Well . . . I've taken the plunge and bought a cheap 1.9 TDI Fabia Comfort Estate last week. Cheap due to high mileage ( 102K ) and some minor damage to the base of the door mirror - otherwise seems fairly clean.

But wouldn't you know it, I've begun to have intermittent power steering failure. I mean complete loss of power steering. My local mechanic suspects it's not the pump or sensor but an electrical supply problem. Anyone else suffered this intermittent fault ?

Anyway I have a 3 month warranty so it's going back to be fixed by the dealer tomorrow. I'll post the outcome soon.

Welcome to Briskoda! If it's an electrical fault, it will be bought up on VAG.com or other diagnostics. It could well be the pump.

Good luck with the car, and enjoy it!

Hi and welcome to Briskoda. I hope you can effectively resolve the pas issue.

I encourage you to use the forum search here on Briskoda (top of page). You will find a good deal of information on pretty much any topic including the pas or power steering system.

Cheers,

NR

Im not mechanically minded so all i can do is Welcome you to Briskoda.:orb_bounc

The independent dealer has had his mechanic trying to trace this problem for a couple of days now. He now seems convinced that it is the PAS sensor.

Do the symptoms suggest this is so ? When I went to start the car, the PAS had gone completely. I drove to work without the PAS and it came back on about 20 miles into the journey. When I went to start the car after work it was gone again. Could a sensor problem give these intermittent symptoms ?

Just thought I'd post the final resolution to the power steering problem to add to the knowledge base. As I said before this was an intermittent failure where PS went completely but would come on again, further down the road.

After several false diagnoses the problem was traced to a "faulty switch in the power steering pump" (or so I have been told by the dealer). The independent dealer was really very helpful and honoured the 3 month warranty by replacing the entire pump.

All seems OK now - touch wood . . .