My girlfriends Fabia mk1 1.4 2001 has had PAS problems for a while now. The warning light appears on the dash intermittently, and the headlights always lights flicker. You can hear what sounds like the pump kicking in and dying again in a second, it does this constantly so the steering feels quite jerky.

 

It had a new pump fitted about a year ago at the cost of £250 after the PAS completely died. Her family always use this mechanic and I don't trust him. he said water had gotten into the pump and caused it to fail. he fitted a new pump but the same faults are still there, flickering lights and the pump noise. he has said for the last 2 years that there is no fault with the PAS, that its a fault with the dashboard light so just ignore it!

 

The new pump he fitted a year ago had just died, and I don't want to take it back to this guy. Is it likely that the pump has broken due to the stress of kicking in and dying every 2 seconds of its life? Or could the angle sensor or another broken component cause it to stop working all together?

Angle sensor. There are no other components, the pump is completely self-contained with it's own control unit, incidentally pump failure due to water damage is common so your mechanic may well have acted in good faith.

 

Edit: £250 sounds too cheap for the pump job, it can't have been a new one he fitted.

Edited 1 January, 201412 yr by sepulchrave

I think the angle sensor will be a good place to start, but could that stop the pump from working all together? I'm not sure what he fitted to be honest, it could have been a cheap aftermarket one or one from a scrap yard, I'll try and find out.

 

Is there any way to check the angle sensor is functioning other than replacing it and seeing if it solves the problem?

Yes, the angle sensor can stop the pump working because that's it's job.

 

The PAS pump will run only when the steering wheel is moved under normal conditions, so the pump runs often since most driving requires constant steering input, when you stop at traffic lights the pump doesn't run and very small steering inputs on largely straight roads will not cause the pump to run, other than that the pump will be running most of the time.

 

If you unplug the angle sensor from the pump, it will run constantly in a reduced power mode so this is a good way to test the pump.