Power Steering-figured it out myself

[vitamin_c95]

So we had a weird incident where we were doing a 3 point turn, and somehow
lost our power assist. I had access to a scanner (perks of the job) but no codes, and no communication with the EPS module. I of course googled the problem, and found a couple issues in this forum as well that made me sweat, thinking I was needing a new steering column. Lucky for me I found out the fuse for the power steering is located on the battery, under the red protective cover. Why it blew? In my case, I found I had the corrosion build up on the terminal, and it spread into the fuse, and corroding the filament, and thus blowing the fuse. I worked at a gm dealer at the time, and even with my discount I was quoted at $137 plus tax. Eff that. I found it online for $60 shipped. My only problem was that the "junction block" as it is called did not include the battery terminal part, in which mine was all stuck together. I made it work with a universal terminal.
I made this post in hopes of helping someone. I mentioned in my intro post that I may be able to bring something to this forum, with my GM experience. Hopefully this post does it.

 

[Llia]

How did it feel without the power assist? Can we disable it by removing the fuse? I'm trying to discern if the power assist is assisting my car in over and under correcting in my steering when trying to drive in a straight line at high speeds.

 

[vitamin_c95]

It sucked at first. Not sure why, but the first 2 days it happened, the steering wheel would "kick" and resist the turns. The third day, it was just like driving with no power steering (if you ever driven a car without). Basically steering took effort, esp the low speed turns. As for the fuse, you cant really take just the power steering fuse. That fuse is basically 4 fuses in a block, and its located on the battery under that red protective cover

 

[Natesriv]

Word of wisdom to all. Check your battery terminals for that corrosive white powder buildup... scrub it off and put battery protector spray on it.

 

[vitamin_c95]

very true. Corrosion can lead to many problems. Once you get it, you have to keep on it to make sure it does not build up. This is car number 2 under my control that has the corrosion problem. Ive clean this sonic twice. This past time it returned and you can see it caused havoc on my steering. My wifes tahoe had the same similar issue. It got so bad i was unable to unbolt my battery cable to replace my battery (+ pos terminal got to where it was warping and not keeping a good connection). I ended up breaking the battery terminal in the battery, and had to replace both the cable and battery.
Unsure of truth on this one, but ive read the once you have the corrosion issues, it will usually keep coming back as it is usually a leak between the battery terminal and the battery

 

[Rockabetty78]

So we had a weird incident where we were doing a 3 point turn, and somehow
lost our power assist. I had access to a scanner (perks of the job) but no codes, and no communication with the EPS module. I of course googled the problem, and found a couple issues in this forum as well that made me sweat, thinking I was needing a new steering column. Lucky for me I found out the fuse for the power steering is located on the battery, under the red protective cover. Why it blew? In my case, I found I had the corrosion build up on the terminal, and it spread into the fuse, and corroding the filament, and thus blowing the fuse. I worked at a gm dealer at the time, and even with my discount I was quoted at $137 plus tax. Eff that. I found it online for $60 shipped. My only problem was that the "junction block" as it is called did not include the battery terminal part, in which mine was all stuck together. I made it work with a universal terminal.
I made this post in hopes of helping someone. I mentioned in my intro post that I may be able to bring something to this forum, with my GM experience. Hopefully this post does it.

Do you have a pic of fuse location? How exactly did you remove it? Appreciate the info.