Drove the car ( 1.9 tdi estate ) the other day and had no power steering!...the light was showing on the dash. did a few very scary miles to my destination, when i got back in to drive home, light was out and steering back to normal. The light has come on briefly in the passed before but i did not loose the power steering.

 

As the car is only worth £700 at best, i am not sure about the best course of action......reading about steering angle sensor this, pump that, steering rack the other....i like the car a lot so in a bit of a scratchy head situation! 

Stick the key in the ignition, and turn it to the position where all the warning lights come on. Is there one with a picture of a battery?

Hi wino, just put the key in the ignition...all lights went out apart from the battery light.

That's as it should be.

Absence of the battery light would've demonstrated a common charging system fault, but we can rule that out if the light came on.