| MGF Cars: Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) Addition |
The purists say that EPAS equipped MGF's lack road feel.
Well, perhaps, but for normal everyday use manual steering is a nuisance and detracts from the usability of the car.
Therefore, on our right hand drive, red, MGF we decided to add EPAS since that car was the only one in the current fleet without it.
The major items required are: steering column, EPAS electronic control unit & bracket and wiring.
According to the parts catalogue the rack is also different but that may be turns lock to lock issue so we shall try the old rack
first to avoid the dreaded issue of front, rear subframe bolt shearing!
Since we already have plenty of spare harnesses and racks, it was only necessary to procure the column & ECU.
The big decision is whether to replace the whole harness or make up a dedicated EPAS harness.
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Since this harness had already been compromised by the addition of an aftermarket alarm system, we decided to scavenge it for parts. |
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As we started to unwrap the harness, this closeup of the bottom of the full harness photo reveals just how self contained the EPAS electrics are. |
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Only five (5) wires go to other areas of the vehicle electrical system, so we shall trace these to their destinations. |
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Three of them go to C0047 which feeds the instrument pack. Both the yellow/green & pink/blue (EPAS warning light) wires plugged into open slots in the non EPAS car.
The white/black wire comes from the ECM and that connector cavity was already filled. We therefore spliced it into the harness in the left inner sill area as this was easiest to access, as opposed the the factory spice under the dash!
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The green wire goes to the fusebox via C0585. There is actually a four way splice in the harness under the dash where the thinner green EPAS wire connects to a thicker green wire.
We had to splice the thin green wire into the harness close to the fusebox. The fifth wire, solid pink goes to the diagnostic socket C0040 and this too had to be spliced into the main harness just behind the diagnostic socket. |
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This is the connector the thin green wire goes to. The only other connections were the ground cable which had an eyelet to attach to existing grounds at the left lower A pillar.
The thick brown wire is the main power feed and this was fed through the upper left bulkhead grommet and connected to the 40A EPAS fuse on the left inner wheelarch.
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| The dedicated EPAS harness can be fed through the dash, starting from the left (on a RHD car) without any need to remove the dash. To clear the blower duct, the connectors to the EPAS ECU enter from the left on a RHD installation. Once the column was installed
and everything hooked up, we had a brief EPAS warning light until the system reset itself once it saw an speed signal from the engine ECU. |
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