Power-steering problem Fabia 01...

[16V]

Got this issue with the power-steering on my 16V. It has been working part time. In periods it works fine, sometimes for a month, then it doesn't work for while and went dead. I noticed if I started in high gear and let go of the clutch rather brutal creating a shake in the engine it started working again. But that didn't work more than a week. Now I noticed that if the wheels was turned full to the left and the power came back once again. Did this for an other week. Now that doesnt work either!

So I give the car to the workshop to fix this, since I pretty sure its a loose contact somewhere, but I figured they could help me out. They tell me it's the hydralic that's toasted and they will fix it for 1000 Euro. I say sod off, it's a loose contact since it works if you shake the engine. But the repair-guy wasn't available when I wanted to point out this. The chick in the cashier was clueless of course. Do you guys think this is hydralic? I thought mechanic failures where here to stay, but my power steering worked perfect for hours after weeks of trouble. As long as I got it working, it continued!

Any ideas? Do I have to disassemble the whole bumper to see the connections or what?

The battery connection at the battery looks fine!

[rigsby]

Had same fault on mine, It was the rack that had failed, internal seals leaking

Give it a month or so and it will fail all together, and fabias without power steering are impossible to drive . If it was the electric pump, it would wut up the warning lamp on the dash

[devonutopia]

Have you changed the steering angle sensor yet? This kind of intermittent working is synonymous with a failing PAS angle sensor

[16V]

Tnx for the info guys. The symbol on the dash lights up everytime this happens. I forgot to mention that.

Does this change the prognosis?

[LGEARING]

Think this is still fairly rare but more common in the earlier models, my steering pump failed at 7 1/2 years old and 59000 miles, was £700 fitted at the Stealers, doh!