Has anyone experienced over assistance from the power steering?

My mate's vRS is now suffering with severe power steering over assistance. I took it out for a spin last night and the handling had gone to pot, in that normal movements of the steering wheel sent that car lurching from side to side.

Entering roundabouts I was able to instantly provoke sliding and the car felt loose on the exit. I drove the car at high speed down a straight 2 mile section of dual carrageway and it felt unstable due to over exagerated movement from the steering wheel.

In contrast my vRS feels completely different, giving much more feedback from the front and feeling altogather better planted on the road.

I have suggested he take the car to the Skoda dealer for immidiate inspection of the power steering setup, but was interested to hear if anyone else had experienced this.

Mike:(

Over-inflated tyres perhaps?

Just an idea

I'd say Andy's onto something, knock a bit of pressure out of the tyres and see how it goes.

Also depends on the tyres themselves, but that's not such an easy/cheap thing to experiment with...

Rob.

His tyres are the standard Dunlop SP3000A's, which are pretty good. As for tyre pressure, the fronts were set to 31 psi, rear tyres were 32. Nothing abnormal about that, I've been running mine on those pressures for 18 months.

It's as if someone has pressed a 'girly' button on the dash. I think it was Fiat who tried to market this idea on the Punto.

Fiat are still knocking it out on the Stilo!

If it's that light then it does sound a bit suspicious, and quite possibly to do with the power steering.

If it was just a bit slippery then it would be more of indication on the tyres...

Rob.

I assume we are talking about an Octavia vRS with non-adjustable PAS rather than a Fabia VRS which has adjustable PAS?

You are correct Dennis, it is indeed an Octavia vRS.

For info it is a 52 plate Black Magic with dodgy coils packs.

Mike, it sounds like your friend has a major safety issue with his car. As such he should take it to a dealer soonest for investigation.

Agree Denis, I have suggested this to him this morning.

I will post any feedback from him when he takes his car in to be looked at. It does seem like a one off fault.

Mike