Temporary power steering loss and smell of diesel

[Christian]

Started car in work car park to come home, it’s a multi story car park and as I was cooking down one of the ramps my power steering suddenly stopped and then after wrangling it around a corner, came back on and then went again briefly. Got it out of the car park and then normal for about 4 miles. Went to turn into a car park and it goes again. Throughout there was/is a smell of diesel coming through the vent?? Got the AA coming to have a look now.(car running and no fault with steering atm) Does anyone have any suggestions?? 

Thank you in advance👍🏻

[Christian]

Incidentally there are no warning lights or bells going off at all and there has been no hint of this before today, no bumps no prangs no jolts or anything 🤔

[WPAWS]

Possible causes https://itstillruns.com/causes-losing-power-steering-making-turn-12168982.html

[Christian]

Thanks Paul, a fuel pipe from the fuel pump is leaking dropping diesel down on to the belt causing it to slip and fail. Hoping it’s a relatively quick and more importantly cheap fix!! Thank you again for your quick response- another reason I love this site. Unfortunately now I have to live without my car for a couple of days 🙁.

[WPAWS]

if its just a pipe replacement than it should be a cheap fix, i guess it depends on how easy it is to get to the pipe

[Christian]

As soon as I find out the specific pipe I’ll post on here just in case anyone has a similar problem in the future. Just so difficult in the dark and hammering down rain.

[Christian]

Pipe from the fuel rail to the pump.An audi only part so about £40 to replace and hopefully it will solve the issue completely.

[WPAWS]

£40 sounds better than £400 

[Christian]

Following from this and months down the line the same problem occurred again and again. Turns out there was a crack in the top of the high pressure fuels pump. This came about after discovering there was an engine mounting bolt missing (two actually) and all the rattling had caused the damage.For a new pump I was quoted £800+ to replace normally but Project Audi in my home city sourced a company “Burscough Diesels” who managed rebuild the damaged top section of the pump - fixing it and saving me almost half the projected cost. Costly but they’ve done a great job.