Corolla 2003 with a Frozen clusting crying out for help

[zainuluk]

Hi,

I have a 2003 Corolla Hatch. Last week I was driving my car when suddenly the guage cluster froze and the light illuminating the cluster turned off. 10 mins later a 'P/S' indicator turned on. So now I have a gauge cluster with all dials frozen in random positions, the back light not turning on and a red P/S indicator illuminate. The P/S stand for power steering because my steering also became a little heavier. So the question I have. Is the cluster broken or is it trying to indicate to me that the power steering has gone and it needs to be changes. I say this because about 10 years ago something very similar happened when I got the same frozen cluster. I paid a garage to diagnose the issue but they found nothing. In the end I found the issue to be a warned out back brake. So do you think it is the same scenario?

[oldcodger]

If you have an OBD2 scanner might be worth plugging that in  to see if any relevant Error codes have been generated by the PS light /fault,  though some sites say a standard scanner will not pick such codes up and you need a more capable device. 

Disconnecting the Battery for a few minutes might clear the fault ( as well as clearing any stored error codes)  or  if the fault returns after reconnecting the Battery you will know its a more likely a hard fault.

Assume yours is an Electric power steering system ?