Snapped Auxiliary Belt

[fruitsalad]

This happened to me today in superstore car park, so I was driving slowly, luckily, as I lost all the steering, couldnt steer to left or right, but managed to go straight into a parking bay it was quite scary, it got me thinking, what would happen if same thing was to happen on a motorway doing 70

[douglas9401]

A much longer walk to the freezer aisle?

[tonyav]

Most cars these day's have electronic power steering, fruitsalad. If it's a car with a belt driven power steering then if the belt fails the steering becomes heavy but you would still be able to steer it, in fact the faster the car was going the easier it would be to steer.
However no steering at all is a different matter.

[sunny-dave]

As Tony says - at any sort of open road speed you'd still be able to steer - it's only when the car is all but stationary that it gets very difficult.

I remember my Dad's Marina (dreadful car) which had no power steering at all - it required muscles like Arnie to park the dratted thing, but at 50mph the steering was as light as a floating feather (and about as accurate).

[tonyav]

Yep great cars those Marina's. My old man had one to, about 2 years old when he bought it 6months into his ownership rust scabs appeared on the roof and in the middle of some of the doors !. Oh yes and the prop shaft fell off at the rear axle.

[TonyV]

Any power system will have manual support if pump / electronics fails but it will be a lot heavier

[goodgoalie]

This happened to me about two years ago doing about 50mph on the road to my local town - car just slowed down very quickly but safely and the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. Absolute nightmare trying to get a tow to the nearest village garage; then last year the ruddy clutch cable broke, luckily when I was going slowly in traffic. Even harder to get a tow that time!

[fruitsalad]

Luckily for me a very nice AA man came out and replaced it for me