power steering dead, battery light on?

[mury69]

my 1999 2.5 v6 tdi's power steering has died all of a sudden. pulling out a local car park there was a pretty loud crunching rotor type sound then nothing then the power steering died and the battery light came on but the car still drove and with aching arms i steered the beast home. the battery starts the car fine and its a petty new one. according to my manual it says my altenator is knacked which is ok but i cant drive the thing to my garage cos having 18's on it makes it pretty hard to steer. any ideas if it is in fact my alt?

[kite]

Sounds like the alt. belt may have come off or snapped

[docurley]

^^^ Agread

[audimad]

Belt snapped, it will be the long seperntine one, it does the steering pump and the Alternator.

It "may" be a front off job to change on that, not sure

[mury69]

thanks guys, sounds right on the button. the rotor crunch was probably the belt whazzing off everything. lol cheers for the warning audimad, when the guys said a belt i thought it'd be pretty cheap fix but if the front has to come off the garage is gonna shaft me lol

[jimat57]

Hi, just had the same problem, turned out to be serpentine belt tensioner broken leaving a broken bolt in the block, £300 labour, £100 parts (belt nearly £50) and then the VAT, done at Audi specialist, just over 12 months from Audi main dealer cam belt change plus water pump and serpentine belt 7,000 miles ago. Have read of similar events on here!

[wallis22]

I've just had the same problem with my car (1.9TDI). If the belt snapped you should be ok with just replacing the belt. If it came off though then there's something else wrong as the belts never come off for no reason. If the belt came off 9 times out of 10 it's going to be the tensioner, that's what mine was.

You don't need to take the front end off to change the belt, but you do to change the tensioner. It's easy enough though, just a few nuts and bolts...

I hope the belt snapped rather than just came off because changing the belt is child's play. Just get a diagram showing how the belt is routed. Also, there's a little hole in the tensioner where you can insert an allen key when you take the tension off the belt (if the belt were on). Insert an allen key in this hole and you won't have to try holding the tention while you try routing the belt, which is nearly impossible! Trust me, i tried! Didn't notice the hole, lol.

Anyway, let me know how you get on and if you need any help just ask because i've just had to change the tensioner on my car. That's assuming your going to do it yourself that is... If the belt snapped i'd suggest changing it yourself. It's very easy and will save you over £100, maybe more! If the belt did just come off, and it was the tensioner, or something else, then i'd recommend changing the belt aswell. I think the belt for mine was only about £14 +VAT.

[adamss24]

The belt on v6 tdi is a bit more difficult to replace than on the 1.9 tdi ! It will need the front of the car to be removed to get at the belt. The AC belt needs to be removed as well and you will need a big allan key to release the tensioner. The biggest headache is routing the belt and it will take a while to figure out wich way it goes. You need to change the plastic pulley as its likely to be dammaged, also look for play in any other pulley. Renew both drivebelt and AC belt at the same time as when one fails, the other follows ! Expect to pay a fair bit as one pulley cost £40 from dealer, the belts £20 each and labour a min. of 2 hours ! If yu were close to N. London, i can do that cheaper than the dealer or any garage/independent ! Regards, Chris- 077899 12128.

[docurley]

If you have to have the front end off to do thisd then do a full sevice on her with cam belts pump and new tensioners you will save money in the long run for sure.

[mury69]

thanks guys you've been a great help. think i'll jst bite the bullet and take it to the garage and get everything done, anything more complicated than a basic service usually goes wrong anyways. im stuck here in the netherlands for now so we'll see how much they screw the forigner for repairs. thanks again guys

[karachi_kops]

hi guys
what a lovely day we're having :)

over the weekend, coming back from the seaside, my battery light came on and my steering became very heavy all of a sudden. luckily i managed to pull over in a laybay and whn i looked under the bonnet the alternator tensioner had snapped off. would explain why i was getting an intermittent noise when moving the steering wheel. i dodnt drive home but got recovered home - didnt want to cause any other probs.

got it towed to my local garage who is kinda telling me to look for another engine or fork up £1 - 2k .. is that right?

The engine starts fine but ive been told the timing will be all over the place and it will be a big job.

any ideas?

:confused:

[smokey0123]

Make sure the garage check the main pully (its a dampened 1and they fall apart) and the clutch on the alternator they always go wrong ive lost count of how many ive changed.

[docurley]

hi guys
what a lovely day we're having :)

over the weekend, coming back from the seaside, my battery light came on and my steering became very heavy all of a sudden. luckily i managed to pull over in a laybay and whn i looked under the bonnet the alternator tensioner had snapped off. would explain why i was getting an intermittent noise when moving the steering wheel. i dodnt drive home but got recovered home - didnt want to cause any other probs.

got it towed to my local garage who is kinda telling me to look for another engine or fork up £1 - 2k .. is that right?

The engine starts fine but ive been told the timing will be all over the place and it will be a big job.

any ideas?

:confused:

Your enginer should be fine as it was not the timing belt that snapped.

What I would do is change the timing belt and the pulleys as these have been known to fail and a water pump would be a good idea while your at it.

I think also looking for another garage as it sounds like they are trying to pull a fast one telling you to look for a new engine just because the alternator belt snaped.

[lonky]

No need to remove the front end, just pull it forward into the service position.

Takes me about 20 minutes to do, and 30 mins to put back.

[karachi_kops]

cheers for the posts guys ... much appreciated.

What if the Timing Belt was also snapped in the process? I cant be too sure at the moment if it has or not as im still still awaiting to hear back from my local garage

i really hope my car can be fixed ... its too good to get rid off!

[karachi_kops]

Just a quick note to thank the earlier posts - got my car back from my local garage.

Luckily the Alternator belt had just snapped and it didnt get in anywhere else but have changed the Timing Belt and Water Pump also so fingers crossed it should be ok.

There is a slight noise i get on the steering wheel however its when i press down on the clutch it gets a little noisy but that was there from before. its hard top describe it but its a high picthed squeeqy noise.

cheers guys - great help!
:beerchug: