But it doesn't have that! I said.

Turns out that they meant the EPS light, which apparently remained on whilst they were testing. Sure enough when I started the car the EPS light stayed on and I had no power steering, but went out 5 seconds after I pulled away and the system worked again. I wonder - does the MOT process (i.e. brake tests) confuse the EPS? Or is it just a coincidence? Never had this before.

 

Hi, I had this problem when pulling the fuse on my ECU and then retraining it by holding the car at 3000rpm till the fans cycle. Looked into it and its a way the car detects if the power steering has had it. It the car runs over a certain rpm for so long it assumes you are driving the car and that its getting no response from the power steering system because the wheel isn't being moved. After you steer it triggers that its working again. I'm guessing it was when they were revving it to do the emission test.

I wouldn't worry mine came on that once and has never come on again. Hope that helps

 

So it shouldn't be a MoT fail ?

 

Thanks. I thought it might be something along those lines, though you'd think this would happen more often and they'd know what to do.

It also failed on the numberplate light (dodgy wiring by me), so I need a retest anyway. Hopefully the EPS will behave on the day.

 

Used to get this on a RR both on this car and on others too.

 

<Maybe> the shake test<on ramp> for the steering/joints ect <have these nowadays for MoT> have set it off to give a fault,shaking the steering with engine off giving the electrical rack motor unrelated work to do when car is stationary

 

I think on the previous car it was the TCS system getting in a twist that the front wheels were doing 120 odd whilst the rears were stationary - after a few stops and starts the fault always cleared.

 

On the FTO you'd get the ABS light coming on on a rolling road. One set of wheels doing 150mph and the other stationary and it's not that surprising.

 

I suspect this is the answer

 

Just hunted down my service manual part 17-18. It states under the EPS trouble shooting:

Even though the system is operating normally the EPS Indicator will come on under the following conditions.

*When the vehicle is barely moving, 0-62mph (1 km/h) or stopped, and the engine speed is 2,000rpm or higher for about 3 minutes.

*When the engine speed is 500 rpm or less, and the vehicle is travelling at a speed of 6.2mph (10 km/h) or more for about 3 minutes.