Steering Grinding noise HELP ASAP!

[i love scooby snacks]

Further to the steering groaning noise thread I have a similar problem. Its been a while since I last posted on here and am looking to get back into S2 ownership. Went and saw a 3B and only thing wrong was a grinding noise from the steering BUT THE PRICE WAS RIGHT. The PAS worked fine except for this sound. It was there when cold and hot and worse when going from lock to lock.

Any ideas and more to the point, worse case scenario whats the cost?

Cheers

[quattronutter]

fluid may need topping up or changing,the groaning is quite common on these cars,i have had a few and they have all groaned!!!

[i love scooby snacks]

WOW, wasnt expecting a reply so quick.

Some more info; The guy says its been groaning for about a year. I cant imagine that if it was just the fluid it would have been left. Whats the going rate for the expensive things like pump + fitting or new stearing rack, or any ideas about cost of complete overhaul. Basicly I want to know what im letting myself in for.

Thanks

[porkkis]

Have a friend turn the wheel and inspect the pump. It might be leaking between its blocks. The noise comes from air sucked in the pump and the pump cavitates.
There is a gasket kit available.
You should see if this is the case. The block halves move a bit and might leak oil.
BTDT

[dan_b]

A new rack is not exactly cheap - I got one last summer after an MOT failure due to leaking PAS fluid and it ended up costing me (with labour and parts and VAT) the best part of £900.

The 3B has the electronically assisted "Servotronic" PAS too - this causes the steering to be insanely light at parking speed, but it doesn't exactly back off until you're doing about 100mph. You can however just disconnect the Servotronic relay - it's underneath the rear passenger seat. This immediately gives you proper weight and feedback in the steering.

If you need to replace the rack, you'll find it diffiuclt to get a 3B servotronic rack. What you can do though is use any normal PAS rack from the same era Audi 80, you'll just not get the Servotronic, but it's so awful you wouldn't want it anyway!

Hopefully for you it's just the pump, or just lack of fluid. Do you get a red "beep beep" when the car starts?

[i love scooby snacks]

Thanks for the info.
Im not due to pick up the car until the weekend so I had the guy take it to his local garage to get their opinion. He says it is the steering rack end. Now I'm not going to pretend I know what that is so does this sound right to you guys or you think this is just BS and it needs a who new rack?

thanks

[dan_b]

I don't know what he means by that, but it sounds as if the rack is leaking? I was told that it wasn't possible, or at least not feasable to re-seal the rack seals, hence I ended up with a new rack. Hope it's not!

[i love scooby snacks]

After a bit of investigating, most likely is the rack so had to walk away from this one. Thanks for the help and the fact you prob saved me nearly a grand!

[The Spanish]

I think I have a 3B rack lying around. I thought it was ABY when I bought if from ebay and it was not. Will give you the P/N to see if it the same. Yours for almost no money.

Cheers