Hi Guys

Have had an intermittent power steering warning light coming on for the last few weeks , light on NO power steering , light off steering fine , no rhyme or reason , sometimes start a journey with no power steering and it kicks in and vice versa , light seems to be on permanent now .

This has been going on for about 6 weeks . Got a new battery , no difference . Took it to Skoda today for a diagnostic they said the pump had failed and want the best part of £900 , took it to my indy and they want £570 to fit a new pump .

Took it apart myself today just to have a look , wheel off arch liner out and the pump is in some horrible disintegrating soaking wet foam and plastic ( daft design ) , took all that off dried everything up and jiggled about with the connectors via the front with fog light out , no difference at all ! But i feel better having seen it !

Any ideas , do these pumps fail much ? Shall i just bite the bullet ?

It does not exactly owe me anything had it for donkeys its done 130K all Skoda history 1.9 TDI

Cheers and all the best .

yes they can fail.and from what you are describing thats what it sounds like.shame that it costs so much though.

Is the pump working at all? It's just this is also classic angle sensor failure. Check earths, fuses, PAS level, voltage at the pump, fault codes and what type of angle sensor you have (metal = new, plastic = old).

Since you've seen the pump and how easy it is to access, why not change it yourself? Think it was 3 bolts holding it on, spanner to undo the high pressure pipe and pliars for the low pressure return. 30 minutes of your time, bottle of steering fluid and a pump off ebay. Think it cost me less than £40 all in. No need to programme the pump either.