Petah

You're right about this affecting pretty much every VAG product from this era. When researching this I read about Audi's, VW's, Porsches, Bentleys for God's sake, pretty much everything that VAG makes. Wonder if people who bought a Veyron have this problem? <RANT> This is an unnecessarily complicated electro-magnetic computer-controlled disaster waiting to happen solution to what is really a very simple problem: how to lock the steering wheel when the key is removed. Google it. We have a software module that has to interact with the steering lock mechanism and key (yes your car talks to the key using RF, it's not just a mechanical interface). We have a solenoid that pops a pin up between some hall sensors that are there to watch the pin go by and report back to the software in the KESSY module that the lock action appeared to work or it didn't. All is find and dandy until grit, dust, Gremlins wearing "I hate Bosch" tee-shirts or any other factor impedes the pin moving or the hall sensors from seeing it move. What is a reasonable course of action? I'm no automotive engineer, but if I were writing the software for the KESSY module I'd come up with something better than "Steering Faulty" and rendering the car undrivable until the poor owners is coerced into spending the better part of $5 grand throwing the baby out with the bathwater. How about "Sorry, steering did not lock, please retry" and give us 3 tries before locking us out for 30 minutes so we can try again? Or "Warning - Steering lock failure, steering is not locked" so we can make our own decision about whether to lock the car in the garage until we can get it fixed or roll the dice and leave every other security feature working except the steering lock? How about a manual override to the lock? Every other manufacturer on the planet solves this problem without a Rube Goldberg type locking masterpiece that is in effect a ticking time bomb that is just waiting to go expensively wrong. IMHO VAG should admit "Yup, we screwed the pooch on that one" and offer some kind of assistance to owners who get to live with the consequences of this terrible engineering design. Something better than "pay up or walk" which seems to be the line at the moment. OK I'm done. </RANT>

Hi Neal, Check out my post above - this may get you going again. Essentially you're disconnecting / reconnecting power to the ignition lock mechanism. For me, that reset it and I'm good to go again. After doing that twice, the problem seems to have gone away (hopefully for good). No pulling the steering column or sending parts off. As with everything electrical with these cars, make sure your battery is fully charged... Good luck Peter

Just a follow-up report: Hope I'm not jinxing myself, but since the last reset I have had no further issues with the steering lock and steering faulty message. It seems to have gone away as mysteriously as it showed up. About the only guess I have at the moment is that the fault was related to low battery charge, leaving the works with not enough "oomph" to actually actuate the lock and leaving it stuck half-in/half out. That's entirely a guess on my part, happy to hear a better theory of anybody has one. The reason I say that is at the time of the issue the car had been off the road for a while while I did some restoration work on it. The battery was very low. I now make sure to drive it to work (90 minute round trip) at least once a week. Never good to leave a car sit too long.

Well... Getting the car ready to go on the trailer to have the AC system worked on, and got the blasted message again. Good news, same workaround (steps listed above) worked again. PITA if I have to carry a Durametric around with me to reset the code after removing/inserting the connector, but until I can find a permanent solution it'll have to do. More as I find it out...

I too had the dreaded "Steering Faulty" red message of death, Alarm code 288. I was able to clear it myself, for $0. My situation may be different than yours, so this may or may not work for you. This occurred during experimentation (unsuccessful) upgrading the gauge cluster in an '04 Cayenne S to one from an '03-04 Cayenne turbo. Unlike many who posted successful plug and play upgrades, I ran into an incompatibility. Short diagnosis- the old cluster is a type RB8, with the CAN gateway separate from the cluster. The turbo cluster is an RB4, with the CAN gateway in the cluster. Lots of issues, lots of study with the durametric software led me to give up. However, while I was swapping out clusters (thus removing and re-adding the CAN gateway) the key was left in the ignition. That may be the cause of the problem, and why the reset I describe below worked for me. The fix was to unplug and plug back in the steering wheel lock, and clear the 288 code with the Durametric software. That's it. No new parts, no money spent. This might be worth a try for you. If you want to give it a shot: 0. REMOVE THE KEY FROM THE IGNITION :) 1. Remove the bottom cover from the instrument panel (the one containing the OBDII port and footwell light. Unplug the OBDII port from the panel and pull the connector for the footwell light. Set the bottom cover aside. 2. Remove the lower trim under the steering wheel. this contains the headlight switch and panel illumination dimmer. Disconnect their connectors and set the lower panel aside. 3. Remove the 3 accessible screws from the aluminum crash pad / knee protector that lives under the lower trim. It'll still be connected at the right front, that's OK just swing it out of the way. 4. Locate the locking mechanism. It's a silver box that sits on the steering column under the aluminum crash pad. It has a connector going to it with 3 wires. Squeeze the sides of the connector and unplug it, then plug it back in again. 5. Reassemble everything. Some systems seem to get their power serially with the headlight switch; if you leave it unplugged odd things can happen. 6. Using a Durametric or PWIS or similar tool to clear the 288 code from the alarm module. Note, while the "Steering Faulty" message is displayed, you can't turn on the ignition, and the software can't connect. To get around this, hold your foot on the brake pedal; this wakes up some of the modules on the CAN bus (including the alarm module) so you can reset the code. 7. Cross your fingers and stick the key in again. If your problem is the same as mine, you'll hear the steering lock solenoid pop and no more "Steering Faulty" message. Good luck, hope this is helpful!

Adding my experience if it helps - 2004 Cayenne S. I purchased the iCarsoft POR II scanner. It did reset the MIL (Check Engine Light) however would not access the airbag or air conditioning Porsche proprietary diagnostics. The only Porsche proprietary diagnostics it could access were the Tiptronic and DME headings. The rest, I received an error "Fault in communication with vehicle ECU". If you google that you'll see this is not an uncommon experience. I could find no software updates for this device on iCarsoft's website (lots of other scanners they make, but not this one). I tried watching the "how to upgrade" video, but right out of the gate it showed a screen shot saying the update software only works on Windows 7 or Windows XP. I have neither, nor can I get them (they are both obsolete OS's). So I'm returning the iCarsoft scanner and have ordered a Durametric, we'll see how that works. My read on all this is that the POR II from iCarsoft works with some cars but not others. Those who are able to use it seem to like it. For me, it's useless since what I want to do requires it talking to the airbag and air conditioning modules, and it won't do that. So, if you buy one, make sure you can return it if it doesn't work for you.