Re: Servotronic disablement

[Eliot Lim <eliot@u.washington.edu>]

On Fri, 28 Jun 1996, Edward T Spire wrote:

> >servotronic can be easily disabled!  pull the plug and you're back to
> >regular power steering.
>
> Some details on this, please?  What exactly is the difference between
> "servotronic" and regular power steering?  Unplug ??what?? to try it?

only the cars 92 and newer have it.  the a4, fortunately, does not
have it.  servotronic is speed sensitive power steering, intended
to help you navigate through supermarket parking lots with your
pinkie.  unfortunately the early implementations of servotronic
are every bit as horrible as early hondas.  numb with a capital N.

my car does not have servotronic, so i've not actually done this
myself, but the tip was passed along to me by the chief mechanic
at the dealer here.

he says that an s4 owner came in one day complaining that his steering
had suddenly gone heavier.  not to the point where he couldn't steer,
but the low speed hyper assist had disappeared.  the problem was
traced to a faulty servotronic control module, which was replaced
under warranty.

from this incident it was discovered that the servotronic unit is just
an electronic black box that sends signals to the power steering
system to pile on the boost.  when this unit fails, the power steering
system simply reverts to regular boost.  just like ABS, if ABS fails
you get standard power assisted braking.  so, if one doesn't like the
steering feel of servotronic, one simply needs to disconnect the
connector to the servotronic box, which is located somewhere in the
front passenger area, either behind the glovebox or under the footwell
carpets.  the power steering h/w is identical in both servotronic and
non-servotronic cars. consult your manuals.


eliot