Looking for some advice on a problem I'm experiencing with my Octavia

It's a CR170 CEGA DSG

I have an intermittent issue with my car idling high and causing the power steering to cut out during low speed manoeuvres, such as parking.

This will often happen when sat at traffic lights or sometimes it will be immediately after starting the car, the idle revs will go up to around 1100rpm and then when I take a slow corner with no acceleration input, or when I park, the power steering will cut out.

I'm confident its not trying to regen the dpf as none of the parameters to initiate a regen will have been met most of the time.

This post on Briskoda is the only bit of info I have found online of this issue and after cleaning both connections on the Gearbox to Chassis earth cable like this post says, it made no difference:

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/438268-cr170-intermittent-power-steering-problem-01598-drive-battery-voltage-011-open-circuit-intermittent/

I have owned this car 2.5 years and its had the problem the whole time and has never developed into anything more serious but the car is perfect other than this issue so I'd really like to get to the bottom of this.

In my ownership the car has had a new Bosch battery, DSG service, and swirl flat delete and remap, scanned with VCDS a couple of times and showing no faults. Currently on 140k miles

Hoping someone takes the time to read this lengthy post and has experienced this issue aswell, thanks

My initial thought was that of a tired battery that was reluctant to supply the high current needed for steering, But as you have replaced the battery then it is more likely to be something that is making a poor connection.

Check all connections from the battery to the steering unit including fuses and earths (return paths). Look for signs of corrosion at joints and black conductors at the ends of the cables.

Mine does similar with revs sometimes at 1100 I asumed it was trying to regen but the last time I tried to lift accelerator pedal and revs dropped. Havent had a chance to investigate properly but I reckon it may be sticking slightly/not returning fully or the sensor is worn. Not sure why your steering would fail when revs are high at idle though.

Alasdair

@Jamesotaylor I have just started experiencing this issue, intermittently it seems but same behaviour. Idle goes to 1k and the power steering is juddering / cutting out. Switching off ignition and restarting goes back to normal.

Battery seems healthy and alternator is working OK based on running voltage of 14.2V

Did you make any progress or solve it yet?

I finally got to the bottom if this, with my CR170 DSG Octavia I checked all sorts fir a possible fault, then one day I got in the car and the airbag light was on, had it scanned and it turned out to be drivers side crash sensor.

The cable in the door had snapped, I suspect the faulty wire was the causing a bad earth which was causing the intermittent high idle/ power steering cut out on slow manoeuvres.

As it turns out this is a very common fault for the Octavia, which i was totally unaware of until the wire finally snapped and caused the light to come on.

Had the wire repaired and the fault disappeared

17 minutes ago, Jamesotaylor said:

I finally got to the bottom if this, with my CR170 DSG Octavia I checked all sorts fir a possible fault, then one day I got in the car and the airbag light was on, had it scanned and it turned out to be drivers side crash sensor.

The cable in the door had snapped, I suspect the faulty wire was the causing a bad earth which was causing the intermittent high idle/ power steering cut out on slow manoeuvres.

As it turns out this is a very common fault for the Octavia, which i was totally unaware of until the wire finally snapped and caused the light to come on.

Had the wire repaired and the fault disappeared

Ah nice one! I have a Superb 3T CR140 and I think they suffer from a similar problem with the door wiring. I suppose it could be an earthing issue anywhere though so could be a challenge to find.

Thanks for updating the thread! I'll do the same if I get to the bottom of it.

It'll be worth checking the wires in the door hinge both drivers and passenger side, I also checked the earth cable thats under the battery tray that connects the gearbox to the chassis after reading a different post on here, although it wasn't the solution for me. Is your car a DSG?