Help.. ABS, ESP then Steering and tyres warning lights on 2006 Polo GTI

[sikman]

Hi Team

Purchased this car last week and has been faultless until yesterday, started car to go out and immediately felt something weird under brakes and looked up and saw ABS & and ESP light on. This happened twice and later in the day when driving home it all went away

Then this morning when driving son to school and slowed down to pull into the driveway I lost steering, it went rock hard and could barely turn, I ended up using all my strength to turn the wheel and drove up and parked it. Came back 5 minutes later and same deal I could barely turn wheel and had Steering & tyre warning lights on... So I drive it home and left it there, too dangerous to drive..

I have an ebay ODB II diagnostic plug that I used on my last car Evo 7 but I thought I try it on the polo, it connects and starts to pull codes and display's NO FAULTS stored on ECU, most probably need a VAGCOM one to getthe codes off??

Not happy at the moment, any one experience this or know who should I contact, I'm at South Sydney area, Sans Souci / Rockdale area...

[Paazuzu]

Hi Team

Purchased this car last week and has been faultless until yesterday, started car to go out and immediately felt something weird under brakes and looked up and saw ABS & and ESP light on. This happened twice and later in the day when driving home it all went away

Then this morning when driving son to school and slowed down to pull into the driveway I lost steering, it went rock hard and could barely turn, I ended up using all my strength to turn the wheel and drove up and parked it. Came back 5 minutes later and same deal I could barely turn wheel and had Steering & tyre warning lights on... So I drive it home and left it there, too dangerous to drive..

I have an ebay ODB II diagnostic plug that I used on my last car Evo 7 but I thought I try it on the polo, it connects and starts to pull codes and display's NO FAULTS stored on ECU, most probably need a VAGCOM one to getthe codes off??

Not happy at the moment, any one experience this or know who should I contact, I'm at South Sydney area, Sans Souci / Rockdale area...

I'm in the same boat sikman! This happened to me last week (see my previous post -> http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/...mly-94166.html). It hasn't happened since, which is weird.

The forum mentions the battery/fuses/grounding issues. I'm not sure where to start either.

[sikman]

Hopefully we can find a fix for this until then I can't drive the car as its too dangerous as with my case I lose steering and goes stiff and needs gorilla strength to turn the wheel, imagine driving around a bend and it goes crazy I will cross into the oncoming traffic head on... So far it's happened twice but at low speeds so I'm pretty lucky..

I will first check wires/grounding, etc and then visit VAG specialist to see if they can fault find it

[The_Hawk]

OBDII is pretty standard, if your scanner says no errors there probably isn't... although that doesn't sound quite right.

[brad]

On my Octavia I had the ESP & steering lights come on & eventually got the heavy steering - it's not that dangerous except for parking. I drove for a few hundred km with it heavy - wish I could get the weighting halfway between stock & broken.

Anyway this thread may help. Possibly your battery is on the way out. 11.6V seems to be the magic figure.

You can borrow my VCDS cable if you want. I'm just at Carss Park

[flat6]

Brad may be right, had similar symptoms on my car when trying to jump start a dead flat battery, no power steering with flashing traction and abs lights on the dash, hit the battery with a multimeter and see what voltage its sitting at with the engine off, should be well over 11.5v

[brad]

If the vehicle is 2009 or older & still on the origibal unit then it would be the first place I'd look. Sure, do all the earthing clean-up, etc as it won't hurt.

At rest with no load it should be about 2.1v per cell (12.6v) after the battery has been sitting idle for 24hrs. If it's just off the charger or after a decent run it might well be over 13v.

If you want to get it checked then Batteries Direct at Penshurst should be able to test it & if it's faulty & needs replacement their prices are excellent & they carry Varta batteries which are great.

I assume the vehicle is out of warranty so no point trying to make a battery claim at dealers.

[h100vw]

The power steering is electric and power comes through a fuse on the top of the battery, Check they are all intact.

Gavin

[sikman]

On my Octavia I had the ESP & steering lights come on & eventually got the heavy steering - it's not that dangerous except for parking. I drove for a few hundred km with it heavy - wish I could get the weighting halfway between stock & broken.

Anyway this thread may help. Possibly your battery is on the way out. 11.6V seems to be the magic figure.

You can borrow my VCDS cable if you want. I'm just at Carss Park

thanks for the tip, I checked my battery this morning and its showing 12.5-6

If its not too much problem I would like to use your VCDS cable, I will send you a PM

[sikman]

The power steering is electric and power comes through a fuse on the top of the battery, Check they are all intact.

Gavin

I checked the fuses and they are seem fine, I pulled them out and checked.

As tested battery is 12.5-6 with car turned off and It looks like it was replaced be the previous owner as I can see an NRMA logo on it

[sikman]

More updates:

1. Battery test 11.5-6 at rest

2. Start car and let it run for 5 minutes and tested battery at approx 13 volts

3. Turned steering wheel hard left and right and a few times and steering light, abs, esp, handbrake light all ON and wheel heavy

4. While in above state tested battery and around 12.6-8 and then every 1-2 minutes the car almost stalls with volts down to 11.6-8 then back to around 12.6-8.

5. While all this is going on I can hear and feel through the body of the car a THUD THUD every 1-2 seconds constantly and a TICK/electrical noise like a short/maybe relay?? as well somewhere near the back/right side of the motor

6. Drove the car around the block a few times until steering wheel went back to normal and battery is reading around 13 volts

[brad]

Battery sounds sick. Maybe still under warranty if recently replaced.

[Paazuzu]

Hopefully it's just the battery sikman.

I'll have to get a new multimeter to check my battery - lost power steering on Saturday night (only a short drive home thankfully) and it hasn't happened since. Checked all fuses (top of battery and drivers side) but everything seems ok.

Quick question - am I missing a fuse on the top of the battery or is this normal? See pic.

[h100vw]

Hopefully it's just the battery sikman.

I'll have to get a new multimeter to check my battery - lost power steering on Saturday night (only a short drive home thankfully) and it hasn't happened since. Checked all fuses (top of battery and drivers side) but everything seems ok.

Quick question - am I missing a fuse on the top of the battery or is this normal? See pic.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7906[/ATTACH]

Flick up the black cover next to those blade fuses, where you'll find some high amp ones with 10mm nuts on each end. These are often broken, hairline cracks, causing intermittent failures.

Gavin

[Guy_H]

Normally this problem is the power steering (pump) unit - internal short pulls the voltage down on that entire bus. If you check the wiring diagram, you will see that is the first point the voltage passes through.

I would almost bet beer on it.