It's taken to staying on after the car's been left for a while, say overnight, once the car's started.

 

It goes off after a little while or after turning the wheel lock to lock and seems to behave itself after that.

 

Cause for concern or not?

Check the power steering fluid level would be the first port of call.

 

Other than that, do you have a standard steering wheel or aftermarket?

Standard steering wheel. Like to keep it to keep the CC working.

 

I'll check the PS fluid tonight. thanks for that!! :thumbup1:

It could be the fluid level or the sensor! Nice easy fix though. Normally if there is a problem the light is off and then it comes on when driving, but strange that it comes on and then goes away... LOL

So what about the steering wheel? Why would an aftermarket one make it fail?

Generally because an aftermarket steering wheel uses a boss which doesnt work with the steering wheel angle sensor. Indeed when I had my grey one the HICAS didnt work on it, neither did the autocancel on the indicators. Anyway after some digging I found the slip ring under the dashboard, took the steering wheel of and refitted the slip ring and hey presto all working.

 

The only reason I can think that it was removed was because the car had an aftermarket steering wheel fitted at somepoint and it was simply never put back on when the standard steering wheel was refitted in the first place.

used to have this there is a slow leak on the pipe that feed the power steering once it was warm the light would go off i guess the heat expanded the rubber and stopped the leak i just top up about a shot once every month every other month but plan to replace sooner rather than later

Fluid top up seems to have fixed it.

 

Thanks guys!! :punk:

Easy ones are the best!

The reason why the light comes on when cold is because the fluid has contracted to its smallest volume. This then triggers the low level sensor if geniunely low.

When car is started, steering used, fluid gets hot, expands and level increases a bit, enough to untrigger the level sensor.

You probably have a small leak I'm afraid.

The top of the can was wet with oil.

 

I reckon it's either evaporating past the lid or something else. There's no evidence of any other leakage.