Ok, the girlfriends fabia (Y reg, 95,000 miles) started with this problem a couple of weeks ago, we replaced the battery which seemed to help for a couple of weeks, but its started doing it all over again.

Seems to be mainly since it started raining which makes me think about the wiring loom which apparently sits in a pool of water which collects in the car? Can anyone explain where this is?

Obviously we dont want to just jump straight in and buy a new PAS pump, as this is rather expensive. So if its not wet wiring, what would be the next suspect? Angle sensor?

I have an ELM327 (clone, tsk tsk ebay) interface for the laptop, and have downloaded the vag-com trial, will these work together? (I could easily hack this to be serial/RS232 rather than USB if that would help) if so, what should I be looking for?

Thanks guys, I appreciate your advice.

Dave.

Mine flicker all the time... Stood in traffic, driving, everywhere.

This could help me out also

Anyone?

Mine has started doing this as well with the steering and the lights flickering.

Apparently it its nothing to do with the battery, alternator or power steering pump it is the steering angle sensor according to........... 2001 Skoda Fabia Comfort Comments - Carsurvey.org

Well - I suspect all 3 of the above cars have got flaky yaw angle sensors! This is speaking from personal experience with my own car!

group buy?

Ordered a new angle sensor, £19.92 including vat, will be fitting it on wednesday, i'll report back if this fixes the problem.

Price from Skoda spares, £89 + Vat + 30 quid surcharge refundable on return of old sensor. What a Laugh.

Dave.

Didn't I get one off you Jason?

Didn't I get one off you Jason?

True I forgot! Skoda Spares price is a joke! They're only £60 brand new from Skoda without any kind of surcharge. I only paid about £50 brand new, posted to me.

The thing is though my dash lights as well also seem to dip :S

The thing is though my dash lights as well also seem to dip :S

Yup - They did with me too. Have you got that sensor yet? Get the thing on :P

I've got it! I'm going to get it on as soon as I get some semi-decent weather!

UPDATE

I ordered the sensor, went to pick it up and guess what, it was the CRANK angle sensor, not the power steering one. GRRR...

Anyway, I went to the scrap yard looknig for bits for my car, and found a 57 plate Seat Ibiza with TRW pump still inctact. Bought the pump for £70 and pulled the angle sensor off the rack which had been shattered while I was at it. The cable (which can be unplugged from this sensor) was sheared so I took my time and made a nice job of repairing it with glue lined heatshrink and plenty of it.

Decided to try and fit the sensor to the Fabia, suprise suprise it didnt fit. the bit which actually detects the copper 'blade' attached to the steering column is slightly different.

For now i've left the angle sensor disconnected so the pump goes into 'limp home' mode, where the pump runs at low power providing *some* assistance which means that the lights dont flicker. Essential as other people were thinking the cars lights were flasing at them, meaning they could pull out of junctions etc etc.

So, if anyone has any ideas where I might get a PAS angle sensor cheap, can they let me know?

Thanks, Dave.

Hi, I got mine for £50 from hootiemcboob1969 on Ebay. Might be worth a quick pm to them to see if they still do them? They also have a brand new power steering unit going for sale at £265.

Hi, I got mine for £50 from hootiemcboob1969 on Ebay. Might be worth a quick pm to them to see if they still do them? They also have a brand new power steering unit going for sale at £265.

Thanks 53FabiaVRS, i've emailed them, will have to wait to see what they come back with although no-one seems to have any of the older style sensors (with the fixed wire).

Can anyone else suggest somewhere where I might get one?

So now i'm stuck with 2 working PAS angle sensors from a 57 plate IBIZA and an 03 polo (both the same), as well as an immaculate TRW pump from the same 57 plate IBIZA. looks like they're going on ebay to fund a possibly very expensive OEM sensor :(

Cheers, Dave.

So now I reckon that you know that your car has a SMI KOYO steering system - so its off to Skoda for you (to buy the correct sensor). I'd reckon if you cruise the Seat forum or the Polo forum then you'd manage to sell that TRW pump and sensor quite quickly - they seem to be in big demand right now!

So now I reckon that you know that your car has a SMI KOYO steering system - so its off to Skoda for you (to buy the correct sensor). I'd reckon if you cruise the Seat forum or the Polo forum then you'd manage to sell that TRW pump and sensor quite quickly - they seem to be in big demand right now!

Ummm... yea, sure, I knew it was that system all along

I'll probably try to sell the pump on either ebay or possibly the forum's as you suggest, thanks for the tip-off. As for the angle sensors, well, I'm toying with the idea of possibly changing the steering rack for a more recent one what will take one of the sensors that I have. I can get one from a trashed 55 plate VRS in a local scrap yard for £40, one of the track rods is bent, I presume they can be removed from the rack to be replaced?

I know it seems like a long way round of doing things, but I have to do some work under the car anyway, such as bushes, exhaust etc so was considdering 'borrowing' a pit (I indirectly know someone with a garage I can possibly use).

Does anyone know if the rack can be replaced without dropping the front sub-frame which its bolted on top of?

Thanks, Dave.

One word of warning - or caution, I hope that you are not going to try and "mix and match" between the SMI KOYO and TRW systems - I don't think that is as straight forward as you might think - IIRC even the track rod ends are differant - but I don't know how far you would need to got swop-wise to avoid problems. You should really get some tech advise before going down that road.

One word of warning - or caution, I hope that you are not going to try and "mix and match" between the SMI KOYO and TRW systems - I don't think that is as straight forward as you might think - IIRC even the track rod ends are differant - but I don't know how far you would need to got swop-wise to avoid problems. You should really get some tech advise before going down that road.

Hmm, well, not sure about mixing and matching, I would probably end up putting the TRW pump in instead of the Koyo just for good measure, so it would be;

Rack with rods and ends (£40)

Pump with piping (already have this)

Sensor and wiring. (already have this too)

The plugs on the TRW and Koyo pumps seem to be identical, so I dont think most of the wiring needs changing, just the cable on the sensor which needs chaging anyway.

Would the ECU kick up a fuss if I changed the pump? or would it just get on with it?

Its either that, or I just bite the bullet and buy a replacement Koyo sensor and possibly have it fail again in a couple of years. I cant find one cheaper than £103, does ANYONE know of anywhere cheaper than Skoda?

Dave.

A bit off topic, but if my fabia 2000 09 so what KOYO or TRW system? it depends on car year? newer fabia have TRW and first models KOYO? i'm looking forward to changing angle sensor, so i need to know which one to buy.

A bit off topic, but if my fabia 2000 09 so what KOYO or TRW system? it depends on car year? newer fabia have TRW and first models KOYO? i'm looking forward to changing angle sensor, so i need to know which one to buy.

Okay, try this out - remove the green cap from the power steering fluid reservoir and check to see if you can find TRW written on it.

I didn't find any TRW written on cap, so this means it's KOYO steering system?

There's a guide for doing this on Stu's site Fabia-vrs.com - Home Page IIRC, although IIARC, Ross has said at least once that it's the battery not the PAS sensor that causes it... :ne_nau:

The battery which causes flickering lights ant heavy steering? as i was reading posts, i maybe understood incorrectly what there is steering pump battery apart from main car's battery? And that steering pump's battery is responsible for problems mentioned in this thread?

The battery which causes flickering lights ant heavy steering? as i was reading posts, i maybe understood incorrectly what there is steering pump battery apart from main car's battery? And that steering pump's battery is responsible for problems mentioned in this thread?

No, there is only one battery, use the search feature to look for other power steering problems because I seem to remember that someone posted pictures of the recon'd pump he bought from www.bba-reman.com - wrong - that was on www.seatcupra.net look for that picture in the Ibiza Mk4 forum, on page 3 of the forum, topic title STEERING PUMP - that one shown is a TRW pump - so you will not look EXACTLY like that?

The battery which causes flickering lights ant heavy steering? as i was reading posts, i maybe understood incorrectly what there is steering pump battery apart from main car's battery? And that steering pump's battery is responsible for problems mentioned in this thread?

As rum4mo says, there's only one battery. The logic for testing it is that the PAS pump draws something like 30A, which is a lot of current. If the battery is in good condition, it can supply the extra current required, over what the alternator can supply. If not, the steering feels heavy and the lights can flicker. An easy way to tell if it's this is to use more revs when manoeuvring (but be careful on the clutch!) More revs = more current from the alternator = more current to the PAS pump = lighter steering and more steady lighting. If this work-around doesn't make any difference, then it's probably the sensor...