06 Fabia VRS.

Driving the car to meet a mate for a pint and noticed that everytime i pressed the brake pedal, the dash illumination and headlights would dim. As the journy continued the dimming got steadily worse untill i was almost at the pub when suddenly the warning lights started flashing, beeping and the power steering went leaving the steering wheel synbol on the dash.

As i had no tools or multi meter wasnt much i could check so went for said pint and hoped fault would dissappear lol.

Came back to head home, car started fine, drove home (25 odd miles on dual carriage way) almost perfectly untill i was about to pull onto the drive. Then once again power steering went dash lights flashing and beeping. With the car on tick over it was finding it hard to do just that, with the headlights 'pulsing'.

Checked the battery voltage and that was reading 12.55v

Sorry for the long post. Has anyone come across this problem before? Only got a few days left on the warrenty and feel the dealer will try and fob me off again.

Faulty battery, failing under load. PAS pump takes 60 AMPS

if its 12.55v when running you have a problem, should be 14.4v ideally

UPDATE.

Went to check the car this morning before it went to work. Battery was sat at 12.53v. Turned the key, dash lit up and normal and fuel pump kicked in, Went to start it and nothing! All lights went out lost all info on trip computer and radio.

Checked battery again 12.32v

Tried to start car again and i started normally.

With car running i checked the voltage again and was charging at 14.44v

This has got me confused now.

Other than my scratched-record-like recommendation to check the terminal connections, it does sound like the battery's goosed. I had to put a new one in the other week (and ended up getting a Bosch S4, as the OEM-equivalent S6 would have been too expenseeeeev close to Christmas. :( Time will tell if this was a wise decision...)

Hello. I have just has exactly the same problem. It is NOT the battery. about a month ago i had exactly the same symptoms as you. I researched the internet and found alot of useful help and advice on honestjohn website. Lots of people have suggested it was the battery, or the alternator, the steering angle sensor or the steering pump. I had also recently experienced having difficulties with my windscreeen wipers not working but i think that may be totaly unrelated. like you my power steering went and then returned to its normal state, but a week or so later it decided to pack up when parking my car, sound familliar? Have just had my car fixed under last week of warranty (steering pump) which cost 480 for the part and an extra 200 for diagnosis and labour charges. no cheap! Anyway what i am trying to get at is that alot of people think that it is the battery because of the cutting out of the power steering at low revs, its not at all, its the pump! sound like you are in the same situation i was in! Good luck.

It sounds like the alternator is about to pack up had this on two cars now and both times its been the alternator.

Now I'm no expert, but unless I knew the garage to be honest, and had seen and driven the car to know that the PAS pump was at fault, I'd personally be deeply wary of a massive warranty claim being made by a garage in the current economic climate, especially as cause and effect seem to be the wrong way round in voodoojellybaby's case: lights dim, warning lights come on, power steering goes.

If it is alternator-related, it's worth getting the exciter cable checked, as this is quite a common fault, and again might be the sort of thing a struggling garage would only check after they'd eliminated all the more-expensive possibilities if they thought they could get away with it, given the slump in new car sales...

To slightly elaborate on my initial suggestion, I was having random warning lights and loss of electrics, and traced it to a dodgy connection (made by me ) on the negative terminal. The additional suggestion that heavy steering when manoeuvring is down to the battery being knackered rather than the PAS sensor or pump comes from a trusted and well-respected source. Also, I'd be hugely surprised if the PAS pump had gone on a car less than three years old.

But then again, less than three years old means the dealer warranty's still in effect, so maybe you should hand it over and let them knock themselves out!

I would firstly get it in, so the potential warranty claim could be made if it is found to be the alternator. The battery would be excluded from a warranty claim I would have thought though, faults with wiring/alternator however should be included

make sure the terminal connections are clean and tight on the battery

if its 14.4 when running its highly unlikely to be the alternator, does this voltage stay pretty much the same when given some revs ?

12.5v is also fine when testing a battery thats been left overnight

Skoda Darlington were being a little bit arsey about looking at the car, when i phoned today. Saying they were too busy and under staffed. They could fit it in next week but not honor the warranty! Although they seemed to change their mind once trading standards were mentioned.

Eventually i was told that as car was still under warranty i also had free recovery from Skoda Assistance so im just waiting for bloke to arrive now to have a look at the car and either confirm it is just the battery or take it away and dump it on a Skoda forecourt to be fixed.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. Ill let you all know the out come once he been

Mark

Give this a try, put a test meter on the battery, get someone to start the car, check the voltage drop when cranking the motor if the voltage drops below 10 volts, the battery is duff

also when the motor is running check the charging voltage, it should read over 14 volts, then put all high drain equipment on i.e. Heated window, heater fan, lights etc then check voltage again, if the drop is below 12 volts battery is duff

Car seems to be all sorted now. Was a bad connection from battery negative to chassis and then was a bad connection on the alternator. He then said hed changed the battery to alternator cable as it was damaged?? Dont know where as i hed gone to make a brew and i never thought to ask to see said damaged cable. Doh.

Touch wood car was 'normal' last night.

Thanks for all your help