Its been a long time I have been thinking to write this article about the two most commonly used power steering technologies, viz. Electric Power Steering and Hydraulic Power Steering. Before i tell you the difference, lets talk a few words on the basics.
What is power steering?
Power steering is a system which helps to steer the wheels with some source of power other than the drivers manual force with which he turns the steering. This feature adds to the comfort while driving as less effort is needed to turn the steering by the driver. Power Steering is specially important for the cars which have engine in front and there is a lot of weight on the front wheels.
For rear engine cars like Tata Nano or light weight cars like Maruti 800, its ok to have no power steering and still drive comfortably because of low weight on the front wheels. But for heavy cars and also as a luxury feature power steering provides lots of ease.
Hydraulic Power Steering
Hydraulic power steering uses high pressure fluids for assisting the steering movement. It uses a plunger type arrangement for its working. When the driver turns the steering wheel, it opens up the flow or pressurized fluid in such a way that helps to turns the wheels in the required direction.
Electric Power Steering
Electric power steering works with the help of an Electric Motor and a control unit which has some sensors. The motor runs on battery and will use electric power to assist the movement of steering when the driver turns the wheel.
Hydraulic Power Steering V/S Electric Power Steering
Hydraulic power steering is a primitive technology used for decades and has improved a lot with time. Earlier, it did not have any difference in steering response with speed of the car, but the new age of hydraulic power steering are speed sensitive and work better than the older hydraulic power steering.
Electric power steering are comparatively new technology with less complicated build and mechanism, takes less space and are more durable. Electric power steering use sensors to sense the car speed and will take care of the different steering response required for different speeds.
Some of the main differences are as below:
1. Hydraulic Power Steering System is complicated compared with Electric Power Steering
2. Hydraulic Power Steering System usually weighs more than Electric Power Steering
3. Hydraulic Power Steering uses hydraulic fluids for operation whereas there is no such fluid needed for Electric Power Steering, thus Electric Power Steering needs less maintenance compared to hydraulic power steering.
4. Electric Power Steering gives better response at different speeds as compared to Hydraulic Power Steering
5. Eclectic Power Steering is less prone to problems and faults and are more durable as compared to Hydraulic power steering.
6. Hydraulic power steering extracts power from engine, so it reduces the fuel mileage of the engine. Electric power steering consumes power from battery which is also charged by engine, but it consumes less power compared to Hydraulic power steering. So a car having Electric power steering will give more mileage than one with Hydraulic power steering.
Conclusion :
Electric Power Steering is better than Hydraulic Power steering. Hope this helps you decide when you look into the features of the car you are going to buy. For instance, comparing Hyundai Santro and Hyundai i10 , Hyundai Santro has Hydraulic Power Steering whereas Hyundai i10 has electric power steering.
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Your article, while technically accurate, doesn’t make any effort to draw the line between these two technologies and articulate where one is better than the other. Electric steering has advantages in small passenger cars, but it is not feasible in larger vehicles and is certainly not currently possible with commercial vehicles(Class 6/7/8 trucks & buses). This article makes it sound like it’s appropriate everywhere and should be on everything we drive–not true.
It would be appropriate to target the article to a specific continent. For example, in Europe it’s all about small cars(crowded roads, small parking spaces), but here in the United States where we drive larger passenger vehicles…it may be marginal and cost prohibitive to use/consider electric power-steering.
Articles like this, that are so greatly one dimensional, do little to advance the general understanding of a reader who wants to understand a new technology and where it applies.
With few exceptions, EPS cars offer poor performance in terms of responsiveness, feedback and steering weight.
Compare a BMW 1-series coupe with electric steering against a 1-series hatchback with conventional hydraulic PS. The coupe is nothing like as wieldy as the hatch.
The best example of EPS so far is on the Mazda RX-8.
Other manufacturers may catch up but given that EPS first came out in the early ’90s in the HOnda NSX, don’t hold out any hopes.
@ray
thanks for sharing your experience and point of view, you have increased my knowledge by sharing this information.
Hi ray, i have a RX-8 which have intermittent fault on the EPS…sometime it become normal without touching anything but only restart the engine, you have solution for this??thanks
@wei
i got my electric power steering replaced 2 days back when it failed abruptly. It was really annoying to run the car without power steering. It was covered under my car’s warranty, so i didn’t have to pay for it, else it could have been a big hole in my pocket to get it replaced. The failure was because of some malfunctioning sensors or motor !
It is good to read about power and electric steering.
Excellent explanation with clear comparison! I’m a newbie to automobile world and this article helped me to understand EPS & HPS. Thank you
its helped e me morwhile i m giving poster presentation in my college[aec]
Quote Hydraulic power steering is a primitive technology Unquote.
I wish the article, although informative, was more balanced. Both power steering systems has its advantages and disadvantages. For eg. Electric PSS as of now can only be used in small cars due to the limitation of the size of the servo motor due to the power of the battery. ( I dont know how is this in the hybrid cars). All the large cars and the larger vehicles all have Hydraulic powered steering systems due to this reason.
Anyone who reads the article will be biased to form and opinion that Electric PSS are superior in all respects to Hydraulic PSS which is wrong.
EPS can have a high failure rate, leaving a vehicle unsteerable. Google search Chevy Cobalt Electronic Power Steering….
hi… the information provided by you is very useful for the newbie like me….atleast admin has added some base knowledge about PSS nd hydraulic steering system… the rest of the research will be easy for us…..thanks admin…
[...] Corolla has been recalled by Toyota in large numbers in USA due to problems with the power steering. There has been some complains about improper working or malfunction because of which Toyota has [...]
hi,the information provided by you is very useful.Thanks