Lost power steering tonight; 2011 Multivan Comfortline.

Hello All,

Been a lurker for a while and rarely post but thought I'd write about this one.

Was driving home from work this evening and about 15 mins in to the trip got a strange noise when taking off at the lights from inside the engine bay; kind of sounded like something rattling around in there. A bit similar to the sound of driving with a flat tyre. I was across the road from a servo so pulled in and got out. Had a look in the engine bay but the noise had already stopped and nothing looked out of place (was dark and raining so didn't spend too much time looking). Revved the engine a couple of times and slowly moved forward and back and all seemed good so proceeded home. About 10 mins later I'm now sitting in traffic on Victoria Road in Drummoyne; it's peak hour and the noise comes back. Steering wheel stiffens up and a red battery symbol light comes on; I've still got the engine running so I manage to get over to a side street and pull over (slowly as I giving the arms a bit of a workout now... reminded me of my old '76 F100). Battery light has dissapeared but power steering has properly gone now. It's still raining and dark so I decided to just leave this one for tonight; had pizza waiting at home so got my lovely wife to come get me and I'll take a proper look in the morning.

NRMA are booked in to come first thing (will probably just result in a tow) so will give an update tomorrow; I'm hoping something like a hose has split or come off. Warranty finished last year so won't be happy if it's a biggie :(

Cheers!

Its done the accessory belt failure trick, by the sounds of it.

Get it towed to the dealer.

Yep, there's a broken belt in there. Got it towed to my mechanic today but he won't be looking at it till Monday. Will find out more then. Sounds like this might be similar to Big Dave who's just had his 2011 belt snap with bits getting sucked into the engine!?!? :( Is there a simple way to find out if this is the case? Like if the engine starts it's all good?

All I can say is good luck with it, but it seams my belt didn't snap but was still there. However was being stripped somehow and turned into string that's ended up inside the timing cover. Not sure how long this was happening but then a bundle of "belt string" has got between belt and gears.
If your belt has just broken I would say it's probably going to be ok.

Aslong as nobody keeps starting the engine to move the car around then you will be fine. Just make sure your mechanic knows that, and that they also replace the timing cover with the new version +clean it all up.

Saw a mechanic moving one with a snapped belt in my old dealer, just as I was telling him to turn it off, we heard the death rattles of the timing jumping. Good thing for warranty or that would have been an awkward discussion.

So got it back and all seems good so far; have done about 20kms. I bought it just before the warranty finished and then started using my regular mechanic but as he's an independent he wasn't aware of the revised timing cover. Do you guys think there is chance of further issues with belt pieces under the current timing cover or should it be ok from here? It's due for its annual service in a couple of months so can get it changed then.
I'm also tempted to head to a dealer and just upgrade to a new one but there's the T6 to consider; not sure when that will be arriving?

Cheers.