Hi I have a 2001 Fabia 1.4 MPi

It's currently at Woodheads Skoda Blackpool getting the power steering fixed among other problems. They have quoted £1018 to fit a new PAS pump which they think will sort out most of the other problems.

I asked about a re-con pump but they only fit Skoda parts and said if I took it somewhere else to fit a re-con pump it would still need to come back there to be recoded?? Is that right? What would need recoding? It's not as if they are changing the ECU you dash clocks which I know would need this.

Any suggestions on what to do with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Rob

There maybe some coding required but it could be done by an independant with VAG-COM.

I'd ask them to be 100% sure that it wasn't the engine bay wiring loom before they dive in feet first.

Maybe get a good VAG indep to sort this out, as said before it is not always the pump that is faulty - as you can see this part earns the most "mark-up" for very little labour time. Someone at work got his pump changed when a few months later the same symtoms appeared frequently, another dealer said it was the steering angle sensor -car has been okay for all of the 18 months since this work was done. Some Skoda garages seem to be unable to perform fault-finding - they only employ fitters to change parts, seems SUK are just happy that they work on these cars so that they can sell them. Same first garage wanted to change the ARB mainly based it seemed on the bad press the ARBs were getting on the early Fabias - an idependant garage sorted the car by replacing the drop links - ARB had already been replaced some time previously by the first garage!!

Thanks,

They said they have checked all the wiring and are sure it is the pump. They will also give a 2 year waranty on the repair so I guess I'll just have to see.