Sluggish gear change

[Warrior193]

Hi Staro, I'd be a little suspicious of the fact that your charge indicator goes from 'amber to green within 5 minutes' - yes the battery MAY be fully charged, but your nice new battery may also be a dud. Have you checked the battery voltage with lights, heated screens etc. switched on (with engine off) ? This will give a better indication of actual battery health.

[mrgf]

...So can Skoda's. Mine is now clocking around 150,000 plus. Any brand can cause issues and overall, Skoda can legitimately claim to have "Happy" Owners. Most vehicles nowadays are quite reliable and much more economic to run then those a few decades ago but that can also still fail and on a forum like this, you will always find more complaints, then praise, I suppose. 

Very sad to hear the issue is still presenting, though. To be fair, your old battery was just that and is by far the cheapest thing to check first and will almost certainly have wanted to be changed even if the other issue is sorted. Batteries are a common issue, once half worn! I would never think of slipping in a used, reconditioned, cheap branded, etc battery on my Fabia. Stick to Bosch, Varta, and one or two other quality units, for reliability and peace of mind. 

I think the pumps can fail on the steering side of things and is a straight forward job to swap. Often seen on eBay used or new so may be worth looking at and prior to swapping it out, check its contacts are all clean and not corroded or wet.

Edited 23 April, 2021 by mrgf

[sepulchrave]

7 hours ago, staro30 said:

I've charged the new battery in situ in the car and within 5 mins it goes from 'amber' to 'green' indicating its fully charged. A multimeter test also reads 13.64

Sadly despite sepulchrave's strong assertions that the loss of power steering is down to the battery it looks like my local mechanic was correct. Albeit I doubt I'm going down that route and I'll try to trade it in or scrap it. Shame really at 105k. I've had Ford an Vauxhall petrol cars go way beyond 105k!

 

Your local mechanic is absolutely NOT correct.

The power steering system is electrically powered, not mechanically, there is nothing wrong with the rack either.

You are clearly not electrically savvy enough to diagnose this yourself so I strongly suggest you get a second opinion from an auto electrician.

I rolled the dice on an old battery because nine times out of ten it IS the battery, it didn't work, I'm sorry, but doing this over the Internet ain't easy.