34. Winter Upgrades - EPAS Steering Column

Winter Upgrades – EPAS Steering Column

We were keen to have a go with running EPAS over just the manual rack. Seemingly people go one way or the other. We found in usual running the steering was ok, if you needed to catch a slide it was pretty heavy to give it a quick, sharp yank and round the pits was pretty awful considering the amount of castor we are running too.

So an EPAS column was purchased from Jay from Driftworks, assuming he had it to put into his Clio before he decided to sell it. 

Didn't want to change any of the mounts so that it was possible to easily swap between the columns if we didn't like the EPAS or if we ever had a problem with either one. So very similar mounts made for the EPAS Column and mounted it place.

Used the existing column as a template for the position of the new mounts on the EPAS column.

Added a bracket for a steering angle sensor before giving a paint in the customary etch primer grey and clear coat. Basically copied the AIM Motorsport steering angle sensor idea but ordered the parts separately for a quarter of the price.

Wired in the EPAS column using an ebay controller.

Wanted to get rid of the bolt on hub adaptor and tidy it up so extended the column and welded on the quick release adaptor.

Steering Wheel Button Panel

Gave it ago making our own steering wheel button panel instead of buying one. Isn't the prettiest but certainly works. Used the ECUMaster CAN board so only needed power, ground, CAN high and CAN Low running to the steering wheel.

Panel cut out using a template drawn in CAD to get it symmetrical. Painted black and then wired the buttons in. As it is all controlled via CAN and the PMU the button can be configured to what ever we wanted but the first iteration we decided upon is shown below. Indicators, flash, single wiper, page buttons, alarm reset button and a rotary potentiometer (No idea what to use this for yet but seemed cool).