Power steering help required !

[Gizza]

Hello alll last night I was driving back from the girlfriends house and the steering seemed to be very heavy at low speeds . And also when turning into a side road which is about 90 degrees it seems like it couldn't react quick enough I was going to check the power steering fluid when I get chance which i located under the battery I believe ? Do I need to remove the battery ? Also is it worth checking out the battery as it's the original its a 2006 fr tdi.

Thanks in advance

Matt

 

[bubbles1]

Yes you need to remove the battery unfortunately. Have you had the power steering warning light on?
I've had the same issues and it was the old 8 year old battery that was the problem . Car always started first time even with tired old battery lol !

 

[Saint Ibiza]

Yes power steering is located under the battery, unfortunately. I topped mine up and problem went away for a bit and is now back again. Alternator and battery have been changed and the problem is still their, it could be the motor itself. Good luck and I hope yours is an easier fix.

 

[GlanzaV]

On my old Mk4 the PAS went. I thought it was low fluid at first because I was parked on a steep hill and when I went to drive away I had no assisted steering... thought at first I hadn't actually started the car!! But it came back, then the next day it went totally. It was a couple days before my wedding so was too busy to have a look and when I was on honeymoon my dad had a garage change the whole pump/control unit (it's all one part) £700!

After doing a bit of reading though it seems there's a sensor which may have been causing the issue which would have been 1/10th of the cost to fix... but never got the chance to find out what was the root cause as they change this as part of the repair. Not saying this is what's wrong with yours, but like I say, mine was intermittent at first.

Battery does need to be removed to check the fluid... this was the first thing I did.

 

[Gizza]

Just to update you all, the fluid level was half a litre to low topped up and all seems well, I bet that the power steering fluid hadn't been checked ever really due to the palaver of accessing it

 

[aceman]

Mystery of the missing half litre !

I would now be questioning where it has gone as the power steering shouldn't be really losing that much fluid.

 

[GlanzaV]

^^ I'm with aceman, closed system. Could imply a leak.

 

[Gizza]

Well I say half a litre wasnt quite that I bet it hasnt been checked due to the pain of checking it

 

[DavieTDI]

Power steering fluid does not go down in level over time, it just becomes less effective with time.
That was my understanding of it

 

[RUM4MO]

Power steering fluid does not go down in level over time, it just becomes less effective with time.
That was my understanding of it

+1 for this reply and the previous similar one!

One "easy" place to escape will be out the end of the rack, eventually this will escape out of the gaitor(s) - none of this happens with a serviceable rack.

Mind you, I did spot some rusting on some sections of the fluid pipes on my wife's 2003MY Polo, it was not too advanced so I cleaned it up and painted with Hammerite, maybe some of the fluid piping has started to rot through, check for any leak sites and take it from there - that is around pump assembly + interconnecting piping + rack.