does anyone have a concern about the power steering "turning off" when the engine is turned off or stalls? If you run out of gas, fuel pump fails, or some other engine stall issue - you will loose power steering, even though it's an electric pump and not driven off the engine.

 

I don't understand your question. Please tell us that you do know that ALL cars with power steering will lose the steering assist when the engine stops, and that is regardless of which type of pump is used in the system.

 

Yes, good point. Normal engine driven designs do stop when the engine does... but shouldn't part of the progress to EHPS to improve safety? The mazda design could simply keep the EHPS active until vehicle speed hits zero instead of only when the engine is running.

 

Why bother, the Mazda3 is so light that even without Power Steering it's very easy to control down to about 2 mph, and even then all it takes is a little extra muscle if you're parallel parking or something like that.

 

Yes it is light, I had a manual steering RX7 and it was fine. But the 3 isn't geared to be manual, so it is harder than you expect. Cut your engine power and try it. Even though it is possible to steer well with some muscle added it's a dramatic change from with to without power steering - That is what could cause an accident.
Not to mention that it can restart if it notices you steering while in motion, which can easily cause it to oversteer. This 'hard to steer' then 'easy to steer' was written down on mycarstats by a few owners as a complaint of nearly causing accidents.

 

I have to disagree regarding the Mazda3 being difficult to steer due to the gearing. I roll my car out of my garage numerous times per week and make a 90 degree turn to the left prior to starting the engine. Does steering the car take a little effort? Yes. Does that extra effort make the car in any way more likely to be in an accident? Not from my perspective.

 

I did not open the link posted above, but got an e-mail notification from my dealer the other day, Saturday I think it was, about this voluntary recall for the steering system on my '08!!
I don't have an '08, and they of all people should know that.
With just under 60k miles on her now, my '04 has never had a PS problem.

 

wow, that doesn't sound too good. I don't recall hearing anything about this recall on the news but heard lots about Toyota. I wonder if this is something that is dangerous and could cause potential accidents? Or is it more like an inconvenience? If the steering fails when the car is running then that would be dangerous obviously because you couldn't control the car, right?

 

Wrong. Power steering (or the lack thereof) only affects the driver's ability to control the vehicle in that they need to use a little extra muscle. As a veteren owner of many vehicles that didn't come from the factory with power steering (including a fairly large and heavy 1970 Dodge Challenger), I rather prefer how my Mazda3 feels when the engine is off.

 

That's a little strange coming from someone sporting a Mazda dealership sig. I'm sure that ALL North American and Canadian dealers have been notified of this voluntary recall by now... I was notified by my dealer last weekend and I don't even own one of the affected cars.
Or is it that since I removed your linked sig that we will not hear from you again?
You certainly don't seem to know much about the cars you work with?
What is commonly known as power steering is actually power assisted steering. The hydraulics only assist in the movement of the wheels and therefore makes the effort at the steering wheel less than it would otherwise be.