Well, after a year with me my beloved Fabia (2001, 1.4 16v) has just taken and passed its MOT. Two weeks on though, and I’m having nothing but niggling problems with it. I have:

- Flickering headlights/interior lights

- Intermittent power steering failure (good for my biceps)

- Intermittent clonking & whirring from power steering pump

And a new feature, which started just this morning:

- Engine Management System warning light.

I’ve changed the battery and topped up with oil (even put a bit too much in – oops, my bad!), but still have the flickering & EMS light. Noticed when I topped up with oil that there was some of that grotty creamy residue on the inside of the oil cap (I think this points to damp getting in somewhere?). I’m unsure what to try next – the PAS sensor seems to be the repair of choice for the flickering issue, but is this likely to be related to the new EMS light thing, or am I looking at additional diagnostics/repairs for that? Love it as I do, I’m starting to consider selling the old workhorse…

Get a fault code check done, that will tell you what is wrong.

A sensor wont cause the lights to flicker, what size battery did you fit?

The one the guy in the shop told me was the right one for the car

I've searched for this flickering lights issue before, and I'm sure I've seen folk saying it's to do with the PAS sensor....

And I have quite often said its not.

The light flicker due to electrical load. The PAS pump draws up to 60amps at full chat so the lights are going to dim (especially if you are running a 44ah battery). This can indicate a poor battery, an insufficient battery, a weak alternator or the pump maybe drawing to much current. Or it could just be the nature of the beast and normal.

Had the problem with the power steering and the flickering.

The dealer gave me a new steering angle sensor.

Power steering is now fine and flickering lights is not a problem.

And I have quite often said its not.

The light flicker due to electrical load. The PAS pump draws up to 60amps at full chat so the lights are going to dim (especially if you are running a 44ah battery). This can indicate a poor battery, an insufficient battery, a weak alternator or the pump maybe drawing to much current. Or it could just be the nature of the beast and normal.

So even though we've established that the lights flickering could be any one out of at least half a dozen things, I will have to have someone check the error code(s) and will presumably end up having the PAS sensor changed to try and sort out the intermittent heavy steering/clonking pump issue anyway, in which case, I think I'll stick with the new battery that's in it and see if any of the above happen to fix the flickering by accident