Weird behavior - loss of power steering, speedo, and warning lights on!

[khoney]

My son's '06 3s hatchback with 115K miles did something really weird yesterday. He drove it up into the mountains of Cali to take his girlfriend snowboarding. There was a freak snowstorm starting, so everyone started heading down the mountain. People didn't have snow tires or chains, so they were crawling along at very low speeds for hours. My son said that he noticed his power steering quit working, his speedo wouldn't register any speed, his E-brake light came on, and his power steering warning light came on. When he later stopped for gas, he shut off the car. When he restarted it, everything was working again!

Has anyone had any similar experience? I'm wondering if maybe his battery is going out and perhaps the voltage drooped momentarily enough to cause this strange behavior.

He had his entire power steering system replaced, including steering gear, less than a month ago, so it really freaked me out when my wife told me his power steering went out again.

 

[pw~mp5]

Sounds like you lost a belt except for the part where it started working again.

 

[jimp]

might check the battery, if he was idling for extended periods with alot of accessories (lights/wipers/radio/stereo/etc) going, the alt/batt may not have kept with the demand. Mazdas dash lights go wacko when the power is low or disrupted for whatever reason

 

[fam]

It might make sense as the steering is electric...alternator\battery issues would do that. I know when my focus' alternator had stopped working on the highway and my battery was running the car I had odd speedometer issues on the highway and things were just acting strange..Id say the battery\alternator finding could be it.

 

[pw~mp5]

I was not aware that Mazda 3 had electric power steering, that is nice to know.

That would point to the alternator. The alternator is supposed to provide all electrical power while the car is running. If the alternator is functioning properly you don't need the battery after the car is running. That is how a jump start works with a completely dead battery. If the alternator is not working properly you will eventually have battery problems as a result.