Hello everyone,

I have a big favor to ask. We are building an electric car, and for the power steering I picked up a VW Polo 2002 electric power steering pump (same one should be mounted in newer models, also Skoda Roomster, etc).

Unfortunately this pump require some CAN command to turn it on, and I cannot find that anywhere!

This is where my question comes - could anyone store a 1 minute of OBD2/CAN data traffic from your VW Polo? (All packets on the bus in the moment when you start the engine).

Any model with this pump will do, probably all Polos from 2002 higher (pump 6Q0423156AB). This can be done with any diagnostic cable (ELM327 ebay cable is the most common).

Any help is appreciated! Thank you.

thats a good point, i thought they just needed power? i would help but i no longer have a 9n polo only earlier ones.

this may be a silly question, but how would you emulate the can command?

Wouldn't a manual steering rack be better..?

You don't want to be using electricity you dont absolutely have to.

Thanks for the replies!

How to turn it on - Originally I also thought that it will turn on by itself, but unfortunatelly they added more high level functions compared to traditional mechanical pumps, like power depending on the steering wheel angle and speed. I have a complete system based on the CAN bus - high voltage inverter for three phase motor, battery controller, instrumental panel.. everything is using a custom CAN bus, so sending anything to the pump is very simple. I can just take a file with ~100 commands collected from someone and just replay it to the pump - so all I need are the logged data.

Manual steering rack - Yes, that is definitely an option. I guess that there were some Golf 3 variants without power steering (that's the platform we are building on). Truth is, that we don't build an electric cars every day, so I would like to keep some "comfort aspects" of the car. Pump does not take much, you're using the electricity only when you're moving very slow or parking. It is an adaptive system, so you can pretty much shut it down when you accelerate. Impact on the range is minimal.

So the question remains, would anyone be able to log the data for me? I can explain to the person in detail how to achieve that in few minutes with a standard diagnostic cable (standard = ebay, ELM327 compatible, etc).

Couldnt you use a different pump that fires off the ignition?

Couldnt you use a different pump that fires off the ignition?

I already own this pump with no way to return it. Yes I could sell it and try my luck with a different manufacturer. I'm not going to do that unless absolutely necessary. This is a very good pump with an integrated reservoir and assist settings.

this sounds awesome, is there a build thread for this somewhere? id love to know more about it.

i see your reasoning, i didnt know the pump did all that, i thought it was just always on so it makes sense to use it.

i dont know anybody with a 9n/3, are there any other cars that have this? i know a few people with golf 5/6 and a new scirroco if they have it i can do it

this sounds awesome, is there a build thread for this somewhere? id love to know more about it.

i see your reasoning, i didnt know the pump did all that, i thought it was just always on so it makes sense to use it.

i dont know anybody with a 9n/3, are there any other cars that have this? i know a few people with golf 5/6 and a new scirroco if they have it i can do it

Thank you! There are probably more models than this, but the pump should be in the following:

VW Polo 2002-2012

VW Lupo 2004-2006

VW Fox 2005-2012

SEAT Ibiza 2002-2005

SEAT Ibiza 2009-2012

SKODA Fabia 2000-2010

SKODA Roomster 2006-2010

Build log - I'm working on that possibility, unfortunately only thing I can show you now are some pictures:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n2p9batwbpa9rwi/Y5He0Zy0aN