Steering problems, Help!

[dano]

My wifes 1.4 Fabia (2001 reg) is currently in the garage for a general service.

It has also recently started to display an orange steering wheel sign with (!) through it.

The steering itself appears to be fine whilst driving, but low rev movement is like having no PAS at all.

From what I have been able to find out, this could mean either a dodgy steering sensor or the PAS electric pump has gone.

Can anyone confirm if I have understood this correctly.

My wife has her driving test tomorrow afternoon in the car and my mechanic hasn't a clue what else could be wrong with it so he is suggesting we replace the pump.

I believe these are a costly item....?

Is there anyway to disable to warning light while she does the test and then we can get it sorted out properly afterwards?

Is it normal for a PAS pump to fail even though the car itself has only done 28000 miles since new?

The sensor cost 70 quid for the part plus whatever we get charged for fitting on top.

Appreciate advice from the many experts here

[fordfan]

£70 sensor, or £500 pump? The sensors going are alot more common failure than the pump. First thing to do is to have it checked for fault codes, this will help with the diagnosis, rather than replacing parts without probable cause. Also get him to check the charging rate, the state of the battery and the bolted earth points on the passenger side of the engine compartment.

You can put the light out by erasing the fault codes, if the fault is still there it will come straight back on.

If time is important and he can't read the fault codes or look at the measured block value for rate of steering wheel turn, get him to put a sensor on it and hope that it fixes it.