Hi guys

OK so here's my story of a disaster fabia (although I still love it).

It has been taken to Freeborn in Southampton 5 times.

It has also been taken to Sparshatts in Southampton 2 times.

THE FAULT

When steering the car, sometimes the power steering cuts out and causes other electrical faults too. The signs that help me from wrapping around a tree are the stereo cutting out, when steering / flashing lights (presumably from a lack of power). Upon a restart of the engine, all is then fine for a bit, then it's rinse and repeat. This only happens sometimes and thus is hard to troubleshoot. There seems to be a general lack of power, previously flashing my lights would cause my stereo to cut out, and likewise steering heavily would could my lights to dim considerably / flicker off and on. If I persist with steering once power steering fault occurs, I am left not only with a power steering warning light, but also the ABS and Traction control ones, luckily I have never been doing over 10mph by the time the fault has matured this far.

After noticing water in the rear footwell (driver side) I concluded it must be water ingress. Water-proofed the electrics with waxy stuff, and and repaired the door seal, this is no longer leaking and the water in the rear footwell has dried up. This seemingly fixed the problem back in November, however yesterday it came back.

Things tried...

Replaced alternator - garage told me it was an alternator, a week later it played up again, I took it back and got the old alternator refitted.)

Resealed door - I managed to reseal the door with a helpful guide on the web, this stopped water getting into the rear foot well.

Sprayed electrical connections - I sprayed everything electrical I could see with a cover of waterproofing stuff, this proved effective for a few months.

Things to note...

Using a voltmeter there is a drop in voltage when the power steering is engaged, which is normal, but it never recovers to it's desired voltage.

If the engine is left running for 2/3 minutes its harder to get the fault to replicate, i.e. it's more common in fresh starts.

Weather wise, there has been a lot of rain up to about a month ago, now its relatively dry, thus I'm confused as to what is wrong.

Please help. All suggestions welcome.

Matt

Had a similar problem and it has been reported on here a couple of times (Apart from the stereo dipping out) and it tends to be one of two things. A duff battery (And be sure to check the battery connections) and the other is a faulty ABS module.

Fortunatly my battery was just getting old and tired and changing that solved the problem.

Oh and welcome to the forums.

Had a similar problem and it has been reported on here a couple of times (Apart from the stereo dipping out) and it tends to be one of two things. A duff battery (And be sure to check the battery connections) and the other is a faulty ABS module.

Fortunatly my battery was just getting old and tired and changing that solved the problem.

Oh and welcome to the forums.

Thanks for the quick reply, any idea how I would test which it could be? Battery / ABS?

Many thanks for the welcome.

Has the car been put on VAG Diagnostics?

I didnt come up with any firm diagnosis, but the ABS module was in the region of £600 for the part only so I took the risk and plonked a battery in it.

Has the car been put on VAG Diagnostics?

I didnt come up with any firm diagnosis, but the ABS module was in the region of £600 for the part only so I took the risk and plonked a battery in it.

All the diagnostic tests run on it don't show anything for some reason. I might take that same risk if it's that much, sheesh. Cheers for the heads up.

Sounds like battery to me, if flashing headlights caused PAS loss. Hopefully it's not water in the wiring loom, check plenum chamber drains are clear of debris.

Check battery charge light always comes on with ignition and goes off. Common fault for the alternator charge sense wire to break at the connection on the gearbox mounted plug and sockets.

Steering angle sensor is another common fault, especially with the older type.

Sounds like battery to me, if flashing headlights caused PAS loss. Hopefully it's not water in the wiring loom, check plenum chamber drains are clear of debris.

Check battery charge light always comes on with ignition and goes off. Common fault for the alternator charge sense wire to break at the connection on the gearbox mounted plug and sockets.

Steering angle sensor is another common fault, especially with the older type.

Sorry to hijack this, but where are the plenum drains located? I think this may be the root of my stinky A/C.

Cheers.

Cheers people. Going to check the battery connections now, might get a new one and hope that fixes it, if the connections don't solve it. Let's hope n pray it's nothing more serious.

i think i have the answer to your problem!!

i'm a fully trained vag tech and have worked for vw for 4 years now so bit clued up on the vag problems and what not

your fault sounds very much like a couple cars we have had in! they complain of no powersteering. loss of power and other weird faults,

it's down to a break in the exciter wire on the alternator, it should be a small independent wire from the alternator which leads to the battery it complete the charging circute for the alternator,

if the wire breaks the alternator fails which in turn fails most of the electric components like power steering, radio and effects the power aswell,

the best thing to do is find the wire (to my knowlage it's brown with a colour stripe and follow it through the loom until you'll find the break, this mostly happends under the radiator close to the left hand side,

easy fix for a what looks like a serious problem,.

ive seen garages charge for a new altenator and battery for this fault!! dont be caught out

i think i have the answer to your problem!!

i'm a fully trained vag tech and have worked for vw for 4 years now so bit clued up on the vag problems and what not

your fault sounds very much like a couple cars we have had in! they complain of no powersteering. loss of power and other weird faults,

it's down to a break in the exciter wire on the alternator, it should be a small independent wire from the alternator which leads to the battery it complete the charging circute for the alternator,

if the wire breaks the alternator fails which in turn fails most of the electric components like power steering, radio and effects the power aswell,

the best thing to do is find the wire (to my knowlage it's brown with a colour stripe and follow it through the loom until you'll find the break, this mostly happends under the radiator close to the left hand side,

easy fix for a what looks like a serious problem,.

ive seen garages charge for a new altenator and battery for this fault!! dont be caught out

See post 6

Damn :(

Hi guys

OK so here's my story of a disaster fabia (although I still love it)......

Hi there,

not much help regarding the fault you have, but a big from another vRS owner in Southampton. someone else to keep an eye out for!

hope you get it sorted, tbh i've never been convinced by Freeborn, but Sparshatt's seem a bit better.

A couple of reasonable independent garage's locally seem to be Independent VW Servicing and Monk's Auto

Also, keep an eye out for the south coast meets (not quite as tragic as it sounds!)

Hope this helps

PL

I'll repeat the suggestions of checking the alternator exciter wire and battery connections. Check the engine earth cable too.

Thanks, this is all gold stuff, not entirely sure how the fault is so intermittent, but it hasn't happened in 2 days at all, and I've been trying to make it (to try and find patterns etc). Odd.

I did however tidy up the battery connections n that, found some white/pale green dust there, any ideas what this could be? Anyway cleaned it off and it seems to be OK at the moment, of course it could just be a good few days, if it messes up again I will be sure to check this alternator wire that seems so common.

Many thanks Moggy & Simon..

And Phantom, what colour is your fabia? I will keep an eye out for ya. Seen a silver one parked around a fair bit up by Portswood... you?

The white stuff is effectively acid escaping from the battery, happens to most. You can smear some petroleum jelly/vaseline over the terminals to help stop it happening (obviously clean them up first!)

Phantom, what colour is your fabia? I will keep an eye out for ya. Seen a silver one parked around a fair bit up by Portswood... you?

Ah no, I no longer live in Portswood, i'm over in Lordswood now. But good guess on the colour, yup its a silver! I'll keep me eye out for a black one!

Have you had any luck tracing the fault any further?

ta

PL

Ah no, I no longer live in Portswood, i'm over in Lordswood now. But good guess on the colour, yup its a silver! I'll keep me eye out for a black one!

Have you had any luck tracing the fault any further?

ta

PL

Ah awesome, I'm down in Woolston so pretty much at complete opposite ends.

Fault hasn't happened in 5 days / 60 miles, since I cleaned the battery terminals a bit, gonna put some vaseline on them when I get a moment too, but hopefully it's OK now.

Just thought I would give an update on this. The fault is completely unpredictable, last night it happened three times, but prior to that it hadn't happened in over 130 miles and nearly 2 weeks. (start and stop typical journeys).

Makes me wonder what the hell it is, if it is the alternator wire that people have suggested surely then it would be a steady fault, and not self heal at random points. There seems to be no pattern to the faults at all.

Of course I could be wrong on this and it could be that the wire is a dodgey connection or something, and its just getting moved around willy nilly... Please advise, also don't suppose there are any helpful diagrams showing where this little wire is, I know how fiddly it is working on a fabia, hoping I won't have to take off the front bumper / wheel arches etc etc.

Matt

Sad to hear its not been sorted - the only recurring thing I can find is related to the Alternator Sense Lead breaking.

Tried to find some pics of it, not much luck but these threads might help yo try to get to the bottom of it.

Link 1

and

Link 2

Hope this helps.

PL

p.s. Were you on the m27 yest ebound at 2pm ish? possibly a spot if it were you!

Sad to hear its not been sorted - the only recurring thing I can find is related to the Alternator Sense Lead breaking.

Tried to find some pics of it, not much luck but these threads might help yo try to get to the bottom of it.

Link 1

and

Link 2

Hope this helps.

PL

p.s. Were you on the m27 yest ebound at 2pm ish? possibly a spot if it were you!

Cheers dude, v helpful!

Na wasn't me, you missed me by a day.

I did however see 2 Fabias parked on Athelstan Rd (1 black 54 with a silver one parked outside) - Must have been a fabia party, the silver one you?