Hello all,

I had a fun drive to/from work today in my 54 plate Fabia classic.

The power steering cut out about 6 times in an hour. It seemed to happen when changing up, esp clutch up into 2nd.

Engine still fine and a restart sorted it out for a while.

The battery warn light has also been flickering intermittently for a few weeks with no ill effect. Usually for a second or less.

I see power steering sensors are a common problem but I wonder if the battery light thing indicates something else. Battery is less than a year old.

Any thoughts folks?

How about checking the alternator cables. Do you have acces to vag-com?

check the alternator charging rate mate it should be between13.5 & 14.5 volts

If the engine is a Derv one maybe you should be searching under "charging problems" as there is the potential fo the excitation current lead to be broken under the engine round about where there is a row of connector blocks (plugs and sockets) stored/stacked on a holding frame. A momentarly lack of charging would/could cause the steering pump to drop out.

Thanks for the replies folks, thought I better post back.

The engine is petrol. I went first to my local garage, who supplied the battery about a year ago. They did a few quick tests and suggested the alternator was failing, and quoted me quie a bit.

Their vagueness led me to check with the dealer (DM Keith) who ran a diagnostic for about £85. They said the battery needed replacing.

I went back to local garage who did more quick tests and said, no battery is OK, the alternator voltage was varying 14-17V dependent on revs. They thought it was laughable that DM Keith said the problem was caused by a failed battery, as it was irrelevant once the engine was running.

Back to DM Keith. Retested again and provided lots of diagnostic printouts, which said battery was definitely duff.

I took these back to local garage, who replaced the battery on warranty but felt sure the problem was elsewhere. Off I drove with new battery. Everything fine for 10 minutes, then same problem.

Back to DM Keith. They said their diagnostic system stops at the first fault, usually the simplest. So if the battery is duff, it reports that and they test no more. They have another look, but then say they can't now recreate the problem. They insist the alternator output is fine.

Has been fine for about 10 days of normal use. They did say they'd taken out lots of wiring looms, so I wonder if there was just a loose connection.

Both places were kind of patient and persistent but the whole process was... tiresome.

I don't know what the moral of this story is. It might be to just use the bus and train if you can...

Edited 3 August, 200916 yr by foundsound