Anyone ever seen the electric steering fail to where when turning the wheel with the engine off the tires barely move in the turned direction, then the steering wheel just keeps turning but nothing happens? I didn't knotice it at first and ripped the cable reel cause of it. If I start the engine, then it appears to work normal.

 

To break the cable reel the steering wheel must be loose. Remove the airbag and check the steering wheel nut. Any idea if the wheel was removed in the past ?

 

Are you talking about the clock spring (coiled up wire in the steering wheel assembly) ? You cannot turn the wheel far enough to damage that with the steering connected as the steering stops prevent the steering from moving past a certain point. Only way to damage that would be if you let the wheel turn too far with the steering linkage unbolted. That cable will not cause the steering to stop working either. The car has mechanical steering and the electric motor just assists the steering.

The wheels will always turn with the steering wheel. As I mentioned above they are mechanically connected. If the steering wheel turns and the wheels are not turning then there is a mechanical issue there (And also the only way the steering wheel can turn without turning the front wheels).

Also, this whole post is confusing. Your title states the steering only works with engine off but then you state in the post that it works normal when you start the engine.

If the wheel nut is off and the wheel is spinning on the splines then this could possibly explain why the wheel would turn without the front wheels and why it would allow it to break the cable (With car on the EPS is assisting so the wheel would not spin as easily on the splines once the assist is helping). If so then the wheel has been removed at some point and someone did not reinstall the nut properly. However, this is odd as the wheel would have to have nearly slipped completely off the shaft before it would start spinning on the splines like that. You would also notice now that your wheel is out of alignment (wheel crooked when front wheels were pointed straight)

 

Its only electric ASSIST.

Its not steering-by-wire. The steering wheel is still physically attached to the rack via permanent linkage.

However...apparently yours is no longer attached. Check out what's been broken.

Something between the steering wheel and rack is probably loose. So when the engine is on...the assist helps move the tyres. When the engine is off, your loose component would rather slip/spin than turn the wheels.