As I understand it the PAS angle sensors on early fabias were prone to failure due to ingress of moisture.

In what year did Skoda start fitting the revised part to new cars, could a 2004 Fabia vRS be affected by the PAS sensor failure fault?

Symptoms are:

Power steering heavy.

Power steering light on.

Turning car off and on again resets the symptoms - car is fine again.

OK so some further investigation suggests I should do the following:

- Check that the battery is 60AH and not 44AH

- Check for corrosion around the plug on to the PAS pump - as this area is prone to moisture

- Check for any breaks in the alternator control wire thing, as this can result in irregular charging and hence cause problems with the PAS.

I've also read that all vRS models of the Fabia were fitted with the later type of power assisted steering angle sensor, so does this mean that failure of this part is unlikely, do yo think, and should we be looking elsewhere first?

hi mate did you manage to srt your car yet as mine has no power assited steering either

My 2001 suffers from moisture ingress but not "too bad"

 

Every now and then in extreme wet weather I need to remove the sensor, let all the water drain out, dry it off, and plug it back in again.  I am surprised my PAS has not stopped working in the recent storms.....

Hi devonutopia.

Good info. Newbie to skodas and I have your problem. Where do I find the sensor and how quick to do? I can't find any pictures or tutorials.

Checked the electrical side of things and that seems Ok. I've have ordered the vag fault code thingy.

But this defect is driving me nuts

Get Car safely in the air, get behind the front right wheel/subframe and look up toward the bottom of the steering column, you'll see two Allen key bolts with a wire coming out the middle of them. You can reach with about 12" to 18" of socket extension and a hex fitting. Once bolts out the sensor needs wiggling out the housing

Hi Devonutopia,

have you got any pics please.

Hi Devonutopia,

have you got any pics please.

 

Nope  Too fiddly for pics.  Google images found this.  It looks like (a bit)   this when removed.  You will see the plate bit, and the wire coming off it, with two allen key bolts.

 

Thanks for that pic, whats the access like for doing the plug end, cant be as bad as the access for the reservoir !

Looks like this is tomorrows job...

As I said - I think I used an allen key ratchet fitting, on a 10mm fitting, on a 12" extension, on a 4" extension, on a ratchet.  I think I have been able to just reach with a screwdriver fitted with a long allen key bit before.  Access is not easy, but best to have front wheels very high in the air.  I can do with car driven on to my ramps.

 

Does anyone know how best to test if it the sensor that is broken or the pump? Both are expensive and I only want to replace the one that is broken. My 2001 Fabulous currently has no PAS, it just stopped working. The pump was surrounded by the usual waterlogged foam and appears to have some corrosion damage. The sensor has obviously been replaced in the past as somebody has used a woodscrew to hold it in place as they must have lost one of the bolts. Ideally I would like to "bench test" the pump but it seems that it is not just a case of bridging some connections whilst wired to a battery to get it turn. So the alternative would be to see if there is any output from the sensor. Is there a test that can be performed by checking for an output with a multimeter on the three pins of the cable that connect the sensor to the pump. I would guess that it would be possible to measure a drop in the resistance across two of the pins whilst having someone turn the wheels left to right. Would anyone be able to back this hypothesis? The three wires are black, green and brown. Does this colouring mean anything to anyone? I may be talking garbage but it would make for an easy test to check to see if the sensor works.

Scan with VCDS.  It tells you if its the sensor or something else.

Nope  Too fiddly for pics.  Google images found this.  It looks like (a bit)   this when removed.  You will see the plate bit, and the wire coming off it, with two allen key bolts.

 

  

Get Car safely in the air, get behind the front right wheel/subframe and look up toward the bottom of the steering column, you'll see two Allen key bolts with a wire coming out the middle of them. You can reach with about 12" to 18" of socket extension and a hex fitting. Once bolts out the sensor needs wiggling out the housing

Do you need to remove the arch covers or just the sheet under the front bumper? Ive heard you can run it with no sensor and it just gives slightly reduced performance is this true

Subscribed - I have exactly same symptoms as the OP. Will probably be next weekend now before I can investigate but I'll be sure to feed back. Thanks for all the pointers though chaps.

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

think I found the sensor and pump today and jesus I understand what people mean now about the water ingress, the foam jacket covering the pump is waterlogged and the plastic outerside shell fractured into a million pieces every time I touched it! unsure on how to properly protect the pump now but as for the sensor - I believe you can disconnect it and run it with reduced performance - does anyone know the exact Allen key size for the connector?

I think the foam is only there for noise reduction from the pump.

I have uploaded an informative thread in a pdf document in the following location if it helps

https://app.box.com/s/7kz40yx91usgjow9kkct

sent from my Galaxy Note 3

The pump doesn't really need protecting, later ones don't have that silly wetsuit on them. You don't need an allen key to unplug the sensor from the pump, just tie the plug up out of the way somewhere.

what size Allen key is required?

what size Allen key is required?

 

Odds on that it's an M5 allen key that you need.

Can I add to this please?

 

The GFs Fabia has a fault showing on the steering angle sensor.  When the car is scanned the fault will stay constant meaning that it pops back up as soon as it's cleared.  That suggested to me a wiring fault because sensors don't generally throw a code (even when they're faulty) until the system trys to use them.  So I put the car on the lift last night for a quick look. and found what appears to be the alternator load signal wire broken.

 

I would assume from what I've heard that this could well be the cause of the sensor fault showing up?

 

The car still drives fine and power steering appears to be normal.  I'll fix the wire either tonight or tomorrow night.  It means popping the pin out of the connector and I'll replace back as far as I need to.

what size Allen key is required?

It's not an Allen key, they are star shape bolts

aka Torx head bolts.

Ah crap, what size? that changes things..i may be able to reach it now as i have a few of those lying about

I didn't really look close enough.  Probably T25 or T30 or something pretty normal.