I tried my best to search, but it seems to go about 20 different ways real quick. In my situation, I started the car and noticed the battery light was still on. I decided to maybe run it back home real quick and then realized I didn't have power steering.

So I immediately shut it down and check the belt just in case it suddenly went and I have no alternator. It's still there so I start it right back and up boom, no light and PS works fine. Did a short drive to grab some lunch and again it started up just fine.

But hey, it's a BMW product, so I've been waiting for the next expensive thing to do, right? However, I'm not sure what's happening here. Does the power steering always shut itself off when there is low voltage? Or does the fact that it shut off indicate the pump itself ma be going out? I did some googling and think I would at least give a shot at rebuilding it and cleaning up the motor winding and circuit board in the process. But I'd rather post here and get a second opinion before I start throwing time at something that isn't the main cause. I'll check voltage on the battery with everything off and then with the car running to double check the alternator, but if that checks out, I feel like I need to be looking at the PS.

 

Well I got a meter on it, and the 4 year old battery says 12.4 with the car off. I assume it's fine. It was 14 with the car running, but as I was holding it there the A/C and fan came on and dropped the voltage to 12.5 volts. A bit of googling seems to indicate that it's probably the voltage regulator. Given the age of the car and not knowing if it's ever been touched, I'll just add a full alternator assembly to the list of replacement items.

I assume it will be ok for a while. It's not a daily driver anyway. I suspect that maybe the hit of the a/c dropped it briefly below 12v when I started the car yesterday and shut off the power steering to conserve power. I'll just have to keep an eye on it.

 

Make sure your ps fan is functioning…gets really hot 🥵