I'm currently looking at a Citroen Saxo, as a favour for an old friend's son.
Lifted the bonnet and saw the power steering pump on the right, t'other side to the auxiliary drive belt - the thing's driven by an electric motor!
Is anyone else here aware of this Gaul 'technology'?
Suppose it can't be all bad, as it's lasted over ten years.
Don't get me started on the routing of the bottom hose. Wonder why I've never owned a French car in forty-odd years (I'll conveniently forget my current Yaris).
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Ex-girlfriend had a Saxo, similar PAS set-up but it did admittedly handle quite well; horrible tinny little car, apart from that.
My Hyundai i10 has electric PAS, not known for problems.
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Many cars have electric PAS these days - reduces the parasitic losses, and shaves a tad off the CO2.. Saxo was an early adopter, and it is known to have problems with the motor brushes gunking up.
Saxos / 106s can also suffer pretty horrific rust in the rear chassis rails....
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>> Saxos / 106s can also suffer pretty horrific rust in the rear chassis rails....
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Given that the earliest Saxos must be almost 20 years old, and the youngest well over 10, for a cheap car you can't be overly surprised. I certainly see a large number of Polos of that vintage that are, how shall we say, a little frilly around the edges!!
Didn't realise that the Saxo was an early adopted of electric PAS though; I bought one many years ago for my partner to learn to drive on. A 1.4 'Exclusive' no less. 2 years free insurance and a cost, after discount, in 1998 of around £8.5k I recall. 2 years insurance even then was well over £1k. Does just show how cheap cars have become though; the equivalent C2 is probably not much more now - and safer. Though I expect it's comes without crushed velour upholstery ;-)
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>> I'm currently looking at a Citroen Saxo, as a favour for an old friend's son.
>>
>> Lifted the bonnet and saw the power steering pump on the right, t'other side to
>> the auxiliary drive belt - the thing's driven by an electric motor!
>>
>> Is anyone else here aware of this Gaul 'technology'?
I think its German technology.
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I know many cars have electric PAS, but the idea of converting mechanical energy (the engine) into electricity (alternator) to drive an electric motor that, I presume, is running continuously to drive a conventional power steering pump seems inefficient.
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>> I know many cars have electric PAS, but the idea of converting mechanical energy (the
>> engine) into electricity (alternator) to drive an electric motor that, I presume, is running continuously
>> to drive a conventional power steering pump seems inefficient.
And wrong. The reason that electric power steering came in is because it is much more efficient and reduces load on the engine.
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An advantage of electric PAS is that it can be programmed very easily to give differing assistance with speed.ie. negligible at high speed and adequate at low.It's available as pure electric(direct input to column or rack) or as a drive to a hydraulic pump.
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Mrs O'Reliant had a Saxo for twelve years. Should the power steering ever appear to fail the first thing to check is the condition of the battery, the electric pump will give up while all the other electric gizmos are still ok.
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Citoen Saxo power steering - Harleyman
