Dear Alex,

My wife’s 2005 Micra Sport+ has done only 79,500 miles and the power steering has stopped working again. My usual garage had cleared the codes to reset it but that hasn’t worked this time. It quoted in excess of £1,400 for a new steering rack plus labour and is reluctant to do the job, saying that any direction movement during disassembly can only be remedied by Nissan. Is there somewhere that can refurbish the existing rack?

- IH

Dear IH,

Power steering failures are a common issue with this third generation of the Micra, known as the K12, made from 2002-2010. 

Its advanced (for its time) electric power steering system was supposed to improve fuel efficiency and permit all sorts of additional features. However, this system was extremely finicky and to work properly required lots of sensors and motors on the steering column. If one of these fails, it throws out the whole system. 

As you have noted, the column is also a pain to take apart and reassemble, because it is aligned exactingly from the factory; any sort of side-loading while it’s being worked on can affect this alignment, causing the car to pull to one side, or resulting in further failures. 

It is possible to buy a refurbished column for about £400, which with fitting would bring the bill down to £700 or so. However, some Micra owners caution against this, because you cannot be certain how careful the refurbisher has been when taking the unit apart. Others, however, say they have fitted refurbished units with no issues. 

With all that in mind, the safest course of action would be to get the work done at a Nissan dealer, which will have the tools and knowledge to do it properly, fitting an entirely new unit that should prove trouble-free.

Yet doing so will likely cost nearly £2,000. And frankly, despite its relatively low mileage, the car is probably barely worth that amount. So if I were you, I’d be tempted to take my chances with a refurbished unit – and perhaps find a Nissan or Japanese car specialist that has replaced a few of these in the past to do the work.

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