I don't care if you have to resort to a payday lender, but you shouldn't drive the car if power steering is gone

[haveatarday]

My sis drives a cheap fiat. The power steering has gone but she's still driving it. Says with Christmas she can't afford to have it looked at till next month and needs it to get to work.

Aibu to say she should defo not drive it until its fixed?

YABU. The Power steering is broken not the brakes.

Our cars power steering has gone too. The car is heavy but just passed its MOT and garage says it's safe. I'm not impressed OP at your attitude, payday lenders are horrific.

Obviously I've offered all I can.

I mentioned pay day lenders to make a point about how much I didn't want her to drive something unsafe

I think it's safe, just very heavy?

It's not unsafe. She needs to modify her driving a little do anticipate heavier turning, but it's honestly not a safety issue. How do you think people drove volvos and landrovers in the days before power steering was invented?

I had a Fiat punto, power steering went, I still drove it around, it would cost a bomb to fix so I never bothered. It was just like driving my old metro.

I've driven loads of cars, including big heavy ones, with no power steering. You don't notice when you are bowling along at normal speed. It is only noticeable when doing tight slow manoeuvres like parking or three point turns.

Maybe you should check that it really is unsafe before getting all dramatic with her?

Thanks girls, will phone up some places tomorrow to check if it is unsafe.

Why would you?

Its her problem. Mind your own business ffs.

My partner is a mechanic (Of near 10yrs) Says this. "It depends on the person, If the person is strong enough to handle the car without the power steering then they will be fine, however it can be dangerous IF and only if the person driving the vehicle is not strong enough to still drive the car, this can result in being unable to steer effectively and having an accident"

Thanks black, does your dp know if a pinto would fail mot on this? This is my concern as some forums say yes and others say no

He says yes, however if there are any other faults with the vehicle the vehicle will fail. Your sister could however have an advisory for it. She will be fine.

If it is unsafe then YANBU because she is endangering herself and other people using the road- selfish and irresponsible.

If it's ok to drive just a bit more difficult then that's her choice and YABU.

I had to stop driving my car about a fortnight before Christmas because it was unsafe. It has been a pain in the backside working a new job around childcare/school run/ college but at least I was safe taking the bus.

I had my punto MOT'd and it certainly werent the PS it failed on.

The steering on a car with failed power steering is much heavier than a car that never had power steering in the first place.

The power steering has gone on our Mondeo. However DH already has arms like Popeye.

I've had plenty of cars without power steering.

when the power steering went on my (larger than the older non-power steering car), the steering was still lighter than on the old not power assisted car...

Whether the car is dangerous or shouldn't be driven depends on lots of things. (in general the answers is probably no!)

If a car has hydraulic assist, and it's gone because the belt that powers that has gone, then it's fine, (though the belt normally powers the alternator also -so might want to get that looked at).

If it's hydraulic assist and the pump is broken then again fine, (though need to make sure that the pump doesn't seize and break the belt).

If there is a hole in a pipe, then you can drive the car with very little worry, except for the fact that the pump still runs, and no longer has fluid in it to cool it so will wear prematurely.

Thankfully, a lot of the small fiats are electric power assisted steering.
this mean that there is a small motor inside the steering column, -so no bits will wear out whilst you're driving around and nothing will seize etc. however it does mean that fixing the power steering can mean replacing the whole steering column, which is around a grand for the parts, then plus the cost of fitting. (i.e payday loan isn't even applicable in this situation anyway!)

Long and short of it is that it's not unsafe at all.

It is totally irrelevant. The power steering motor is on the way out on ours, its making a whining noise and we did put it into the garage when we didnt know what the noise was.

It passed the MOT as well as its not considered a failure

I think with Puntos, if the power steering fails, it shows a fault light on the dash. This would be an MOT failure (if it was due) but in any case it might affect her insurance - driving with a known fault? Perhaps something to think about.

OP - using a payday lender, even for a few days, will negatively affect her credit rating.

It's one of the things that experian etc check when calculating your credit score. It shows that you have been unable to manage your finances, so YABVVU.