My car (MY00) has developed a weird steering problem all of a sudden. I was driving on the highway (62mph) and when I tried to turn the wheel it sort of "locked" up. It doesn't lock up in the sense that I can't move the wheel. It requires a lot more force to move it out of this "locked" position that is only a fraction of an inch turn to either side of the wheel and when it does move out of this position the car's steering jumps to either the left or the right depending on which way I turn the wheel. This problem basically does not allow me to gently ease to the left or right to center my car at higher speeds. The problem is also more evident at higher speeds. It still occurs at lower speeds, but is much less noticable but, the symptoms are the exact same. I parked the car overnight in my garage and the next morning the EPS light comes on and power steering doesn't work. At random times when the EPS is NOT working the steering will get much heavier and require my full force to turn the wheel (I have driven without power steering before in this car and I know how the steering feels without EPS, and when the steering gets heavy, it is SIGNIFICANTLY heavier than with EPS off). Additional to the EPS going off, rarely (maybe 1 in 20 times) when I startup the car the power steering will come back on and the EPS light will go off, even when EPS is functional, I continue to have this problem (minus the heavy steering).

I have since lifted the car and the problem is present when the front tires are lifted completely off the ground which leads me to believe that it has nothing to do with my tires. To add to this, I had my steering rack replaced about 22,000 miles ago (about a year and a bit ago).

Anyone know what can possibly cause this problem?

 

*UPDATE*

I turned on the car today to run an errand and the EPS light hasn't come on the 4 times I have started and the steering problem is completely gone.

 

very odd, you should have it checked out either way, it could be very dangerous next time it occurs.