General Power steering goes on full lock

[TONY55S]

hi,I have a 17 year old punto mk2 petrol.
Anytime that I now turn the steering wheel to full lock left or right,
the power steering light comes on and the power goes from the steering,
the only way to correct it is to turn off the ignition for a second and then restart and everything is fine again until I do a full steering lock again,
what causes this problem?
tony

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Battery, if it recovers straight away after a restart and only goes on full lock (when it's drawing the most power) it is most likely the battery is weak

 

[sandaru]

I also had the same issue with same age car. I have replaced the pas ecu and motor with new battery. Working fine but intermittently getting red light with c1006 error no stiff steering. I also have the complete column of which i got the pas ecu and motor aa i ordered whole from 50k miles car. Should i change the column too ?

 

[Charlieboy13]

Battery, if it recovers straight away after a restart and only goes on full lock (when it's drawing the most power) it is most likely the battery is weak

Andy is spot on here - generally down to a low battery.


Question is, why is the battery low? Is it an old battery?

Or slightly more sinister, is the alternator working properly?