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Heavy power steering

On my golf the power steering is noticeable quite light and easy. On my wifes golf its quite heavy, I've checked the fluid and its on full. The garage who fixed the broken exhaust mount noticed there is a slight weep on the power steering pipe and howed me it was just sweating and he said worth mentioning but not worth fixing not sure if this can cause heavy power steering.

Also a scan shows these two fault codes:

power sterring pressure sensor switch fault ? 00557 - short circuit to earth.

idle speed regulation sporadic 00533

...when started the idle is a little like its hunting for s few seconds. Just the power steering heavyness makes it a bit hard for her to drive.

the car is a 1.6 8v 1999 AEH engine auto which drinks petrol lol

Reply to
Joseph Craine
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until it runs out of fluid there will be no effect on steering lightness. neither fault code will effect the steering, but fixing the power steering sensor will improve the idle.

as to the heaviness, are they the same model/year and do they have the same wheels and tyres and are the heavy car's tyres blown up correctly?

there was a problem with steering racks on golfs and they were modified after 2006, but I don't know exactly what the fault/mod was.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Ahh good, I'll call VW in the morning to order the part. From what I gather or read you have to follow the pipes from the Power sterring tank and it leads to somewhere along the way is a grey sensor with 2 wires and this is it. I'll have a look around for it aswell in the light.

The tyres are the same as it had always they are 175/80/14 H ... And 32 psi in all round (although I had a heavy load when I did them last sunday)

Ahhhh, I think I'll google a bit about this. I hope its not a knackering rack as its a ball ache trying to undo the subframe bolts on the ground (I love my breaker bar) and then disconnecting the the rods etc... I had to do it on my own car which was bought with a broken rack. turned into a long day :)

Reply to
Joseph Craine

Before you change it just check that the wires haven't rubbed through their insulation.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

Very good point. I finally figured out why my rear heated screen wasn't working. It was a broken wire in the rubber boot on the tailgate. New piece of wire, heat-shrink and now have a hot window just in time for the disappearing snow lol. Although fortuntely I noticed a few more ..*almost* broken wires which were fixed aswell. complete weak spot.

Reply to
Joseph Craine

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