Toyota Say That The Aftermarket Stereo Causes Power Steering To Fail?

[Cameron Cooke]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and hope you guys can give me some advise.

A friend of mine has an 2007 Aygo and earlier in the year I replaced the car stereo with an aftermarket Pioneer DEH-X5500BT unit. I was surprised when fitting the HU that the Aygo uses standard ISO fittings so fitting it was easy. Though initially I had an issue where the stereo would loose it's presets when turning off ignition so I swapped two wires around and that seemed to solve the issue.

Over the last few months the power steering has been failing and coming on and off intermittently. It would normally not come on when the car ignition was first started but after a few minutes of driving the PS would restore.

It's worth noting that the car stereo is always left on so comes on with the ignition.

The PS has been getting worse and now does not come on at all.

The car has just been taken to a Toyota dealer who noticed the aftermarket stereo. They plugged in their computer into the ECU and found 3 faults that none of the engineers had ever seen before. They said the three faults are related to power supply, power voltage and some fault related to the ECU itself. They reset the ECU and removed the front facia from the head-unit. The power steering apparently came back on again.

Toyota is saying that they don't know if it's the head unit or that fact that they reset the ECU but they seem to think that the head unit is likely to have caused the issue and may have damaged the ECU.

They want to remove the dashboard for a £160 and we've just been charged £170 just for diagnosing they have done so far (even though they still are not 100% sure what the problem is.).

Anyone had an experience of changing the HU on a Toyota Aygo and heard of this issue?

Are Toyota talking BS?

Can fitting an aftermarket stereo really interfere with the power steering?

Fitting the HU was almost plug-and-play. Can't see why fitting a stereo would break the power steering unless it is doing something weird to the power supply.

Any help you guys have would be greatly appreciated.

[rajivrattna]

I think, Toyota is bull****ting. I have a 2008 Aygo and have fitted an after market stereo like thousands of others and have never had an issue with power steering. Does Aygo have an electric or hydraulic assisted steering? Is your Battery too old and charging badly?.

[rajivrattna]

Try reading these sites that complain of similar issue.

http://ask.metafilter.com/214340/Disappearing-power-steering-fault-on-a-Toyota-aygo

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/116712-aygo-computer-for-the-power-steering-is-that-the-ecu/

http://www.c1oc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1503

[Cameron Cooke]

Thanks guys that's really helpful. Just took back the car and with the stereo out still does the same thing so sounds like dealer is wrong about the stereo breaking the power steering.

[Sammy 'Danny' Simpson]

I've never had a problem with my power steering, I'm running a double din with a 6.7" screen haha thats probably pulling a lot more power than a normal single din one and still no trouble. Worth a check on the Battery connections, could be a loose earth?