Touran power steering failure

[tig]

Here's hoping someone else might have had this.

Our Touran was parked up for a few minutes and then gave the power steering red warning light/beeper when restarted. Very heavy steering (no power at all) once the engine was running.

Seems that the power assistance here is using new fangled electric motors rather than hydraulics - so not obvious whats wrong.

The local garage have tried diagnostics with limited success and the word from VW seems to be that it will need a new rack ! For around a grand ! When test driven they found the power sometimes worked & sometimes not.

Surely theres some sensor (maybe end-of-travel or something ?) thats misbehaving here.

Any info on similar experiences would be much appreciated