Car is a 52 plate 1.9TDi 110bhp Octavia. 85000 miles. Cambelt replaced @ 80,000 miles service.

Was driving to work this morning when, having braked reasonably sharply I discovered upon moving off again that I had lost power steering and the battery light on the dashboard was illuminated.

A quick check under the bonnet didn't reveal anything obvious and as I was only half a mile from work I thought that I'd drive the rest of the way, which I did without steering assistance. Upon looking under the bonnet again I discovered that the belt which is visible on the left hand side of the engine bay (I hadn't taken the engine cover off) was no longer on its rollers at each end. Is this connected to the power steering pump / alternator? Is it serious?

Thanks

Sounds like the belt has snapped or maybe the tensioner has failed.

Its not serious other than you have no steering and before long your battery will die.

Would also be worth checking the alternator hasnt seized and/or the pulley hasnt fallen off the end.

Thanks for that.

AA man confirmed that the belt's come off - he thinks that the lower pully has broken. I'll drive it to a (reasonably) local VW specialist later and they'll fix it on Monday, hope my arms are up to it!

If you've ever driven a Lada then your steering will still be lighter on your Octy!

Last thing I drove without power steering was my 1990 VW Golf GTI - and I think that weighed about half what the Octavia does !

My Felicia didnt have PAS, but my MK2 Golf does

Drove it all the way to the repairers - about 40 miles ! - without problem. Apparently the bit on the alternator that the pulley connects to had broken so it needed new alternator, new pulley and tensioner. Grand total of