Hi everyone,

 

Wondering if anyone can help with this query - I don’t know anything about cars unfortunately so I hope this all makes sense.

 

My Skoda Fabia (06 plate) has had an intermittent fault with the power steering - it goes heavy/stiff and the yellow steering wheel light comes on on the dashboard. This has happened twice in the last 2 weeks, although it’s currently working fine.

 

I took it to Halfords for a diagnostic and here’s what they said:

 

- Terminal 30 fault

- Steering assistance short to plus

- Electrical fault

- It’s not an issue with the rack or the column, just the pump

 

Halfords quoted £560 to ‘renew the power steering pump’ (presuming this includes part + labour) - but I only paid £1200 for the car to begin with so this feels expensive.

 

I took it to a different garage for a second opinion, and they struggled to even locate the pump and thought it was attached to the rack - and therefore the whole thing would need replacing, although they admitted they are less experienced with this car model so I took this with a pinch of salt.

 

I’ve looked online and seen refurbished pumps for about £100 which I think are for this model, or even second hand ones for about £50. The mechanic I bought it from has said he would give me a reduced labour cost as it’s barely out of its warranty, although unfortunately it’s 2 hours drive from where I live now so I can’t just nip it there after work and would want to be sure it was the right thing to do.

 

Has anyone else ever had this issue, and how much did it cost you to fix? Would it be OK to purchase a second hand motor given that the car itself is fairly old anyway?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Sophie 

It is most likely to be the pump, however I cannot imagine a reconditioned unit would be so cheap so you need to be sure you're looking at the correct part, you should get the fuses on top of the battery checked first as they can crack almost invisibly and would cut power to the unit.

Hi sepulchrave, thanks for your reply  ok, what about a second hand one (not necessarily reconditioned) - would you say it’s OK to get one of those? Is it too risky? It seems daft to spend so much on a fairly old car.

The trouble is secondhand pumps are getting very elderly now and may not be long for this world, it's a pretty common failure, the labour should be cheap as it's an easy and fairly quick job, just check the recon unit is an electric pump rather than mechanical.

Ok, will do. Thank you for your help! 

My daughters fabia has had just about all the regular problems that fabias get including this one, the power-steering going intermittent. As it is a very heavy consumer of electricity I would approach a little differently by getting your local mechanic to check in order: 1. the health of the battery, 2. then if the alternator is charging the battery properly and 3. then the flat fuses on top of the battery (hidden under a black plastic cover). These fuses can crack and corrode and the break can be very difficult to see with the naked eye. To check them he must unbolt at each end and lift out the fuse to be cleaned and checked. The reason I suggest to check in this order is these jobs are easy and cheap for any mechanic to do and will take him/her 15 minutes. They are all possible faults that may reduce electric supply to the pump. Only when they have been checked and are OK would I move on to thinking about replacing the pump.

Incidentaly in my daughters case she WhatsApp'd  me a pic of the fuses on top of the battery. I could see a break. I sent her a 10mm spanner and a fuse and she did it herself. She has almost zero mechanical knowledge. Total cost less than a fiver. With a bit of luck..........

Edited 10 December, 20187 yr by LB123

Ah ok! this is really helpful  thank you very much!

14 hours ago, LB123 said:

My daughters fabia has had just about all the regular problems that fabias get including this one, the power-steering going intermittent. As it is a very heavy consumer of electricity I would approach a little differently by getting your local mechanic to check in order: 1. the health of the battery, 2. then if the alternator is charging the battery properly and 3. then the flat fuses on top of the battery (hidden under a black plastic cover). These fuses can crack and corrode and the break can be very difficult to see with the naked eye. To check them he must unbolt at each end and lift out the fuse to be cleaned and checked. The reason I suggest to check in this order is these jobs are easy and cheap for any mechanic to do and will take him/her 15 minutes. They are all possible faults that may reduce electric supply to the pump. Only when they have been checked and are OK would I move on to thinking about replacing the pump.

Incidentaly in my daughters case she WhatsApp'd  me a pic of the fuses on top of the battery. I could see a break. I sent her a 10mm spanner and a fuse and she did it herself. She has almost zero mechanical knowledge. Total cost less than a fiver. With a bit of luck..........

Can't agree with this more. I had same issue with mine. Combo of cold weather, lights, fan,radio , power steering etc. and driving car in the dark all drawing charge from the battery at the same time was the cause. Took the car on a couple of long daytime journeys to charge the battery up and all has been good. I have also read somewhere on this forum that after 2004, Skoda started to fit a slightly smaller ampage battery to the vrs models as a cost cutting measure. Don't just chuck money at your car because Halfords say so.Hope this helps.

Thank you! Yes, the first time this happened I was driving in the cold and dark with lights and heating on so it may well have just been a battery issue!

 

Very glad I posted on this site, thanks for the suggestions everyone!