Steering warning light - never seen it before

[CatonaPC©]

Hi, got home today and wife says this red steering wheel light comes on when she turns the key. There are three chimes but then it goes out when the car is started.

RTFM and it says this warning light appears and then goes on. If it stays on then there is a problem and to refer to the authorised workshop.

1. Never seen this light before.
2. Goes out after car starts as per manual.
3. Steering is fine.
4. Sometimes doesn't come on when ignition turned.

What gives?

Should I have it checked?

[Big Yellow]

I had that too. Vagcom says its the steering angle sensor. Its to do with the variable speed steering.

[logger]

Hows the battery? I just checked and Low voltage will bring on the K161 power steering red light with the 3 dings. Also you can get it for steering moment sensor, steering angle sensor, failure of elc motor or steering rotor speed sensor falure. Spose failure of the self check at IGN on would give it too. Low voltage sounds like a candidate to me though as you would only get it when the battery is drained somewhat.

[CatonaPC©]

Low voltage sounds like a candidate to me though as you would only get it when the battery is drained somewhat.

Low voltage? On a 1 year old car?

As I said, I read the manual and according to it, it's normal provided it goes out.

As an experiment, I turned the key to ignition without starting the engine. The light comes on. After a second or two it goes out.

[logger]

Yes thats perfectly normal. Should come on for ~ 2 sec when you turn the IGN on as it does its self check.
What is not normal is for the light and three dings, which indicates a fault. So perhaps it failed its self check on those occasions. The items I listed are the ones the system guide says will give you the 3 dings.
Wouldn't expect a low battery on a newish car and you should see other symptoms in any case. But it could happen if something was inadvertently left powered.
Maybe one of the other items failed the check on those occasions, then came good. If it starts happening regularly I would get it checked - otherwise treat it as a one off.

[CatonaPC©]

Thanks. I'll monitor it for a while and see how it goes.

[gregozedobe]

I'll add a vote for low voltage (IIRC I read a similar story on an Octy over at Briskoda a while back). Could be battery or an alternator problem or parasitic current drain, don't automatically change the battery without checking it properly first.

Have you had any work done that could affect the electrics (including a different audio/dvd/nav headunit) ?

[CatonaPC©]

No. Car is stock. No changes made.

[Greg Roles]

I've had the steering wheel light come on once before, but it had gone out by the time I reversed out and hopped back in from shutting the garage door. Hasn't happened since, so I just took it as an electronic fart.

[CatonaPC©]

Visited Essendon VW today, and service manager had a look and suggested to err on the safe side book it in for service on Friday. Kudos to them, as they could have easily just said its okay and sent me on my way.

Fill you in on the details of what they find then.

[Guest0608]

Visited Essendon VW today, and service manager had a look and suggested to err on the safe side book it in for service on Friday. Kudos to them, as they could have easily just said its okay and sent me on my way.

Fill you in on the details of what they find then.

Sometimes the yellow steering light comes on when there is a fault within the electronic steering system but if it stays on yellow all the time its using backup data to keep the steering working. If the same lamp turns red then usually the steering is inop and you need mega muscles! It is usual for the yellow lamp to come on for a few seconds with all the other lamps when the car is started, should go out with all the other lamps at the same time. Is the 3 times chine not for your seatbelt warning (saying put your belt on) like usual when you start the car? -VW-

[85turbo]

the light will go orange after a battery change, but will go out quickly once under way again.

a red light does mean some kind of failure, let us know what they find ?

Jason.

[CatonaPC©]

Just to clarify, the red steering wheel light comes on when the ignition is first switched on. (No chimes). It then goes out after 2 seconds. It's not on while the engine is running and it's all okay steering wise.

According to the manual, this is normal. However, I've never seen this warning light before and the service manager thought it best to book it in to have it checked out just the same.

I downloaded and read the Electro-mechanical Power Steering Design and Function Self-Study Program paper and believe me this is quite an impressive piece of engineering with various backup and fail-safe functions built in. The yellow light only kicks in when those backup functions are enabled. Even a flat battery would cause a fault but this is not the case with mine. I tested the battery and it's reading 12.7 volts.

Whatever it is may be discovered next week and hopefully sorted.

[CatonaPC©]

Just got word from dealer service centre and no fault codes thrown out. All okay.

The red steering wheel light normally glows for two seconds and then switches off. It is, as mentioned, a self test procedure.

Certainly eases my mind.