I've been lurking on the board for some time now and i've noticed that the Fabia PAS pumps are apparently a common failure, I found this out in person the other day when my girlfriends Furby suddenly decided it would flicker its headlights etc and started making a strange whirring noise from the PAS pump.

The fault cleared itself but I replaced the battery anyway just for good measure (it was 8 years old after all), while buying said battery and at the same time buying new wishbones for my fiesta (i'm a ford man myself, but massive respect to the fabia's qulaity build, thats another story*) I priced up the PAS pump simply out of curiosity.

The fella on the counter at Euro Car Parts said the list price on the pump (TRS pump I think, most common) is £360 +VAT +£175 surcharge which is refundable when you bring in your old pump for exchange. This is about the sort of price i'd expect to be paying to be honest, but then the guy said "because you're in all the time you're entitled to a discount". I imagined this to be in the region of 5% or something like that. Wrong. Apparently, each time you call up for a quote, or buy Anything from them, its all logged onto your 'trade counter' account and i'm in there about once a week for something or other, which means I can get the pump for...

Wait for it....

£240.87 INCLUDING VAT!!!!

I almost fell over when he told me this. Also, because the guy knows where I work (right next door) He said they could waive the £175 surcharge as long as I bring the pump in within 7 days.

Hows about that for service?.

*That other story, massive respect for the fabia build quality and safety.

I dont know if I already posted this story, but here goes. Earlier this year my girlfriend had an accident on the way to work, she was travelling along a single carriageway to work when she ancountered a lorry (CO-OP HGV) on her side of the road, instinctively she swerved to avoid it, which she obviously did an excellent job of as the driver of said lorry didnt even see her in her little silver Skoda.

The skoda was half on-half off the road, at 56mph (according to the police investgators), when she tried to pull back onto the road the left hand wheels dug into the soft ground and it wouldnt bo back without a fight. She heaved the wheel and the car came back onto the road (just in time to avoid a road sign), subsequently the car started to fishtail and she lost control, the car rotated almost 90 degrees to the left, ran straight into an embankment, flipped aproximately 4 foot into the air, rolled, landed on its roof, skidded 10 meters then righted itself again before eventually coming to rest at the side of the road.

The result can be seen in the attached pictures. My girlfriend (at the left of the second image beow, photo taken that same day) escaped with slight whiplash and cuts to her hand from breaking glass, otherwise no lasting damage. She now owns another fabia, I didnt want her to have anything else.

To Skoda, VAG or whoever, I salute you for making incredibly strong cars, even if they do have thier occasional faults .

I have a spare PAS pump at the ready when/if my pump fails on my car. Mine was very cheap.

Its not from the silver fab in the pictures is it?

I seem to remember that there is a re-manufacturer based in UK that can meet the price you paid - well for the TRW pumps anyway, can't say about the older Koyo or what ever they are called.