Power Steering System Testing
Complaint conditions
Power assisted steering (PAS) systems are noise/vibration generators with potential to generate warranty complaints.
This is particularly so during low-speed vehicle manoeuvres such as parking. Lock-to-lock operation is commonplace, lock-stops are often hit, and background noise in the vehicle cabin is low (due to low engine speed and the absence of wind and tyre noise).
Speed synchronised noise/vibration
Irrespective of whether the PAS system is a traditional hydraulic system, an electro-hydraulic system, or an electric system, the majority of noise complaints are synchronised to the speed of a key rotating shaft within the system e.g. hydraulic pump, electric motor etc.
Core PLATO, with its high-precision order analysis, together with the REVKIT add-on for unequivocal analysis of shaft speed synchronised events (e.g. ticks, knocks etc.) provides the ideal measurement and analysis tool.
Systems can be integrated to operate with end-of-line test machines and the same PLATO hardware/software solutions can also be used in-vehicle to provide a seamless gateway to correlation.