couz]

Phew, if a Rogue can survive Alberta winters than it can make it in Quebec winters.