Steering Rack

[Moonie#5]

PAS light on dashboard.  Steering very very very heavy - fighting against the hydraulics it feels like.

 

Pfeifer in Hove can't get any message on diagnostics.  Suggested Steering Rack or ECU.  (sigh)  However, won't know if it's ECU until fitting Rack (£700-800).

 

They can't locate a decent non-audi one so they said I should take it to the main dealer. (bigger sigh)

 

I'm not really keen on 2nd hand, recon or really cheap crap ones.  Can anyone suggest a supplier as ACS power steering who Pfeifer uses have no stock and can't come up with anyone else.

 

Have to say - pretty hacked off with this.  My first ever car that I've owned, I paid a good 30-40% premium for an Audi rather than a Ford/Vaux/etc for supposed build quality.  It's only 8 years old and has done 75k miles. This is going to cost about 25% of the cars value. For something so fundamental to go wrong it could almost be classed as a latent defect.

 

Anyhooo - answers on a postcard please folks.

Phil.

 

 

[Tech]

The ECU is built into the steering rack.  it is an electromechanical steering rack as oppose to a hydraulic one.  Take the car to Audi and get it properly diagnosed, I think you are jumping to conclusions a bit with a steering rack.  It could be a supply fault or a problem with the steering angle sensor.  It could of course be he rack but there is no point fitting such an expensive part without getting a proper diagnosis first.  

 

Clearly your garage is not well enough informed on the A3 EPAS to suggest fitting a rack then maybe an ECU when in fact, the parts are integrated together and are not available separately.

 

Tech

[Moonie#5]

Thanks Tech fella. I was hoping you might be correct ............. Audi main dealer confirmed same as my local independent. However, charged £60 plus 1.5 hours of labour at a very reasonable £120 per hour. Parts £850 and another 3.5 hours of labour makes an eyewatering £1,500.

{sigh}

For £1600 I could buy a 52 reg 1.8 Diesel Focus .........

Just talking to my mate who bought a 1.9 TDI at the same time - a smidge older than mine but he's had to fork out on a new gearbox and other expensive stuff.

I am unimpressed - but hey, gotta suck it up I guess. It's a lesson learned. Have I just been unlucky or do I need to factor in spending an average of £600 a year maybe for repairs?

Cheers

Phil.

[Tech]

Hi Phil,

 

In a way I do think you have been quite unlucky, however considering the age of the car and not knowing its past history it is not unreasonable to to expect occasional component failure even though it can be expensive.  A 52 plate focus might seem cheap, but even a 56 plate focus has nowhere near as much technology built in as your A3.  These are the things you pay for with an Audi.

 

In 6 years of working on Audis I have probably replaced only 2 A3 steering racks and one of those was for a slight clicking noise, not a failure - so generally, I'd say they were pretty good.  There is no reason why you can't go to a breakers yard and get a rack off another A3 or MK5 Golf around the same age as your car.  As long as the part numbers match or your cars part number or it supersedes to another compatible one.  Your local Audi parts department will be able to tell you what number your original rack has and what supersessions have come since.  Of course, if you do get a rack from a breakers, you will still need it coding and basic setting by your Audi dealer or an independent Audi specialist.  Just thinking of how to save you some money here.

 

As for your friends car, same thing really, quite an old car and you don't know how it has been driven in the past (for example, it could have been chipped or driven hard, too aggressive gear changes etc).  Again, I have only ever stripped 3 Audi gearboxes in 6 years to replace worn syncros and a worn bearing in one case, and one of those was due to the clutch being worn out but the customer ignoring it.  I have never replaced a complete gearbox, only the worn components inside.  Replacing a complete gearbox is generally a lazy repair, unless of course, too many components are damaged to be economical to replace individually.

 

Audis are really very good cars, as most people will tell you, but a bad used example can, like any car, have its problems.

 

Tech