2014 power steering problem

Hi, my Auntie has a 2014 C3 with very low mileage, about 25k I think. Her car has an intermittent problem when she starts it up. It beeps and there is a warning light (steering wheel and an exclamation mark I think) and the steering wheel is so heavy she can’t budge it. Turning the Ignition many times seems to resolve it.

She took it to a local garage but they could not find any faults. Halfords checked the battery and it’s 99% so she booked it into the Citroen dealer for them to check. They have had it for 3 days and have not found any fault codes and have phoned her today to say they don’t know what’s wrong but they want to replace parts at a cost of over £2000!

I’ve told her not to pay for anything other than diagnostics. She is in her 70s and naturally panics when the steering goes, she would just do what they suggest but I think they are ripping her off!

Can anyone suggest what the fault could be? We have a good local garage that can do repairs and I would rather she took it there than pay over the odds at Citroen.

Thanks

Welcome.

Typically intermittent power steering failures are related to the battery, but not always. However I don't know how Halfords checked the battery. If the battery looks new, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. If the battery looks old, well, I would suspect it. Typical battery life is 4 years, which means that if the battery has only been replaced once in the cars life, then that battery is most likely due to be replaced. Even new batteries can be bad "out of the box".
There are potentially a number of (random) things that could go wrong but telling you to "check everything" is unproductive.
If you have a good local garage, they should be able to give it the once over and potentially find something.
Ask them to concentrate on the charging system. Who knows, they may be au fait with electric power steering?

Hi

Common problem with the electronic power steering on the Citroen C3 is in these topics: Citroen C3 Power Steering Fix for C1400 or C1413 and

Citroen C3 Power Steering Intermittent (FIX)