I sometimes push my car out of the garage without starting it or turnoing ignition on - unassisted, the steering is too heavy to safely drive it, as is the case with most modern cars.

If you drove it with unassisted steering:

a) unless you have the upper body strength of a gorilla or orang-utang you wouldn't be able to turn corners or safely change lanes and

b) would leave yourself open to charges of driving an unroadworthy vehicle.

Your decision.

Thank you all very much for the information so far.

I was looking at second hand steering motors on Ebay and noticed some were being sold with the ECU. is there a feedback that would show up on OBD2 reader or ate these items just sold as an unrelated batch?

Once again, many thanks, Mike.