UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi all first post
My wife's 1.2 petrol 2010 polo had no power steering & stopped working yesterday & I found belt had come off & aux tentioner pully Bolt had broken off with threads still in engine Any ideas guys ?

Will need some more info on exactly what engine.

The power steering is not powered directly from the engine on a 6R. The pump is still hydraulic but it is operated by its own electric motor. It is located in the engine compartment, below/behind the left hand side headlight.
There could be a few problems you could check for to diagnose the power steering fault.

1 Do you have an ESP light on your dash (if your car has ESP)? If so, likely a failed steering angle sensor or system related to that.

2 If steering angle sensor OK, could you move the steering wheel with engine running? Do you hear a whining sound from the engine compartment, coinciding with your steering movement?
If you don't hear it, either the pump is broken or the controls for the pump (i.e. data connection)

3 If you do hear some whining, you could check for the level of hydraulic fluid or any leaks.

Once you roughly limited the area to search for, there could be several causes
- Broken steering angle sensor, missing calibration of it, disruption in the CAN network
- Blown fuse to the power steering (it has two), bad ground point, corrosion on the plug
- Leakage of hydraulic fluid or a defect in the oil system of the pump or steering rack

As far as the sheared off bolt goes, I don't know exactly what bolt and belt, but I'd recommend to not drive any further with it than absolutely necessary.
Or consolt a garage and arrange a pick-up of the car. Driving without a water pump, alternator or compromised timing belt is not a good idea.

ah thanks for the info I will do more digging
is it possible to put up picks of it from my phone gallery ???

Okay, so the auxiliary drive belt tensioner pulley bolt has either unscrewed or has sheared, a bit unclear from your posting, so maybe clear that up.

Now, why has this happened, maybe the tensioner pulley has seized, so check or replace that when you fit a new bolt.

If the auxiliary belt tensioner has come off, the belt will have come off and the alternator will not be getting driven, so the power steering system will get shut down to preserve power for other more important users.

I would think that lots of warning lights should be lit now, but I don't remember you commenting on that, please clarify.

Edit:- on re-reading your posting, it sounds like the belt tensioner bolt has sheared off and part of it is still in the threaded hole - so that needs to get a small hole drilled in it and it removed using an "easy out" extractor, if you don't have a high quality set of extractors get a garage to remove that part of bolt, check condition of the internal threads, fit new belt tensioner, bolt and drive belt.

Just a theory. Maybe the alternator belt has come undone this way and in order to conserve energy the power steering goes into safety shut-off.

The tensioner pulley bolt goes in from behind the bracket and is easy to replace
Just get a new bolt and new pulley, 10 minute job.

Maybe just another "member" that posts and buggars off?

This seems to happen a lot and not just on this forum!!

Edit:- OP please prove me wrong here and get back with what/how you sorted this as that car is not going very far without an alternator to charge the battery.