We own a 2000 Fabia 1.9 SDI, which has now done 216,000 miles, is still presentable and utterly reliable. It still sports its original exhaust.

Recently, I had to drive it through about two feet of floodwater, which we did successfully. However because of water ingress,I, lost the speedo drive, reversing lights, dipped beam on the nearside headlight and the power steering warning light came on, wih no apparent effect on the power steering.

I have sorted he lights out, replaced the gearbox speed sensor which gave us the speedo again and the power steering warning light went out. Good show I thought, back to normal, only it wasn't.

to my disappointment after about thirty minutes the PAS warning light came on again, without any loss of PAS. I checked the fluid level in the pump reservoir, which was OK with no sign of leaks and dried the area at the bse of the pump using a hair dryer.

However, this remains the case, after 30 mins the light comes on. Shut the engine down, restart and th whole performance starts again.

The other day we drove to Whitby and back, approximately one hundrerd miles without the light coming on. Stopped at he shops on our return and, after restarting, within seconds, it came on again. Once again there was no noticeable effect on the steering.

Any ideas, as it is driving me up the wall.

P.S. The pump was replaced about a year ago, so I feel it is unlikely to be that.

have you checked the connections? on our sdi its nearer the O/S/F wheel arech area. You might want to contact a mod and ask them to move your thread to the correct sub forum

Thanks for that Bodie,

Went to Newcastle today, after approx sixty miles and one hour into journey, PAS warning light suddenly came on. Completed journey (twenty miles) without probs.

On way back, no probs for eighty miles, then round the corner from home PAS light suddenly came on again. Very odd :-)

After having steering related issues myself recently, I armed myself with the relevant info to find the culprit:

-Check battery earth lead for corrosion, replace if suspect any and check is tight to car chassis

-Check 50A fuse on top of battery (no3), check connections tight and ensure fuse has no cracks (hairline

-Check fluid in pump reservoir (which I see youv'e done)

-Check steering angle sensor connection behind fog and the steering angle sensor itself

The control box for the PAS is low down and may have got very wet. When I bought ours there was no PAS light on but after I jet washed the engine bay (despite being careful of the usuall electrical areas) the PAS would come on every time I started it for days and days. Eventually went out though and stayed out. Like yourself though the steering still seemed to work ok.

Gonna be hard to dry it over winter but if you have a warm garage to park it in at night I'd park it in there to help.

Dave89/Capriman,

Thanks for the information supplied, Will work systematically on the suggestions you both have put foward.

We went to Filey and back today, to brush away theXmas Day cobwebs, a round trip of about ninety miles, without the PAS warning light coming on, so maybe it augers well for the future,

Dave D.

I know how you feel, mine was really irritating me. I had a similar thing last year despite replacing the battery with a new Bosch S4. Turned out even the new battery was faulty.

In your case, I wouldn't be surprised if water ingress is causing the intermittent problems, in fact driving it a lot to 'air' the engine and at the same time, create heat may just solve your problem over time..