Hello.

I'm hoping someone can offer me some guidance. I'm a learner driver and recently bought a 09 Polo. Recently the power steering has been going, this has happened on a few occasions but is fine once the car is started again. The clock, radio etc also completely reset and the ABS light has come on a fee times but goes straight off. 

I've tested the battery and all seems fine. However I do get a low battery voltage code 01598

Any advice greatly appreciated

First Welcome to the forum.

 

I would start by having a good close look at the fusebox on the top of the battery, the fuesable links (look like strips of metal) they can fracture so causing a high resistance and low voltage warnings (normally the ABS shows a fault code for this)

Hi. Thanks for your reply.

 

I'might not very good with this but here's a picture, looks fine to me?

 

These fuse links can crack without appearing faulty.

Yours DO look OK, but I would still want to remove and check them.

As you can see in your pic, they are different values, so be careful not to mix 'em up.

 

Regards

In regards to the power steering 

 

check the fluid level, it's near enough underneath the passenger headlamp 

14 hours ago, woolley456 said:

In regards to the power steering 

 

check the fluid level, it's near enough underneath the passenger headlamp 

Do I have to tale the battery out to do this and if so how hard is that?

Yes, it's battery out to get to the filler, but it's very unlikely the system's leaked, so I wouldn't necessarily go there first.

 

The symptoms sound electrical. On these an electric pump works the hydraulic power steering as needed (instead of a belt from the engine). 

 

I'm thinking it's either a bad connection on the high-current side of things, or more likely the battery not charging right.

 

There is two main reasons for the battery not charging right:

1 - The battery's naffed

2 - The alternator isn't putting enough power into the battery.

 

There is a pair of wires that connect the alternator to the ECU to control charging, and these are prone to damage, which can result in the battery not charging right and a lot of the faults you've listed. 

 

It's worth getting a multimeter, starting the car and seeing what the battery voltage is for a few minutes after startup, my bet is it'll be low, which points to this fault. Also, without getting sucked into buying anything off them, get a garage to do a battery test. Most tyre places will do one for free, ask them to either do a printout out if the machine does them, or scribble the results down for us to have a look. 

16 hours ago, woolley456 said:

In regards to the power steering 

 

check the fluid level, it's near enough underneath the passenger headlamp 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I've already checked the battery. I started the car put lights, radio etc on and got a reading of 14 so seems spot on. I was thinking  (but hoping not) that it may be the pump.

Further to this. I cleared all codes and retested and nothing came up.

 

There's a leak, seems to be under or near the power steering fluid. Just where the bolt is on this picture.

http://tinypic.com/r/kex2c9/9