U0130: Lost Communication With Steering Effort Control Module
What to do
The steering still works and is still connected to the wheels — what has changed is how much help the car gives you.
Expect it to feel wrong rather than absent: either much heavier than usual, particularly when parking and manoeuvring, or lighter and more nervous than usual at speed. Neither is dangerous if you are expecting it, and both are unsettling if you are not.
If the steering has gone heavy, allow for it in car parks and tight turns — you will need real physical effort, and it is worth thinking about whether anyone else who drives the car will manage. Take wider, slower lines rather than forcing it.
Get it looked at promptly. As with all network codes, the module is often innocent and its power supply, earth and wiring come first.
What this code means
The steering effort control module has stopped being heard from. The general reasoning is at U0100.
Steering effort control is the part of an assisted steering system that decides how much assistance to give rather than providing it. Assistance is deliberately not constant: a great deal is wanted at parking speeds and very little at motorway speeds, where too much would make the car feel nervous and remove the feedback a driver steers by. This module makes that judgement, from road speed and often from a selected driving mode.
When it goes quiet, the system falls back rather than switching off — but which way it falls back matters, and it is worth knowing before it happens. A fallback to minimum assistance leaves the steering very heavy at low speed, which is startling in a car park and physically hard work. A fallback to fixed assistance leaves it light at speed, which makes the car feel darty and oversensitive on a motorway.
Either way the steering itself is still connected. The rack is mechanically linked to the wheels; what changes is how much help you get turning it. That distinction matters because heavy steering feels like something has broken when it has not.
A related code at U0131 covers the module providing the assistance rather than grading it, and the two are frequently the same physical unit.
Likely causes
Start here
- Failed power or earth supply to the module · moderate
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
- Damaged data bus wiring · moderate
Less common
- Low system voltage · easy
- Failed power steering control module · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Community experience
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