Fred66

I finally got the car back at the end of last week, a re conditioned steering pump was fitted and the steering is now lighter and quieter than it ever has been, which is nice. I've racked up some miles since and it seems to be staying fixed for now. It's disappointing to have this kind of thing go wrong on an 85k mile car, they don;t make them like they used to imo The broken pump was sent to the provider of the reconditioned unit to get rebuilt. I'd really like to know what was actually wrong with it but it's probably a trade secret also I'd not dare ask as in their small print they say that if water ingress is the cause of the problem they can levy a surcharge so I'm keeping my head down really hoping not to hear from them. Again many thanks for the information you all have gave me.

Thanks guys you all have been very helpful. The car is still at the garage. I didn't get a chance to read this before i went out this morning but I will speak to the mechanic on Monday about the booster/ battery and the possibility of a hairline crack on the split fuse. I'm relieved to hear that there should not be any coding issues if (when no doubt!) it comes to changing the pump. One question I have is why are there these coding issues in the first place, the mechanic told me he had a Golf that had some abs work done and now he was having coding issues with it. Is this a corporate ploy to force us to use main dealers and mess about small independent operators? As far as batteries go this seems a good deal https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/lion-027-car-battery-3-year-guarantee-444770271

Ive had the car for 4 years, Not changed the battery yet. It always starts well. Pre ignition if the red PAS hazard light came on, it would not have power steering when the engine was started (before touching the steering wheel) If pre ignition the hazard light was off, it would start up with PAS which not fail until the engine was next turned off then back on.. if that makes any sense!

Hi Pete, The issue did start when the weather turned wet a few weeks ago, initially intermittent (the worse type of electrical faults I've heard) so I kept turning it on and off which cleared the problem for a while. When the PAS failed was always on start up, never whilst driving, a couple of times the opposite happened, when it wasn't working (whilst driving) it came back on. When it never worked (even with on multiple start ups) I took it to the garage, I thought that would make it easier to diagnose.

Hi JR, the car had lost all power steering, the red hazard on the dash appeared, I checked the PS fluid level, it was ok. At that point I took it to a local garage . The mechanic said (a few days ago) if I was lucky it would just be a bad connection, Today he told me he had checked the battery, some fuses, taken the bumper off to check the contacts to the pump, he said power is going to the pump and that he thinks the problem lies within the pump. He also said some stuff I didn't understand, possibly about a sensor, maybe the words can, bus, ecu I don't remember the word controller. Is it part of pump, or located somewhere else? He seems to be saying that because he can't get a code (from the pump) fitting an off the self reconditioned pump wont work because it needs coding, he thinks it would be better to get my one reconditioned. Western Power steering in Bristol contradicted this by saying there aren't coding issues with this particular pump. I have read elsewhere that there are. Hence me here.

Hi , I've got a 2012 1.2 TSi Fabia estate on a ramp at a local garage. The mechanic thinks the steering pump (one with green dip stick) has failed. He says the computer he has cant communicate with it at all, so he cant get any codes from it. He is concerned about re coding issues if we get an off the shelf unit to replace it. So the question is this this case? Do these steering pumps need a unique code to communicate with the cars ecu or are they 'plug and play' (his term) I've found a place which sells reconditioned pumps or they can rebuild the one you send in, so he's saying best get it re built if it avoids re coding issues or an a reconditioned one if not . due to time and storage issues I'd rather get an off the self one but not if there are more head aches when it's fitted pic is of the one in the car. Mant thanks for ant help