C2 Power steering dead

[Boycee41]

Hi All,
C2 2004 1.4 70k miles.
The power steering suddenly died the other night. The battery has been draining a bit recently during the cold weather was failing to start, and is only really used on short trips of 2 miles 3 or 4 times a week, so assuming it's not getting a full recharge, and have been using a trickle charger. I plugged it into the trickle charger overnight and had the green light on it, so charged ok, tried steering again, still nothing.
I've done a code read, but no codes are showing, and tried re-seating the connector blocks on the ECU for the steering behind the battery, after cleaning the contacts, still no joy.
I've ordered a replacement ECU second hand, just to save time, and remembered I haven't checked the fuse yet, which I'll do tomorrow.
Is it more likely to be the ECU if it's completely dead, or the motor on the rack ?
I'm hoping it's not the motor as it's more work and cost, any clues or tests I can do to determine which is faulty before I dive in with the spanners ?
Also how do the tri lug nuts come off the ECU mounting ?
Thanks

[GiveMeABreak]

Before you start down the road of replacing parts, get it properly diagnosed!

It is a mistake to start changing parts without knowing the cause. If you have electric power steering, they rely on the battery providing sufficient minimum voltage to operate.

It needs diagnosing with a Lexia / Diagbox and the fault codes putting up here with your VIN for help. But regardless, if you battery is 5 years old or more - change it.

[Boycee41]

Thanks, I've got no codes coming up, I need to sort it as soon as poss, so ordered the ECU, it was only cheap, was trying to avoid buying a battery if it's the motor and rack that need replacing.
I'm thinking the PS would have been intermittent if it was low power on the battery, it just suddenly went off.

[GiveMeABreak]

You won't get all fault codes if using a generic OBD scanner and you most likely won't be able to access live data.

The following faults can be read if present from Lexia:

• Vehicle speed data fault
• Electric power steering ECU fault
• Configuration fault
• Torque sensor information fault
• Engine speed data fault
• Supply voltage fault
• Electric power steering motor fault
• Electric power steering temperature sensor information fault
• CAN fault
• Battery voltage fault

These are the parameters that can be read from the live data:

Parameters	Parameter status
Vehicle speed	Value in km/h
Engine speed	Value in rpm
+APC	0 = ignition+ not present. 1 = ignition+ present
Torque applied by the driver on the steering wheel	Value in Nm (Newton metres)
Measured current	Value in amps
Supply voltage	Value in Volts
Assistance	0 = no power-assistance. 1 = power-assistance operational

Remember if you are replacing an ECU, it must be configured correctly with the correct Wheel Sizes and whether it has ABS or not etc...

[Boycee41]

Hi again,
so I'd replaced the battery, for the correct ampage !!, also fuse for the power steering, and cleaned all the connections on the PAS ECU, and that seemed to do the trick, until the other day when it went off again.
The warning light for what looks like traction control (skidding car in a circle) has been on and off intermittently since then aswell, even though I don't think the 1.4 Furio has traction control ??
Anyhoo, I tried the replacement ECU I had got off ebay, although the numbers on it didn't match, it seemed to work, whilst stationery at least. I had seen another ECU that had the same numbers on as ours, and was offered it cheap, so I am waiting on that coming to replace it, so didn't fix the alternative one in place, put the original back in (battery disconnected before messing) and steering not working again, turned off and on again (standard IT procedure ! ) and it's back working again ! It has been making a scraping noise and a slight judder through the steering wheel off and on when turning, would that be the motor dying ?
Last ditch attempt is replacing the ECU for the matching numbers one, but failing that it's getting listed (spares or repairs) !
Any further advice welcomed, no expensive solutions please, it's not worth spending on, thanks.