Oh snap, after reading some I understand that the headlight washers might very well have been in working condition, it's just that they only 'pop up' and do their thing when you have full beam on, which me and my wife of course did not when we decided that they must be malfunctioning anyways. That's why my car has the 5 litres washer fluid reservoir and not the (more common) 2 litres. Pretty rare equipment for a 2003 that isn't even vRS, isn't it? Well, when all the major problems (PAS) are out of the way I'll probably look for a way to get the sprayers back, drill new holes and/or 2-component hybrid super glue or well, I'll think of something. Since car has standard headlights (no Xenon) it's no real rush anyways.

Well, I'm just going to slip in some technical details in disassemble, that I forgot yesterday. The washer fluid reservoir is fastened by three 10 mm bolts, where one caused us a major headache.

Furthermore, the power steering pump is fastened by two 5 mm Allen screws if you (like we did) chose to keep it's sitting-plate in place, instead of removing it along with the pump, where the process would be somewhat different. I'm addition to those Allen screws there are a bolt/nut on the other side, I've forgot it's size but I'd say 10 or 12 mm.

After unplugging the three connectors on the front there is the hydraulic lines left to unplug. One was easy, a 17 mm nut held it in place. The other one was more tricky. It was held with one of those damn hose clips that I can hardly manage. I haven't found the best tool for them, anyways. Ended up using a small pair of water pliers. Then I lifted the pump (really heavy, approx. 4½ kg) out from it's sitting-plate so that I could more easily pull the hose of it.

That was the process, all in all. Today I have order a used pump from a scrapyard in southern Sweden. It was 3200 SEK (~£280) plus shipping 250 SEK (~£22), and they told me that I'll probably have it by Monday.

Today I went out and checked so that the pump actually had power, and that doesn't seem to be an issue.

Now I'm just sitting here, waiting..

Today I've picked up my new (well, used >250k kilometres actually) pump at local DHL office. Just unwrapped package. They had it in bubble plastic wrapping but quite amount of steering oil had been spilled into the box. Anyways, pump looks nasty. First thing i cleaned the cap, but the rest is still to be done. See photo below here.

Hopefully I'll be able to do the shift later tonight. Hopefully it's data will be properly set I mean so that no computer 'adaption' will be needed. I have VCDS Lite and cable but no knowledge on that sort of procedure.

Anyways, my car is a 2003 Fabia Estate and this pump comes from a 2006 Fabia Estate and I have no ESP/ASR/similar, so hopefully it'll just work out of the box. My broken pump is a '6Q0423155AA' and this nasty pump on the table is a '6Q0423155AH', which I presume is just a newer revision of my old pump.

Edited 15 September, 201411 yr by gewstarr

Really happy right now.

Me and my wife went out this morning (spent the entire last night cleaning the pump) and got to the task.

Simply we just put the new pump where the old one sat. Couldn't manage the self-forcing hose clip that held the black hose so I went with a cheap regular hose clip instead. Did the torque by feel, it'll be fine, I hope.

The pipe that is screwed (17 mm) to the pump was actually a bit weird. It got stuck after approx. 2/3 of it's visible threads. First I thought I had it put wrong but I redid it and could do the first six-seven turns by hand force so I figured it must just be technical design so I didn't go all the way with the spanner. Last thing I wanted was wrecked threads. I filled the pump with new fresh oil.

Now, connectors back and held by breath. I started the electrics and connected netbook. Wow, new PAS (Steering / 44) interface with a slightly different name. Cool. One fault code was stored, some intermittent communications issue that I hadn't seen before. I erased it and started engine. No fault code. Pump running, it seems. Actually, I didn't check blocks, but since no fault code appeared I'm guessing it's all good. Since steering wheels are still in the air I couldn't tell if there was actual steering assistance, but I'm feeling hopeful.

I guess the screw-fitting pipe has a tapered thread.  Like the left or right picture in this set:

 

Big thanks for rich illustration @Wino, that's probably exactly how it is. Anyways, just wanted the story to have a confirmed happy ending. Yesterday we put the bumper back on. It was smooth sailing, except for some of the plastic on the top of it's sides (near what's clipping to wheel arch) did crack, but it's only the invisible part that goes so it's cool. Just consider it a tip for whomever who decides to do this, to be extra careful when detaching the sides of the plastic front.

Also, I managed to brake one (right side) headlight washer so even though it sits with it's screws, that one doesn't fire up when supposed to, only left one does. Anyways, it (6Y0955966) is widely available from scrapyards around Sweden so I'll fix that later.

Finally, after putting the car down from it's axle stands and starting up the engine, I really held my breathe. No fault code. Tried steering. Wow. When going in reverse out from our parking space I almost thought something was wrong, 'cuz it was so easy. I could turn the wheel with one(!) finger and no speed at all. I soon realized it was all psychological, after riding really heavy for a couple of weeks. I looked in the 'Measure Blocks' section of controller #44 (Steering) and everything seemed fine. It was now showing 'ON' with an ampere reading, and turning the wheel back and forth resulted in an angle/sec reading.

I went into Skoda garage and gently asked if I had really accomplished this, or if some soft coding was needed. After all, steering isn't something I want to mess around with. Mechanic told me that I was fine. There was no needed 'adaption' to PAS pumps, only if the pump was right it should work out of the box, which it did. I also asked him about bleeding the system, since I don't want this pump to be harmed my a massive amount of air that could be in the system. He told me I was fine, PAS systems are bleeding themselves while steering back and forth.

So, all in all, this was a success story. Hopefully this will help someone, some day. Now I will put my broken pump on eBay for a symbolic sum like 1$/£/€ (of course highlighting the fact that it's broken) and see if some handy MacGyver side around the world is actually willing to pay a dime for the ******. If not, I'll just leave it to the nearest recycling station.

Cheers, y'all, and big thanks for all input/thoughts along this matter. If it hadn't been for this community, I would probably never have dared to actually go through with this whole process. Now, I'm endlessly happy that I did.

Edited 18 September, 201411 yr by gewstarr

Hi all

And thanks for the well documented post here. I have a question for the wise users here: I just unmounted my PAS pump and it says 6Q0 423 376  (on the cap, no labels on the unit) so the question is can I use a 6Q0 423 371 pump on my Fabia (6Y5) model from 2002? And what the difference between the 6Q0 423 376 and 6Q0 423 371? 

That's not the part number for the pump, it's for the cap, the reservoir also has a separate part number.

 

Need to know your chassis number to get the correct pump part number. 

On 18. september 2014 at 17:45, gewstarr said:

Big thanks for rich illustration @Wino, that's probably exactly how it is. Anyways, just wanted the story to have a confirmed happy ending. Yesterday we put the bumper back on. It was smooth sailing, except for some of the plastic on the top of it's sides (near what's clipping to wheel arch) did crack, but it's only the invisible part that goes so it's cool. Just consider it a tip for whomever who decides to do this, to be extra careful when detaching the sides of the plastic front.

Also, I managed to brake one (right side) headlight washer so even though it sits with it's screws, that one doesn't fire up when supposed to, only left one does. Anyways, it (6Y0955966) is widely available from scrapyards around Sweden so I'll fix that later.

Finally, after putting the car down from it's axle stands and starting up the engine, I really held my breathe. No fault code. Tried steering. Wow. When going in reverse out from our parking space I almost thought something was wrong, 'cuz it was so easy. I could turn the wheel with one(!) finger and no speed at all. I soon realized it was all psychological, after riding really heavy for a couple of weeks. I looked in the 'Measure Blocks' section of controller #44 (Steering) and everything seemed fine. It was now showing 'ON' with an ampere reading, and turning the wheel back and forth resulted in an angle/sec reading.

I went into Skoda garage and gently asked if I had really accomplished this, or if some soft coding was needed. After all, steering isn't something I want to mess around with. Mechanic told me that I was fine. There was no needed 'adaption' to PAS pumps, only if the pump was right it should work out of the box, which it did. I also asked him about bleeding the system, since I don't want this pump to be harmed my a massive amount of air that could be in the system. He told me I was fine, PAS systems are bleeding themselves while steering back and forth.

So, all in all, this was a success story. Hopefully this will help someone, some day. Now I will put my broken pump on eBay for a symbolic sum like 1$/£/€ (of course highlighting the fact that it's broken) and see if some handy MacGyver side around the world is actually willing to pay a dime for the ******. If not, I'll just leave it to the nearest recycling station.

Cheers, y'all, and big thanks for all input/thoughts along this matter. If it hadn't been for this community, I would probably never have dared to actually go through with this whole process. Now, I'm endlessly happy that I did.

 

Thanks for good advice! I have similar problem, Liht warning common on and off. I think the pump has failure. It is possible to by your old pump? I live 50% i Sweden and in Norway. Where do you live i Sweden?