Hey everyone,
I am having a bit of a problem with my Power Steering. I have a 2002 A4 3.0l. When the car is running at idle, it seems to loose power to the PS. However, once I press on the throttle, the PS starts working again. There is no winning or other strange noises. I just seem to loose power to the PS at idle. I checked the fluid and notice it was a little low, so I topped it off with PS fluid from the Audi dealership and I have not noticed any leaks. Still no power to the PS at idle. I am thinking it may be a belt, but everything else is working as normal. I
figure if a belt went bad, water pump would also go out and over heat the car.

Any ideas to my situation? It would be very appreciated. Thank you.

 

It may be that the pump itself is failing, and with no RPM assist to the drive (at idle speed) it can't crank out enough pressure to assist the steering. When you add throttle and the RPM increases, so does the drive speed of the pump, and that could be enough to give you the assist you need.

 

Yeah. I am was thinking that too. I was also thinking the belt may be slipping... Is there more than one belt? Or are all of the accessories powered on the one belt?

 

I'm pretty sure your B6 has only one belt - your engine is derived from mine and mine has only the serpentine. If the belt was slipping at idle, it seems that with more rotational force applied by the higher RPM, that it'd slip more at higher revs. Plus if it's slipping you should be able to hear it - no guarantee, but usually you can hear it slipping.

 

Yeah. You are right and the belt looks fine. Thank you for your help.

 

Well hopefully it doesn't end up being too costly - good luck with it man. If you need to order parts, check out www.germanautoparts.com - I've had great luck and prices with them in the past. Post up a reply with the fix when you solve it too OK? It'll help others who have similar issues in the future.

 

Will do. I'll take it to the dealership early next week.

 

Ok. They gave me a loaner car for free for the night. An 07/08 (I wasn't sure of the year) A4 2.0T S-Line. Non quattro though. It was pretty cool. Thing had a 7 speed tip. I didn't know A4's had the 7 speed.

Anyway... Just got the car back... They found metallic flakes in the steering fluid. They replaced the pump and changed the fluid. Here's a break down of the cost for taking it to the dealership

Labor $490.00
Pump $496.71
New Oil $23.54
Hose $26.33
Hose Clamp $3.90
Washer $2.40
Clip $4.98
Clean Plenium $0.50 but they didn't charge me for that.

Total $1047.56
Total After taxes 1098.38

I also need to get both left front upper control arms and left front lower forward control arms replaced soon. I would have also got that done, but I got laid off a few weeks ago, so money is a little tight.