Steering lock whilst driving

[Daz3nt]

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this? My 55 xsara Picasso 2.0 HDI showed an error while I was driving it today "battery charging failure" I pulled over checked the auxiliary belt that was ok so decided to drive it home via the motorway to get it home before the battery died. I drove half mile down the road and whilst exiting a left hand bend my steering lock came on and jammed my steering wheel. I escaped without any incident but could have been a different story if I had made it to the motorway. Anyone else had this?

[Stickyfinger]

The only reason could be be a badly worn or broken ignition lock.

[ekjdm14]

The only reason could be be a badly worn or broken ignition lock.

My thoughts too, there has to be some sort of safety measure in place so the steering couldn't normally lock just through low battery voltage if it's an electronic one. Having said that, it's been said time and again that low voltage = some very strange things happening.

Electronic steering locks , are they really necessary? And more to the point, does this car have one, I don't know, but if it's a mechanical type then damage/ wear is indeed the only possible cause. Pretty big coincidence though if that's the case.

[Stickyfinger]

I had not thought about an electric one:

edit, standard lock.

[ekjdm14]

Ah, a coincidence then. I often feel like cars somehow try and stop us from driving them with a minor fault when there's something potentially dangerous like a steering lock failure in the offing. I say the car stopped charging in an effort to make you stop before the dodgy barrel killed you, in much the same way as our 206 spat it's brake light switch out just a mile or so before the rear brakes started binding and getting red hot!

Bloody clever these French motors!

In all seriousness though, that's a very strange coincidence if the two are in fact unrelated. I wonder though, if the barrel is damaged/worn out maybe the ignition switch is flaky too and causing this? A quick question, do you have lots of keys/heavy keyrings etc on your ignition key? I've seen heavy bunches of keys cause a lock barrel to wear out before now.

[RichardW]

Most likely the belt came off and stopped driving the PAS pump - this gives the effect of feeling like the steering has locked!

[elma]

My Scenic had a fuse on the battery lead and when it blew I got the same symptoms. The Scenic had electric power steering which went nuts rather than the steering lock coming on. It displayed the same message on the info panel as your xsara. I would check all battery and alternator connections plus the weird flat, wide fuses that actually just look like part of the connector.

[xantia_v6]

Does this car have a belt driven steering pump or an electric pump? On PSA cars with electric steering pumps, the steering pump is the first thing that gets switched off when the battery voltage is getting critically low.

[Daz3nt]

Found the problem, it seems the lock is damaged, this moved the ignition switch slightly to stop it charging. I've since repaired the barrel but am not using it again just can't take that chance. I needed to fix it to find what went wrong. I don't have any heavy key rings and the barrel worked fine up until today. Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Stickyfinger]

I would be stomping my way to Citroen and shouting that you will (and you should) report it to VOSA. It should NOT fail in that way ever. It should fail safe, it is the reason the recall system exists.
I would almost say it is a civic duty to do so.

Demand a full replacement at their cost

[Gibbo2286]

My Scenic had a fuse on the battery lead and when it blew I got the same symptoms. The Scenic had electric power steering which went nuts rather than the steering lock coming on. It displayed the same message on the info panel as your xsara. I would check all battery and alternator connections plus the weird flat, wide fuses that actually just look like part of the connector.

Fusible link.

[ekjdm14]

I would be stomping my way to Citroen and shouting that you will (and you should) report it to VOSA. It should NOT fail in that way ever. It should fail safe, it is the reason the recall system exists.
I would almost say it is a civic duty to do so.

Demand a full replacement at their cost

I'd be doing largely similar, although likely try the route of less stomping and shouting at first... Definitely needs reporting to VOSA too, as it should as stated fail in a safe way (i.e. lock jams off).


I suppose it could be a freak one-off but worth bringing to the attention of the testing authority nonetheless. Now I think of it, I had a Mk2 Fiesta years ago where the steering lock used to catch occasionally although not fully lock. This was a result of it being a stolen/recovered car where the locking ring in the wheel had been damaged. Has the car ever been subject to a break in that you know of? (less than likely since all but the dumbest thieves will now realise you need the key really, the days of "snap-n-cap" are long gone)

[mickeymoon]

I would be stomping my way to Citroen and shouting that you will (and you should) report it to VOSA.

Demand a full replacement at their cost

I'd imagine on a 12 year old car, unless there's been many failures (like VX Meriva power steering motors), they would invite you to sod off.

[Stickyfinger]

If that was the case then I would just say you will make a massive complaint to VOSA/Safety.
Vauxhall had to go to a select committee for fires in older cars.................it should FAIL SAFE no matter how old. Also the lock will be fitted to much younger cars.

[bobins]

The OP says the lock barrel seems damaged - at this point we don't know if that's damage due to wear and tear, or damage due to a previous owner / theft attempt / abuse at a garage, etc. VOSA are only really going to be slightly interested if it's 100% down to wear and tear and it can be shown to be a potentially repeatable problem.