Hi all, joined this site just to add to this thread. I too am experiencing the loss of power steering issue. But my dealership is refusing to work on the car unless I return the sound to factory 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ I’m planning to use this thread to fight that… there’s not a chance my speakers caused this issue given how prevalent it seems to be here, and there’s no way I’m pulling everything out just because they can’t figure out what to do. Ugh.

 

This loss of power steering issue has happened 6 or 7 times on our 2021 with original Meridian sound. My even wife knows how to disconnect the battery negative terminal to do a hard reset to fix it since it happened to her twice, once while away on a girls weekend. Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with the sound system.

 

Nate- from ottawa Canada here!
2 weeks ago -I ran into the same issue described above. Almost to the T!
The car was purchased December 2023 and 2 sundays ago, I got into the vehicle and the steering was locked. I was able to move back and forth but could not turn the wheel. JLR road side assistance came to the rescue and towed the vehicle to the dealership.
while this was happening, I was furious and could not seem to find any helpful information - until I found this forum!
Upon speaking with my local dealership service, they were able to pin point it on a software update but could not confirm it wouldn’t happen again.
JLR wanted to run additional diagnostics with JLR Canada - technical service.
I have yet to receive the car. I have been told that a gasket is leaking oil onto a module - and that the gasket needs replacing.. currently on back order.

all that to say, I am in a loaner driving an F pace Jag and I truly miss the drive of my defender.
On Tuesday I will be in a new defender.. temporarily until I get my new one!

I will be sharing the findings with JLR service.

 

Frankly speaking loss of steering is a serious accident and should be reported to authorities so JLR can get to the problem quicker.
Same goes for dimming dashboard.
Too bad we can't do it in Canada OR I'm not aware of any way.

 

The loss of the electric power steering discussed in this thread occurs when the vehicle is parked and turned off. That prevents you from going anywhere you could get in an serious accident. I'm not seeing the annoying dash dimming as much after the last software update so maybe they did address that.