turtlepower

thanks wino I really appreciate all your help its been of great assistance and thanks to everyone else also hopefully ill be able to get some miles under my belt before anything else goes wrong with it !

thanks guys, well I traced the dodgy wire back as far as where it goes next to the abs unit and each time I cut it back the piece that came off was completely corroded and fell to pieces in my hand so this is definitely at least part of the problem , so ive made up a temp bypass wire for both can wires from the steering pump right back to the connector in the photo ,I tried cutting the wires coming from the connectors under the dash and connecting the bypass wires directly to them but then there was no life in the steering at all and no check or warning light either so I reconnected the wires under the dash and added the bypass wires as a piggy back check light for power steering now comes on as it should before going out and steering feels how it should , still getting the same fault codes as above but originally I also had one for the power steering pump and of course the warning light so made some progress

getting fault code 00778 steering angle sensor 49-00 no coms 01324 control module for all wheel drive no coms - not sure what this is but I seem to remember its always come up with this no longer getting a no coms on the pump and warning light is going off should I rig up a temp wire and use it like that for now or would it be better to leave that wire disconnected for now - will driving it without do any damage ? is there a method to find where the wire is broken or better to just replace both with correct twisting ? thanks

ive taken it apart and tested the 2 wires back to the socket in the photo and the orange/brown is working but the orange/black is dead ,so ive traced this wire back to under the battery tray and cut it then made a temporary wire to connect back to the socket under the dash and lights gone out :clap: is there an easy route through the bulkhead to put in a new wire thanks again

brilliant ! thanks wino, I will have a go at this today

thanks again wino ,I will check these wires asap and report back results

ah I see thanks is the 32-way connector of the Instruments module easily accessible ? I presume somewhere around the steering column area ? thanks

that's great thank you do the CAN wires play a part in the control of the the power steering ? as in ,if one of the wires is damaged does that prevent the power steering working correctly ? or is it possible to have a warning light because of a faulty wire but the actual steering is unaffected if you see what I mean thanks

thanks guys ill get that checked and get back with the results ,do you have any idea where the the CAN wire connects up to at the other end from the pump ? as in is it possible to unplug both ends and test for continuity of the wires ? thanks again

hi everyone well here we go again ! having replaced the steering angle sensor some months ago on my 2001 1.9tdi fabia everything has been fine since until a week or two ago when the power steering warning light once again came on from start up and wouldn't go out by turning the ignition off and back on as it used to when the angle sensor was faulty so I drove the car about 10 miles with the warning light on ,parked it up for 20 mins then when restarted it went out and stayed out for a week or so ,then one morning it did it again and I got friend to hook it up to vcds which said no communication with sensor or pump ,then a few minutes later it was working fine again and light went out a couple days ago I went to start it and once again warning light on and now on permanently ,power steering still works but maybe a little less at low speeds if anything things ive tried vcds - no communication with sensor or pump ( everything else is communicating fine ) had battery checked at garage ,all good but decided to recharge anyway tried a known good battery just to be sure - made no difference alternator tested all ok tested connecters to steering pump - main live and earth working fine ,live from cars internal fuse box ok and no blown fuses removed and reseated all earth cables I don't know how to test the 2 data cables that are on the socket with the live feed from the ignition to the pump so if anyone can help explain how to do this it would be much appreciated as I believe if one of these is damaged it would cause the communication issue other than this I guess it would point to the pump ecu ? but as I said the power steering still works so pretty confused any help or ideas would be appreciated thanks

time for an update as promised ,I replaced the steering angle sensor approx. a week ago and so far it appears to have solved the steering issues ,I will remove it from the rack housing in a couple weeks just to make sure no more water has got in ! thanks to everyone for there advice and feedback so now onto the next problem ! which I will start a new thread about as its a turbo boost issue

thanks to everyone for the info and replies ive purchased a new original sensor which will take a few days to arrive and fingers crossed hopefully will solve the issue ! I will update with the results when its fitted

unfortunately the sensor doesn't appear to be working at all now and steering warning light has been on last several days , the power steering is still working but at less assistance than would be normal ,I even disconnected the sensor and this had no further effect ,having researched the system as best I can it appears the pump runs at low speed constantly and then uses the sensor to boost up speed and assistance when turning hard ect ,so my system appears to be running at the fixed lower speed and getting no signal from the sensor so feels a bit heavier than it should especially at low speed but its not lost all assistance at any point

well local motor factors say they can supply a angle sensor for £81 outright though I don't think this is a vag original supplied item ,though it would be coming from Germany I'm told so not sure if its just the same part without the branding ? has anyone else used one like this ?

yes that sounds the correct part number ill take a look at the one on ebay thanks he was on about water ingress into the front loom causing random issues and then requiring the complete front loom to need replacing for £1100 !!! as you say I don't really see the relevance to my situation

hi wino , it didn't appear to be damaged so hopefully its solved the problem of water getting in the cavity ,so now trying to hunt down a sensor at a reasonable price ,is there any where that's recommended to get one from ? just rang the local skoda dealer and they want £150 exchange which seems pretty steep ! spoke to a guy in there parts department who said the problem could be the engine wiring loom is knackered !! though ive not heard of this anywhere before so not sure if its anything to worry about ?

thanks for the replies on further investigation I found the rubber gasket pt14 was not fitted correctly and not lipped over the rack housing properly and just squashed in to place at an angle on top of it so offering very little protection to water ingress so my guess would be the rack has been replaced at some point and for some reason the rubber gasket wasn't located correctly before tightening up the bolts ive now lowered the subframe and refitted the gasket pt14 correctly so hopefully that will have solved the water ingress into the sensor cavity issue, where are these gaskets available from should I end up needing to fit a new one ? thanks

ah ok thanks

hi thank you for the information yes quite agree ,on mine I cant see pt 14 as this area is covered by a rubber cowling that slopes out from the bulkhead and then lips over the rack were pt 14 is shown in the diagram so I'm not sure if that's all that's there or if pt 14 is somehow hidden under this cowling ? the cowling was squashed up and not lipped over which ive now rectified and was hoping that was the original cause of the water getting in could you tell me if it should be possible to separate the sensor from the cable on a sensor like the one pictured ( its the same as mine ) it appears that it should unplug but doesn't seem to want to so didn't want to force it without being sure, I just wanted to be able to test the cable for any issues

i will hopefully get it hooked up to friends laptop with vag-com in the next couple days and see what that comes up with ,I'm more used to dealing with mechanical issues with cars to be honest so finding this pretty frustrating to figure out ! it still drives fine at the moment just a bit heavier steering which isn't to much of an issue ,hopefully it will keep working like this until i can figure out the fault and fix it ! is there any particular place that would be best to purchase a sensor from ? thanks for the advice

hi dm222 thanks for the reply ,today I removed the sensor again to see if any more water had found its way in which it doesn't appear to have but I decided to blow dry it with a hairdryer ,on reinstalling the sensor the warning light now comes on when turning the ignition key then goes out and then comes on straight away as the engine starts and stays on so I decided to disconnect the sensor at the pump and see what happens ,the steering feels exactly the same without it connected as in heavier than it originally was but not as it would be with no assistance ,ive read the pump runs constantly at low power then boosts power when turning and receiving signal from sensor , so does this mean the pump is running as it should and giving some assistance and is ok to drive for now ? as TMB says its water getting into the cavity that holds the sensor ,I think the problem was that at some point the steering rack had been removed and on reinstalling the rubber shroud that goes over the lip on the rack a couple inches above the sensor had been squashed up rather than lipped over so allowing any water that ran over that area to seep into the sensor cavity ,when I first removed the sensor the cavity was full of rusty coloured water which would have been enough to submerge the sensor

hi Stuart thanks for the reply , I'm hoping its not the sensor as this was replaced a couple years ago with the newer metal case version though it could be the water ingress has damaged it ! the vanes in the rack sounds a bit of a nightmare so really hope its not that ! does the VCDS come with software or is there free software available to download ? thanks lee

hi everyone ive been reading through posts on this very informative site for some time and now seeking some advice please I purchased a 2001 skoda fabia 1.9tdi with full service history about 4 months ago and other than a sticking rear brake from sitting for while everything else seems ok ,that is until the last couple weeks wet and colder weather ,after not using the car for a few days I drove a mile or so to the shops in the evening and the steering warning lamp came on but no loss of steering power so next day I decided to remove the steering rack sensor and as it slid out dirty water poured out so obviously not great ! I notice the sensor was changed to the newer metal case design 2 years ago and also a new power steering pump fitted I thoroughly dried and carefully cleaned the sensor then blasted out any remaining moisture from the cavity it slides into before refitting ,on driving the car I noticed the steering felt better at speed as when I purchased it felt very light and vague at speed which I now presume was caused by the water in the sensor causing the pump to activate when it shouldn't have ,I then drove the car for about 20 mins around town before going up a long steep hill at which point the warning light once again came on ,so I turned off the engine and then restarted it and have used the car for a week or so with no issues until this evening when after a short journey to the shops the light again came on on restarting it again went out and didn't come on when using the car later on ive read all the posts I can find here regarding power steering issues but couldn't find anything quite the same as I'm experiencing so far I have: removed and cleaned sensor and checked cable for any damage removed and cleaned up all earth lead connections including the one under inner arches checked steering rack fluid level ( all ok and clean ) checked electric connectors to the pump itself removed wiper motor ect to thoroughly clean out scuttle drainage holes checked voltages at battery which appear to be ok and car starts fine though I understand this doesn't guarantee battery is good at no point so far has the power steering stopped working even when the light comes on ,any ideas or advice would be much appreciated ! thanks