Freelander Power Steering AND Brakes gone in one fault!

Dear all,

I wonder if anybody can help? I'm sitting here looking out of the window at my Freelander LI L Series diesel. On the way to work this morning (Sunday overtime -Yuk) I noticed that the battery light on the dashboard had come on, then I noticed that the steering had gone heavy, then the brakes were v unresponsive. Its as if both the Steering and the brake servos had gone. Are they one and the same on the freelander or is it more likely to be electrical, or a belt? (Just thought of the belt - I'll check that in a minute.) Not really up on modern cars - I could just about cope with my series III but the hippo is a bit technical for me.

Any help gratefully received.

Best Regards,

Vic

your engine is turned off - that will give those symptoms.

Although on an L-series its sometime difficult to tell if the engine is running when going up hills I'm fairly sure thats not it.

ah - ok - belt gone. Problem diagnosed . . . .

diesel doesn't have a naturally occurring vacuum for the brake servo like on a petrol, so it has a vacuum pump, which is driven by a belt, which also drives the power steering pump.