Wife drove the car down the road tonight (1.9 SDi) - went to turn a corner and car cut out, power steering light on.

Jumped the car and drove it home but the power steering light stayed on and had no power steering. The lighting on the instruments dimmed and then cut out, power steering warning light on. Got the car home and battery flat - multiple warning lights but no alternator/charge light on either when car running or when you turn ignition on.

I assume that the alternator has packed up - does this seem reasonable?

I will check battery tomorrow and see what happens but but how can I chck alternator - volt meter across engine when it is running?

I note that the power steering is electric (I certainly see no pump driven by vee belt) - how does this work - does it still use hydraulic fluid - if so where is the reservoir. Could it be the "yaw" angle sensor drawing too much current - where is this? - how can I test it? - is it easy to replace.

Apologies I am sure that these questions have been answered before but I am a little confused as I(probably naively) thought that if the power steering was electric there would be no fluid.

Any help would be gratefully accepted.

The power steering is electro hydraulic, there is a fluid reservoir on the nearside of the car either under or close to the battery.

If you check the voltage across the battery with the engine running, it should be around 14 volts or more, 12 or less and it is not charging, indicating bad connection somewhere or a dead alternator.

If you manage to recharge the battery from an external supply - and reconnect it to the car, the charge or no-charge battery light should be lit - was it okay, ie lit prior to this event? If this bulb has failed, I think that the initial excitation current to the alternator coils will have been lost so the engine revs will need to be quite high before the alternator will produce any power to the car and battery. Remember that the electric steering hydraulic pump uses a lot of power, so if the volts drop it will get dropped out to allow other services to keep running (ie lights etc). If you replace this charge indicator bulb with the correct new one, then if the altenator is okay and the wiring is okay - this light should now be lit while the engine is not running. One other thing was just jumped out of my small brain - I've read that there is a blue ? wire that goes to the alternator - it carries this initial excitation current - and it some times gets broken under the car - its been covered before on this forum - use search and prove that this wire is okay before trying to change the charge light bulb (which ever is easier I have not needed to try either - yet!)

Idon't know anything about modern car TDI engines, but if the voltage collapsed due to the power steering pump trying to steal all available current, then the engine stop would probably get activated - so your engine stopped, but was able to bump start as the load grabber (steering pump) was now disabled and the voltage level could rise up again.

Ok seems this may be the problem, I have jumped car today, when the jump leads were disconnected then the voltage across the battery was around 10 volts, it stayed at this level until I revved the engine to around 2500 rpm then suddenly jumped to 14 volts, it now seems to be showing 14 volts all the time the engine is running and when the engine is off around 13 volts across the battery. The red battery light still does not light at any stage, however I now appear to be getting current from the alternator - do i need to replace thisbulbin the dashboard or will the car (hopefully) now be alright.

Try having a search through this or the "ask a tech" forums for alternator charging problems, you should find enough info to verify that the blue wire is okay - or not, then fix it - or then try to check and change the bulb. Then you can see if the alternator is charging - light switching out, when the engine is running. Remember if the battery has been heavily discharged it might not recover fully - but either way will need quite a low time on a charger.

Use the search terms "battery not charging" and you will find other "Fabia forum" threads on this problem, especially clues about where to find the blue lead or its connector.

This is the thread you need http://www.briskoda.net/forums/fabia/fabia-electrical-help-needed/35460/.

I had the same issue as yourself couple of weeks back, the above thread was spot on. Access to the offending conector is awkward and must be approached from beneath with the car raised. I did mine at my brothers garage on a 2 poster but even then found it quite tricky to get in with a soldering iron.

HTH.

Thanks for the help - the thread was very helpful. Have bypassed the connector by gearbox and lo - 14 volts at idle and a battery ligt on dash.