Evening,
First time on the forum. Very happy with my 2007 1.6 FSI Golf MkV I've had for almost five years now.
Unfortunately though, I've had the dreaded
00573 - Steering Torque Sensor (G269) Not a Plausible Signal - Intermittent code show up, initially with a red steering light, then a yellow and now nothing...
I'm aware from reading a lot of forum posts that given it's a gen1 rack, the sensor is integrated and therefore I'm potentially looking at a whole new rack (£1200+), but I wanted to get advice on a couple of things:
1. Could it really be a coincidence that this code appeared immediately after I had a pair of front coil springs fitted?
2. Given my battery has discharged multiple times in 9 months of very little use, and is down to 75% capacity, and the OBD scans have revealed a number of other intermittent electrical signal issues as well, could this actually be what is causing the issue (especially as it's intermittent)?
3. If so, am I okay to keep driving it? Should I try installing a new battery?
4. The light has not come on in the last two times driving the car. If the code hasn't been cleared, does that mean the light won't re-illuminate, and would only do so if the code was cleared?
Below is a full timeline of the events that led to the code appearing, for full context:
Background- Car been driven less than 100miles, and less than five times, since June 2022.
- Battery fully discharged three times in that time, and only slightly charged from a jump start and short drive in between these.
1/18- Car MOT. Charged all day before the MOT, but still not full battery.
- Front driver/off-side coil spring broken, so car fails MOT.
1/28- Engine management light comes on upon starting the engine, on the way to the same garage to have new front coils fitted (pair). Stays on. Never had EM light on in my time owning the car before now.
- Front driver/off-side coil spring repaired (same garage as MOT).
- Garage scans OBD to check reason behind EM light and finds these fault codes:
- Garage clears fault codes, and take car for drive, engine management light doesn't come back on and car passes MOT (engine management light illuminated is an automatic MOT fail in UK).
- Driving home, red power steering light comes on, with loud beep, power steering fails and wheel incredibly heavy.
- Turn off engine, turn on again, light is cleared and power steering is active again.
- Contact garage, they offer to check steering calibration.
2/4- No steering light comes on when I next drive the car on way to garage to check steering calibration. They calibrate it (I believe just the standard VW full lock left/right, drive forward etc).
- Engineer apologises, says there was a code, he must have knocked something, but it's all clear and won't be seeing me for a while.
- Driving home, yellow/amber power steering light comes on, power steering doesn't feel any heavier than normal.
- Turn off engine, turn on again and the light has cleared.
- Contact garage, they offer to do a more comprehensive check.
2/9
- No steering light on drive to the garage.
- Garage check steering with a more senior engineer.
- Find fault code
00573 - Steering Torque Sensor (G269) Not a Plausible Signal - Intermittent- Also find more electrical signal fault codes, none of which are the same as the previous set, so none have re-appeared, only new ones appeared:
- Battery health report states battery has fallen to 75% capacity and below 12V, but not deemed in need of repair:
- They don't believe the steering code is anything they've done while repairing the suspension and aren't capable of the fix themselves due to electrical nature. Advised me to go to a VW specialist.
- I took car for 40mile test drive up motorway. Steering light still didn't come on.
2/11- Charged battery to full and took car for 100mile test drive up motorway, including stopping in a car park and doing some full lock steering left and right. Steering light still didn't come on.
- Took car into same garage to see if the code has cleared. All same codes still there.
- Battery health report still said 'recharge needed' despite charging to full and 100mile drive.
Other observations
- After a previous similar-length period of non-use a few years ago, I also had the ABS light come on, and yellow steering light. Both went away pretty quickly and didn't come on again. Imagine this was a battery issue.
