Power Steering and Electrics failure

Hi All,

We've been having a lovely back road driving trip in Normandy, until the electrics started playing up on the day before our trip back. I'm back in UK (thanks to the Euro Tunnel breakdown cover we took out) and car is in an Audi garage in France. The dealer reckons the problem is the alternator and battery, wanting 700euros(!) for the repairs. As the A2 is a complicated little beast and I need to make the trip back to France to collect the car, should they also be looking for another cause?

This is a bit of a long winded story, but here goes. We had a really good run along a D road and needed to do a U-Turn, I braked (not heavily), ABS warning light with chime showed up on dash. Selected reverse, Power Steering light flashed on. I decided it may need a reset and switched off ignition, car wouldn't start for 10-15 mins.

When it started, all was ok for another 30 miles. Came to a stop, Power Steering failed with warning light. The steering was heavy but I carried on regardless as it's safe to do so if a little heavy. After a little while all the lights on the dash flashed up including the Brake Warning light. As I was in the middle of nowhere and the brakes were working fine (only replaced last year) I carried on. All the warning lights then disappeared with the exception of the PS light and heavy steering. It was getting dark so I was running with headlights on, which seemed fine.

Once back at the hotel I searched this forum for an answer and replaced fuse 38 which is associated with the PS I found out. The day after, all seemed well, until another U-Turn was needed and the PS once again failed. After 5 or so miles, the brake warning light and a whole array of dash lights lit up, then the engine started stuttering, then indicators failed to work. I started to pull into a car park and tested the AC (it was off, as we had sunroof open) run off fuse 38, which then killed the accelerator. Switched off the AC and accelerator came back on.

I decided now to call the breakdown service, dash lights working fine, no flickering but sunroof wouldn't shut. The recovery truck came, car wouldn't start and he used a battery boaster to start the car. Initially the accelerator wouldn't work, but another restart he drove it onto the back of the truck to go to the Audi garage (the French don't carry out roadside repairs, unlike over here)

We were supplied taxi's and then a Skoda Yeti (I think I'll be buying one of these next) by the Euro Tunnel AA cover which meant our trip wasn't badly affected, but there didn't seem any rush in getting our car fixed, so I visited the garage with the technicians scratching their heads as to the cause of the problem. Car was starting, sometimes accelerator work, sometimes not. They said alternator and battery (both I believe is original, 2001 Y) seemed fine, then they eventually found a loose hose or wire (my French isn't that good) at the front brake which was the route of the problem.

Now as you can understand I'm in a bit of a dilemma into forking out 700euros for an alternator and battery which they said was fine yesterday, and my piece of mind with the electrics have gone out the window with the great A2 that had an earthing issue 2 years ago. Any thoughts from you guys as to what else could be the problem, or to reassure me that the alternator is the problem, would be much appreciated indeed.
 
As I was reading your story, I was thinking it could well be an earthing issue.

Have they scanned the car and told you what the errors are?

The accelerator issue could be that it needs calibration, which may be a fault caused by again, poor earthing.
But a scan is in order otherwise is speculation.

I'd start with checking all earthing points and scanning it.


Cheers
Sarge
 
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Problem Solved

After waiting for 4 weeks to get the car back to the UK, it turned out to be the alternator after all.

Strange that there had been no warning signs the alternator was on the way out (no battery warning light, headlights working fine etc), and disappointing it had only lasted 86,000miles.

Great to have the car back, reasurring to have had a second opinion and knowing it'll be under guarantee in the UK.
 
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