Advice appreciated.

[Charvelj]

My wifes 1.4 mpi Fabia has the following symptoms...

Flickering headlights which coincides with a 'whirring' sound coming from the power steering pump. Also the steering seems very light for the first five/ten minutes of driving. It seems to settle down after this with no really noticeable flicker until the car comes to a stop at which point you hear the pas pump kicking in again.

My questions are :

Would replacing the steering angle sensor cure this ?

Can you just replace the angle sensor, or would it have to go on a computer for re-setting ?

I am not getting any warning lights on the dash.

I hope you can help........

[BoilingPoint]

Replacing the sensor is supposed to cure said problems, but it didn't for me.

[kevinw4]

Symptoms sound similar to our 1.4 16V, and replacing the sensor cured it for us.

You should get it hooked up to VAGCOM and do the diagnostics check on the Steering assist control unit. Measuring Block 2 will show you the sensor reading & if its faulty will probably jump about even at standstill and coincide with you hearing the pump kick in.

Also shows you the motor current, and in MB 1 you can monitor the voltage & if you see if drop significantly when the pump cuts in, thats the reason for the flickering lights; - there just isn't enough grunt left in the battery for them.