Hello everyone, I am now a proud owner of a 03 ep3. I drove my car to work today and I noticed a sqeaky noise when I turn the steering wheel (this never happened before) I had the ep3 for about 2 weeks now and I finally have the money to do a complete tune up (tranny, oil, top off fluids, spark plugs) I think the noise might have to deal with the power steering fluid. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

It's the steering rack. All models have been known for it. I'm not sure why it exactly does it, but they all do it.

EPHatch.com has a write up about it somewhere. Gotta deal with it man. It will come and go, and it will be loud and quiet sometimes.

 

Thanks for the info, so the write up on ephatch.com is a write up to fix the problem?

 

Any other ep3 owners have this problem too?

 

Just FYI, there is no power steering fluid on an EP. It uses an electric assist for its power steering.

My steering has creaked a bit, but so far it's only been a couple times, and then after flogging it through an autocross school day.

Owners have tried replacing racks (rarely b themselves, usually under warranty... but usually only when stock), but one of the more recent fixes that appears to work is to lube it by spraying lithium grease (I think...) inside the protective boot. Again, check ephatch.com -- that's what I read it last.

 

So far everything that has been tried is only a temporary fix at best.

If you really want to remedy the situation, convert your rack to hydraulic PS using the RSX rack. The EPS rack on the EP sucks...it doesn't free up as much power as you'd think and from what I understand those who autocross are easily able to get ahead of the system.

So far I haven't heard of anyone who's actually done this; but in theory it shouldn't be a big deal at all since you're going from something thats more advance to something thats been used successfully for decades.

 

thanks everyone, i didn't even know about the PS setup of the ep3. it has stop making sound for now (today). i'm gonna do my homework to find a solution for this problem cause i'm a baby about things like this cause its my daily driver. thanks again

 

Yup, I noticed mine doing that when the radio is low.