Hi

I have a 98 brava 1.4 sx. On the motorway the other day my power steering pump failed in a plume of smoke and stink. I feared the worst. The AA man said the pump had failed and the motor had siezed, accounting for the smoke. Now, he said that as the power steering on Fiats runs off the main drive belt and not it's own dedicated belt, there was no way to disable it without cutting the drive belt. Basically he said it was undrivable. I had to fork out over £100 for them to tow me home. So my question is, is this true or was he bull sh**ing me to get me to cough up. Could I have driven it with no power steering.

Also a garage has quoted £150 for a re-conditioned pump. Does this seem reasonable?

thanks

dunno about brava but mk1 punto has its own belt, if your pump is same as a punto i have a used one for sale @ £50

the auxilliary drive belt is used for the power steering pump, alternator, oil pump and water pump. so if you drove it with a seized power steering pump it would no doubt have shreded the belt, meaning the car would quickly overheat and probably blow the head gasket and warp the head (no water or oil circulation).

the AA man has saved you a lot of money by not letting you drive. so smile

a power steering pump will be £10-20 from a scrapyard, depending if you remove it yourself or not (very easy to do). its also very easy to fit. if the auxilliary drive belt looks at all damaged i'd change that as well, better safe than sorry. you will also need some power steering fluid. if you buy all this i would expect the total cost to be no more than £35 before labour. if you cant fit it all yourself then a local independant garage should charge no more than £30, its only a 45minute job after all, and very easy.

so overall you've done ok, its not a major failure, not expensive to fix, and the AA saved you causing further damage.

Thanks for the reply Jug, very helpful.

You put my mind at rest re. the AA.