Power steering

[winstonb]

drove my GTI for the first time with out the stereo on this weekend, and noticed a whiring sound when on full lock    

please tell this is normal. if not what the liky fault  

[jte]

I had a whirring sound on full lock with my gti.  Was told by a mechanic friend that it's quite normal, as long as its not very loud or you notice any change in the sound.

I've also been told by various people that it's not good to use complete full lock on cars with PAS, although none of these people could give a sound reason.

[winstonb]

good, that exactly what i wanted to hear.  I recall a freinds Alfa had a similar sound, his main dealer tried to get him to replace the whole PAS system while an indie garage told it was fine  

[LadyCruzer]

My PAS rack does the same and so do most if not all of my other mates' mk3s  

[Veedubgt18v]

The sound you can hear is the hydraulic pump 'loading up'. this is caused when you hold the steering at full lock, the pump is till pumping but has no where for the fluid to go so you can hear the pump working harder. its nothing to worry about although holding your power steering on full lock for hours on end wouldnt really be a good idea cos you could split a pipe.

[LostBok]

It's the pump still working, while the wheel can't turn any more... in most car manuals it says not to force it around to full lock for more than about 15 seconds.

Agree - nothing to worry about unless it REALLY sounds like it's straining.

[Veedubgt18v]

also if you hear a sqealing then it could be the belt is slipping on the pulleys and needs tightening